Ann Arbor — If Michigan wants to hold onto its brand-new No. 1 ranking, it’s certainly going to have its work cut out.
As the Wolverines enter the final three weeks of the regular season and the closing stretch of Big Ten play, they’ll face a grueling gantlet that begins with a top-10 matchup at No. 7 Purdue on Tuesday.
“It feels really good,” big man Aday Mara said Saturday of Michigan’s expected top ranking. “But we have tough games now coming up, and we’ve got to focus on that, on practicing, getting better.
“Our goal is not being No. 1 in the country. Our goal is to win everything. … We’ve got to be focused on what we want to do and where we’re going to get.”
Where Michigan heads next is to Mackey Arena, one of the most difficult and daunting environments in college basketball. The Wolverines haven’t won there since 2021 and have suffered two blowout losses their last two trips — a 27-point lashing last season and a 32-point drubbing two years ago.
The venue surely will be a hornet’s nest for a battle that has Big Ten title ramifications, with Purdue trailing first-place Michigan by 2½ games in the standings.
If staying in the thick of the conference race wasn’t enough motivation for the Boilermakers, Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg provided some more fuel with profane comments he made about Purdue in a video that made the rounds on social media Sunday.
“When we see Purdue we gonna spank they f—— ass,” Lendeborg said in the video. “We gonna beat they f—— ass. F— Purdue.”
Michigan coach Dusty May addressed the viral video and Lendeborg’s remarks Monday. According to May, the video was recorded months ago at “an over-21 establishment,” around the time Lendeborg, 23, transferred from UAB to Michigan last spring.
May said he spoke “at length” with Lendeborg, who expressed his regret, and called it a “learning lesson.”
“The most disappointing part of it is that he feels really bad about how he’s perceived from children and those that look up to him,” May said. “He said, ‘Coach, I don’t even use that language in conversation. I don’t like the way it makes me look. I feel terrible about it.’ Then obviously, how he’s perceived to our fan base and those that we care about.
“It’s a great lesson. It’s one of the reasons he’s here. He wanted to learn to be a better pro. And to be a better pro, you need to have the mindset that you’re probably always being recorded and, if there’s ever a moment that someone can use that information against you (they will). … He’s at an establishment after hours, and they asked him a question about the No. 1 team in the country. He said the things he said. He wishes he would not have.”
May noted Lendeborg has talked to the team “extensively” about the clip and quipped that the Wolverines aren’t “going to cancel our travel plans” to West Lafayette because of it.
“He made a mistake. This is a learning lesson,” May said. “We can’t go back in time and change it. I think there’s a lot of people in our profession saying things that if they’re in a clear-headed state of mind they probably wouldn’t say, and chalk this up to one of those.
“I can’t imagine that (Fletcher) Loyer, (Trey Kaufman-Renn), Braden Smith and those guys are sitting around motivated by what Yaxel Lendeborg said in an over-21 establishment four months ago. I think that they’re killers as is. As far as bulletin-board material, I’m not sure that means much when it comes time to execute pick-and-roll defense or transition defense.”
Lendeborg’s trash talk aside, May said Michigan has “a lot bigger things to be worried about” heading into the game against Purdue, a team that poses a variety of challenges and revolves around the veteran core of Kaufman-Renn, Loyer and Smith.
For starters, matching the force big man Oscar Cluff and Kaufman-Renn have on the boards, playing with discipline and avoiding panic fouls will be imperative.
“Cluff, he’s a monster, man,” May said. “I think he goes to exhaustion. He’s physical. When the shot goes up, it’s warfare every single possession. He’s not going to take one off. He’s going to challenge your fortitude. Him and (Kaufman-Renn), when a shot is released, when a ball leaves a shooter’s hands on either side of the court, they’re going to test your resolve every single possession. You don’t have to guess, you don’t have to assume, you don’t have to check. They’re going with force every single possession.”
Then there’s the tall task of trying to contain Smith, a unanimous preseason All-American and the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year who’s arguably the top point guard in the nation.
Michigan threw a bunch of different defensive looks at Smith in the teams’ three meetings last season to prevent him from getting into a rhythm. Some of it worked and some of it didn’t.
“He’s dangerous. He has solutions to every problem,” May said. “You hope our size, strength, speed, athleticism will maybe slow those decisions down a quarter of a second. But we’re not tricking Braden Smith.
“We threw some junk at the wall last year that we hadn’t done. They’re like us. They’ve spent the offseason preparing for any contingency that they think might happen. It’s going to be hard to sneak up on those guys with anything.”
Solving the riddle Smith poses will go a long way in Michigan maintaining control in its pursuit of the Big Ten regular-season crown.
With a win, the Wolverines will keep their two-game lead with four league games to go. A loss would add pressure to a closing stretch that features home games against Minnesota and Michigan State sandwiched around trips to Illinois and Iowa.
The way May sees it, there’s nothing better than playing meaningful games that have championship implications over the next three weeks, starting with a massive matchup at Purdue.
“It’s an unbelievable challenge for us that I think our guys are up for,” May said. “What another great college basketball night. In that environment with the quality of players that are on the court, it’s going to be awesome.”
Michigan at Purdue
Tipoff: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Indiana
TV/radio: Peacock/94.7
Records: No. 1 Michigan 24-1, 14-1 Big Ten; No. 7 Purdue 21-4, 11-3
Outlook: Michigan is 5-0 against ranked opponents this season. The Wolverines have lost the last three matchups between the teams in West Lafayette and haven’t won at Mackey Arena since 2021. Purdue has won four straight and is led by senior guard Braden Smith (14.7 points, 8.9 assists).
jhawkins@detroitnews.com
@jamesbhawkins
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Viral Yaxel Lendeborg video heats up Michigan’s massive matchup at Purdue
Reporting by James Hawkins, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
