Over the last few years, we’ve borrowed an idea from Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch to roll out our season preview player profiles in a power-ranking format. We’ll preview every player on the roster while ranking them by some arbitrary combination of ability, importance, and role.
We’re bringing the same thing back this season. I ranked each scholarship player (1 through 13) based on their expected impact on the 2025-26 season, and we’ll dive into each player in-depth as we near tip-off.
In this final edition, we preview do-it-all transfer forward Yaxel Lendeborg.
Previously: No. 2 Aday Mara, No. 3 Morez Johnson Jr. , No. 4 Elliot Cadeau, No. 5 Nimari Burnett, No. 6 Roddy Gayle Jr., No. 7 LJ Cason, No. 8 Trey McKenney, No. 9 Will Tschetter, No. 10 Winters Grady, No. 11 Oscar Goodman, No. 12 Malick Kordel and No. 13 Ricky Liburd
No. 1: Yaxel Lendeborg
#23 | 6-9, 240 pounds | Graduate | Big Wing
Yaxel Lendeborg arrives at Michigan as the big fish in the transfer portal. He put up eye-opening stats at UAB, flirted with the NBA Draft, and opted instead to come to Michigan and use his extra year of junior college eligibility for one more season.
Lendeborg’s journey to Ann Arbor has been unique. He barely played high school basketball, but earned a junior college opportunity and became an NJCAA All-American. From there, he signed with St. John’s before he was released from his letter of intent after Rick Pitino replaced Mike Anderson. Lendeborg eventually landed at UAB, where he helped the Blazers reach the NCAA Tournament and earned numerous individual honors.
As a senior at UAB, Lendeborg averaged 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.8 blocks, and 1.7 steals in 33.6 minutes per game, even putting up a 30-point, 20-rebound game in the AAC conference tournament.
Dusty May says he built this year’s team to contend without Lendeborg, but that the roster could reach another level with him. Now that he’s in Ann Arbor, expectations are understandably through the roof for the Wolverines.
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