Michigan frontcourt back on track with dominant showing against Indiana

Throughout the season, the No. 3 Michigan men’s basketball team’s frontcourt has received the narrative that they’re the best in the nation. The versatile skillsets of graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg, sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr. and junior center Aday Mara have paid dividends for the Wolverines nearly all season.

The trio forces double teams down low on offense — whether it’s Lendeborg for his drives, Johnson for his power going at the rim, or Mara for his back-down hook shots — but they also make it difficult for opposing offenses to get anything to go due to their ability to swat anything away at the rim.

“It’s great to have tall guys,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “They can see over the top of everything, and also have the basketball IQ and the experience to make the right plays. It’s certainly valuable.”

But against Penn State and Wisconsin, some of the few weaknesses of the nation’s premier frontcourt were exposed. The combination of Lendeborg’s calf injury, Johnson’s foul trouble, and Mara’s lack of true physicality and speed to compete with quicker bigs caused a close win over the Nittany Lions and an at-home blemish against the Badgers.

So for Michigan’s frontcourt to come back from the West Coast trip and put up another dominant showing Tuesday night against Indiana is a step in the right direction not just for the team in general, but also the frontcourt following the Wolverines’ first loss.

“Yeah, we don’t take that for granted,” May said of his frontcourt. “We spend a lot of time talking about how much the guys in our locker should appreciate each other. It’s like marriage or families or whatever, you sometimes don’t always appreciate what you have because you see it every day, and you can take it for granted. So we constantly remind those guys not to take each other for granted and that their size and skill and basketball IQ contribute so much to the other’s success.”