Yaxel Lendeborg previews Rutgers

I didn't think this defense was gonna be, uh, that good that fast at all, man. Like, uh, I feel like a lot of times in practice we were being lazy, me especially. So just the fact that everybody clicked that fast and people were making, you know, those extra plays, like getting on the floor, grabbing all the loose balls. It was, it was amazing to see and great to be part of, man.

Like it was, almost emotional, you know, just being a part of a team that's good and it's like connected. It was awesome.

Man, he's like the strict, strict uncle, you know. He doesn't let me do anything fun, you know. So it's like, it takes a little adjusting, you know. Me and him joke a lot about it though, you know.

He calls me pretty much every night now, making sure I do my schoolwork, make me get in the gym extra to do exercise. When I'm going for layups, he tells me to dunk it. I'm like, bro, I can't even dunk that. Like, it's like a die would be sitting right here. I have a layup. He wants me to dunk over a die. I can't do that. You know?

I watched the 3 games that happened these last 2 days. I think it was 4 maybe. Just, they're all like slugfests is what Coach says. Like super tough, super like slow-paced game, especially with the Iowa game, you know, obviously they lost and all, but just the how physical, how like aggressive everybody is.

I seen there were some foul calls that looked like, you know, a little soft in my opinion. So it's like, I feel like maybe that whistle might be a little, you know, both ways. But yeah, I'm just excited to be able to play against all the top name guys and all the big name teams, you know, and just see if I can leave my mark there and try to be one one of the best players in the conference.