INDIANAPOLIS − Cazzie Russell. Rudy Tomjanovich. Glen Rice. Trey Burke. The Fab Five.
And now?
Yaxel Lendeborg.
Though his time in Ann Arbor wasn’t quite one calendar year, his impact on Michigan basketball over that span will go down with the same reverence afforded to the Wolverines’ all-time greats. The graduate transfer who took a chance on coach Dusty May to withdraw his name from the NBA draft and play an extra season of college basketball got the biggest reward imaginable, when Michigan defeated UConn, 69-63, on Monday, April 6, for the national championship at Lucas Oil Stadium.
“Best decision I ever made,” Lendeborg said, his arm around freshman teammate Trey McKenney on a court covered in maize-and-blue confetti. “This is the best year of my life, I’ve said that many times … I’m just super-grateful to be here.”
Lendeborg completed everything he set out to do at Michigan.
The Wolverines (37-3) won more games this season than in any other in program history. They went 19-1 in the Big Ten, setting a record for single-season wins in conference play en route to a four-game edge in the standings. That included a record 10-0 record on the road in Big Ten play. Now, they’re national champions, bringing the title home to Ann Arbor for just the second time in 109 seasons.
Those within the program − players, coaches, trainers and staffers − pass credit around to many, but truly, after May, Lendeborg made it happen. He arrived a superstar – paid millions this season to wear the maize and blue – but never made it about himself. He reveled in his teammates’ success, even as he had to learn to be The Guy.
For one of his teammates, it started with their first meal together, at The Brown Jug in Ann Arbor last spring.
“You just meet people you get around, you can just tell that he had an unselfish nature about him,” Nimari Burnett said. “Every single moment that we spend around him, he was so humble, you know, kind of in a way, like diminishing himself to be about the team.
“He improved our chemistry, just about, like, being a person that he is, but also just [upped] our togetherness because of his unselfish nature.”
Putting it all on the line
When Lendeborg suffered a bone bruise and sprained both his ACL and ankle in the Wolverines’ national semifinal win Saturday over Arizona, he could’ve taken it easy.
His mother and agent both wanted him to. They’ve been with him for years and know he’s just a few months away from getting an eight-figure payday in the 2026 NBA Draft, likely as a lottery pick.
But he refused to bail on his team, not with history on the line. In his final act of selflessness, he ran the risk of further injury – though imaging came back clean – to give everything he had left. He never put a percentage on it, even when trainer Chris Williams asked, but Williams said later that he thought Lendeborg was, at best, operating at 70%.
“Everything that we became, started with him,” assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. said. “It was never a thought that he would not play in this game ever. If today − I believe this − if somebody said you could play tonight and the rest of your career would be over, he would have played tonight.”
Monday was far from his best night, as Lendeborg would readily admit. He made just four of 13 shots, missed all five of his 3-pointers and tied season lows in rebounds (two) and assists (one). Yet he gutted and grinded through 36 minutes − more than he played in all but three games all year − despite extreme discomfort.
Each of his 13 points, however, was huge. He got on the board with a pair of free throws midway through the first half, then finally hit his first shot, a glasser on the left block to give Michigan a 27-25 lead as part of a four-point possession, with 3:06 left in the first half.
In the second half, with Michigan up nine, he scored six straight for the Wolverines in 91 seconds, answering a pair of Braylon Mullins 3s as the Huskies tried to claw back into the game.
“We’re extremely proud to be a part of the Yaxel’s journey,” May said. “Obviously, it’s not a normal route that he took, but he’s grown so much, and he’s given us. He gave us so much because he was all about the team. Even though the individual accolades as his performance increased, he stayed more committed to the team.”
‘An All-American, a national champion’
As the players and coaches hugged, cried, posed for pictures, played music and celebrated in the locker room, there was a bittersweet feeling in the air.
It was one of the first things out of May’s mouth, as he acknowledged a sadness knowing this group will never be together again. (Other than a parade this week, and the rememberances at Crisler Center years down the line, that is.) This group earned that and has an argument as the best team in Michigan basketball history.
It started with a trip Up North during the offseason. It continued with a Las Vegas romp on the court over Thanksgiving week. The fervor grew over the winter, as the Wolverines ascended to No. 1 in the polls.
An April dubbing as “The Monstars” was just the latest example of the team’s status as the ones to beat, with no one standing out more than Lendeborg in his Big Ten player of the year campaign.
He was said to be in Ann Arbor for the money. He was given flack for older videos he admitted were childish. He was booed relentlessly by rival fanbases. He admitted the year was hard on his mental health.
But now, to be immortalized, it’s all worth it.
“The mercenaries showed up and did the best that they could,” Lendeborg said. “We’re the national champions, man, so it doesn’t matter what anybody says. … Shout out to the keyboard warriors”
How will Lendeborg be remembered? It was just one year, yes, but he led the program to its first national title since 1989. Rice was the face of that team and his jersey hangs in the rafters at Crisler, as do the jerseys of Burke and Russell. They, of course, couldn’t quite lift the Wolverines to the top.
Lendeborg could.
And so, the question for May on Monday night, after the Wolverines’ victory answered nearly all the others, was whether Lendeborg was one of U-M’s all-time greats?
“I don’t determine it, but I don’t know how he couldn’t,” May said. “He’s an All-American and a national champion.”
In the end, as he demonstrated he was The Guy, perhaps what Lendeborg will feel best about is how he’ll be remembered by his teammates as just another one of the guys.
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Yaxel Lendeborg leaves Michigan basketball as a program legend
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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