INDIANAPOLIS — Before Roddy Gayle Jr. met him in person, the premise of Yaxel Lendeborg forgoing the NBA Draft to return to college and play in Ann Arbor seemed too good to be true. Lendeborg was too good to not make the leap to the next level.
“I’d seen his tape, so I thought for sure that he was going to the NBA,” Gayle said.
Gayle hosted Lendeborg when he visited Michigan during the 52-day period between his commitment to the Wolverines and his withdrawal from the NBA Draft. And on that visit, Lendeborg tried to tell Gayle that he was seriously enamored by what he had to gain from a year with the Wolverines under coach Dusty May.
“But he told me on campus that he’s leaning more towards coming here,” Gayle said. “And that had me excited, just to have a guy like that. And that’s when I really took a deep dive as far as his personality, his play style and things he liked to do.”
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It’s common for players to give the impression that they’ll commit while the visit is happening. With Lendeborg having the NBA in his back pocket, Gayle was naturally unconvinced that the top player in the transfer portal was going to spend his final year at Michigan.
But when Lendeborg finally made his announcement on May 27th, 2025, it hit Gayle just how honest Lendeborg was on that visit.
“When he was on campus, he told me he was coming back. But I didn’t really take him seriously,” Gayle said. “Then I got the notification like everybody else did. Yax don’t really lie. He’s not a liar. So when he told me that I was like, ‘All right.’ … Everybody says they’re going to commit when they’re on visits and stuff like that. So then that’s when I understood, I knew this kid means business. He’s not going to fib.”
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