‘An NBA player playing in college’: Yaxel Lendeborg continues March dominance

CHICAGO — Either Michigan coach Dusty May didn’t let him know, or graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg just didn’t need any extra motivation for a Sweet Sixteen meeting with Alabama.

“There’s going to be a lot of extra juice for sure,” Lendeborg said Thursday. “I know I’m going to try my best to be the best player on the floor tomorrow.”

The chip on Lendeborg’s shoulder comes from supposedly not being recruited by the Crimson Tide in the transfer portal — a point May refuted. Nonetheless, Lendeborg has a flair for the dramatic and a tendency to show up in big games regardless of external motivators.

“No (he doesn’t surprise me), because I see it like every day in practice, but at the same time, yes, because he’s so dominant,” junior center Aday Mara said. “Like I would say that he’s an NBA player playing in college, you know. So just the way he plays, the way he dominates every game, he does everything. He’s playing full court defense, but at the same time, he’s making all the shots, and he’s playing open, so it’s impressive what he does.” 

As much as the Wolverines pat themselves on the back for their multifaceted ability to win through a number of their players, it’s Lendeborg who tends to take the bigger spotlights. Even in the presence of Labaron Philon Jr.’s 37-point outing, Lendeborg can still probably stake a claim on what he set out to do: “be the best player on the floor.” Lendeborg’s 23 points came on another hyper-efficient night, and he’s now a 60-60-90 player through three NCAA Tournament games. 

“The last two games, he’s been like the best scorer in the country,” junior guard Elliot Cadeau said. “And we feel like he can do that on any given night.” 

The Wolverines were fairly streaky on Friday and played two entirely different halves against Alabama. Not Lendeborg. In an imperfect first half, Lendeborg kept things afloat and commandeered the offense while Cadeau struggled. When Michigan started rolling in the second half, Lendeborg played the biggest part in that, too.

“There’s many times where I would start off hot (in the) first half and not take many shots in the second,” Lendeborg said. “I feel like this game was more so a game for me to be as aggressive as I was today, if not more aggressive, and seeing the cover that they’re playing, it was drop coverage, helped me get my rhythm, helped me get my confidence.”