Yaxel Lendeborg Passed on the NBA and Became Michigan’s March Madness Monster

And Friday was certainly one of those nights, maybe his best in the maize and blue. The final line was 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, unguardable in every way, absolutely overpowering the Crimson Tide especially in the second half to will the Wolverines to victory. He drilled threes, bullied his way to the rim, set up others, cleaned the glass and led the break, a complete performance worthy of the top-10 pick billing he has earned throughout the season thanks to his college return. 

“You got Yax playing like that, just the kind of competitiveness he had today, I think he’s the best player in the country without a doubt,” teammate Roddy Gayle Jr. said, Lendeborg sheepishly grinning next to him. “He’s like that, we’re the best team.” 

Lendeborg makes college basketball life feel like a full-time party. You won’t see a player in college basketball smiling more often than the Wolverines’ 23-year-old man-child, exuding joy constantly both on and off the court. As the team warmed up for practice Thursday in the bowels of the arena, Lendeborg danced and sang to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” partying like it was 2012. And that version of Yaxel is the version his Wolverine teammates and coaches from throughout his college journey from junior college to UAB to now Ann Arbor see every day, boyish enthusiasm from one of the sport’s elder statesmen. 

“It’s impossible not to like him,” point guard Elliot Cadeau says. “Off the court, on the court, that’s just his personality; happy all the time. He’s the same way every second of every day.” 

Perhaps he is just catching up for lost time. His basketball talent was hardly seen before enrolling in college because he had such limited experience actually playing full-time, getting booted from his high school freshman team due to poor grades and not playing as a sophomore or junior due to more academic struggles. The current life of the party for the Wolverines is open about playing video games all day back then. Without a kick in the pants from his mother, who Lendeborg said “dug me out of the hole I was in,” who knows if Dominican LeBron even graduates high school, let alone becomes the superstar he is today. That makes it natural to want to stop and smell the roses once in a while, as Lendeborg did late in Friday’s game, looking up to see fans all the way up to the rafters applauding his preternatural gifts. 

“There’s many times where I just get goosebumps thinking about it,” Lendeborg says. “I’m left speechless, I get emotional, whatever you want to say. It definitely means the world to me to be able to do what I’m doing now.” 

But beyond the smile, the one that never seems to leave his face even in the heat of competition, Lendeborg does things on the court that no one has answers for. At UAB, where his star really started to blossom, he was a small-ball center, overpowering power forwards and out-skilling centers. At Michigan, he has reinvented himself as a big wing alongside a monstrous Michigan frontcourt, a guy who guards point guards and out-muscles centers sometimes in the same 30 seconds. No matter the position or who tried to match up with him Friday, Lendeborg was unstoppable. He crossed 6′ 8″ freshman Amari Allen nearly out of his shoes at one point and quipped postgame that he felt “kind of disrespected” by the Tide trotting out a freshman to guard him, then put a similar punishment on the much older but much smaller 6′ 3″ Latrell Wrightsell Jr.

And he got to do it all in front of his mother, Yissel, who was in the arena Friday night even as she has cancer. The woman who helped him get his life back on track from the edge of flunking out of high school is now there to cheer him on as looks to make his final college moments most memorable. If he wasn’t already happy enough with the ball in his hands, having Yissel in the stands only adds to the smiles from the Wolverines’ ever-joyful star.