INDIANAPOLIS — Contained in the pages of Tarris Reed Jr.’s journal from a year ago are the reflections of a conflicted man. Coming off what he described as one of the “hardest years of my life,” UConn’s senior center found himself at a crossroads.

Teammates — both past and present — describe Reed as a light. But that light was dimmer than usual as Reed mulled whether he should return to the Huskies in 2025-26 for his final season of college basketball.

“It was me and the Lord, man,” Reed said. “There were days where, after that season, I’m in my room just crying, ‘what the heck do I do?’ I’m writing in my journal, and I’m trying to think, ‘Do I stay? Do I go?’”

Dan Hurley has UConn back in the national title game, and one win away from a legitimate sports dynasty

Matt Norlander

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UConn’s championship expectations were attractive to Reed a year earlier when he entered the transfer portal following Michigan’s 8-24 season. The Huskies were coming off back-to-back national championships while the Wolverines were undergoing the coaching transition from Juwan Howard to Dusty May.

But that winning culture, which attracted Reed to UConn, also drove him to a breaking point. Huskies coach Dan Hurley rode Reed so hard that it nearly drove him away from the Huskies and from the history that will be made Monday night.

When Reed and the No. 2 seed Huskies take on No. 1 seed Michigan inside Lucas Oil Stadium with a national championship on the line, it will mark the first time in modern NCAA Tournament history that a player will compete against their former team in the national title game.

And Reed isn’t just any player. He has blossomed into an outright star during the NCAA Tournament and will be firmly in the mix for Final Four Most Outstanding Player if the Huskies can upset his former squad on the sport’s biggest stage.

“I started my career at Michigan, and now I’m about to play them in my final game of college basketball,” Reed said. “I never would have thought that would happen in a million years. How cool a blessing is that?”

The blessing that almost never happened

Two distinct crossroads led to this historic meeting between Reed and a Michigan team that still features three of his former Wolverines teammates. The first came amidst the Howard-to-May transition with the Wolverines.

Michigan walk-on Harrison Hochberg remembers it well. Hochberg and others, such as key current players Nimari Burnett and Will Tschetter, were going to stick around with May. Others, including Reed, were planning to leave.

As Reed recalled on Sunday, May was “upfront and truthful” about who he planned to bring into Michigan’s new-look frontcourt for the 2024-25 season. Seven-footers like Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf would be entering to anchor the interior for May’s first squad in Ann Arbor.

“I think the writing was on the wall then that this probably can’t work with three seven-footers,” May said. “It would’ve been fun to try in hindsight, but, yeah, at that point it was well known that he was going to look at something different.”

As Reed recalled Sunday, “it was no bad blood or no bad intentions behind it or anything.”

With Reed being pursued to play key roles for other big-time programs, it made sense for both sides to part ways. Where to go next was the question.

“I remember when he was considering places, and he and I were pretty close,” Hochberg told CBS Sports. “And I remember sitting in his car with him, debating between a few schools, and I was like, ‘I think you should go to UConn.’ You knew he was going to thrive there just based on Hurley toughening him up, which he did.” 

Drawn to UConn’s winning culture and the chance to be part of a potentially historic three-peat, Reed saw what Hochberg saw. He had already studied the tape of 2023 Final Four Most Outstanding Player, Adama Sanogo, who was smaller than the 6-foot-10 Reed.

“Imagine,” Reed said, “I’m three inches taller with a longer wing span, what could I do? Adama really set the tone for a lot of recruits like me, being able to see what he’s done here.”

Before Reed blossomed into a Sanogo-level star, he took some devastating blows. UConn was losing 7-foot-2 superstar Donovan Clingan to the NBA Draft after the 2023-24 season, and there would be no easing into things for Reed.

Going from an 8-24 team into a program coming off a 37-3 campaign marked by a second consecutive title brought challenges from the start.

“I feel like walking into that, I just had to learn that the hard way,” Reed said. “My first week of summer workouts was very tough and difficult. I would say that coach does a great job of setting the tone early. New guys, transfers, freshmen, he’s not letting you guys coast or relax.”

Reed came off the bench during the 2024-25 season, averaging 9.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 19.9 minutes per game. But Hurley’s intensity amid UConn’s failed pursuit of a three-peat made it a trying year for Reed.

“Coach was coaching me so hard that there was a point where we were about to split ways after the season, after my junior year,” he said.

Why Reed stayed at UConn

As Hurley said after Reed’s historic 31-point, 27-rebound effort in UConn’s first-round victory over Furman in this year’s NCAA Tournament, “Tarris is a guy that every time he steps on the court should be 20-10.”

Extracting that level of performance from Reed — a gentle giant — has been a constant battle. Reed wasn’t sure whether he wanted to continue fighting it as he mulled what to do with his final season of eligibility.

But with an assist from his Christian faith and the reflections of his journaling, Reed came to the realization that he was better off staying with UConn than seeking greener pastures elsewhere. 

“When I started writing it down in my journal, it was pretty obvious,” he said. “If you want all this, you want to go to the NBA, you have to stay at UConn. So I was just wrestling with myself for the longest time, knowing how tough it was going to be coming back for my senior year. Going into one of the hardest seasons of my life and then choosing to come back, that’s not easy to do.”

Choosing the harder path proved wise.

Reed is averaging 20.8 points, 13 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game on 58.2% shooting during the NCAA Tournament. His off-ball screens are also key to opening up shooting windows for UConn’s arsenal of perimeter marksmen.

His 68.3% shooting mark at the rim puts him in the 87th percentile among all Division I players, per Synergy. That’s remarkable given the level of competition the Huskies have faced and the frequency with which UConn feeds Reed in the paint.

“He’s really, really physical,” said Tschetter, a Michigan forward who bruised with Reed in practice for two seasons before the Howard-to-May coaching transition. “His footwork has improved a ton since he’s been with us. So it’s going to take being super physical with him and attention to detail for 40 minutes for our bigs.”

As for Hurley, he chuckled Sunday when pressed on the evolving nature of his relationship with Reed. It’s Hurley’s intensity that nearly drove Reed away. But that same intensity is the reason why Reed has reached his best at the most important moment for both him and the Huskies.

“My relationship with him, it’s improving,” Hurley said. “It’s really improved since he’s been on a tear. Now we’re best friends. But I’ve been saying that, go back six weeks, go back two months, go back three months, our season is going to be determined by what Tarris Reed does, which Tarris Reed we get, does the light switch go on for Tarris Reed. I’ve been saying it for months and months and months.”

The vision comes to life

The switch has flickered on and off since his decision to transfer away from Michigan. But Reed is now shining brighter than ever under Hurley’s tutelage as he prepares to face his former team.

“Looking back at the days and practices where it was tough and difficult,” Reed said, “it was just out of the love and how much he wanted us to be successful, and that included me being successful.”

This is what Hochberg envisioned when he sat in Reed’s car as they carpooled to class together one day at Michigan after May was hired. Reed was mulling over where to go next. Choosing UConn brought its challenges, and now it is bringing history.

“Now he’s a freaking beast,” Hochberg said. “He’s gonna be an NBA player. And I couldn’t be happier for him.”

When Reed takes the floor against Michigan, the story of how he got here, opposing his former team in unprecedented circumstances, will fade into the background.

Reed predicted a “great, fun bloodbath and just a competitive game.” After what Reed has been through playing for Hurley and after developing the wisdom of how to deal with it, both he and Michigan have arrived at a place — facing each other for a title — that would have been unfathomable for both two years ago.

“I feel like we’ve been saying it all year, ‘see you guys in Indy,’” Reed said of his continued interactions with his ex-teammates. “Now we’re actually here. But this, it’s a national championship on the line, and we’re going to be going at each other’s necks tomorrow night.”