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USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Yaxel Lendeborg discusses Michigan basketball roster, sets Final Four goal for 2025
Yaxel Lendeborg discusses Michigan basketball roster, sets Final Four goal for 2025 Yaxel Lendeborg isn't wasting any time getting acclimated to Michigan basketball. The No. 1 player in the transfer portal had committed to the Wolverines earlier in the process, despite still appearing to be NBA-bound as he departed UAB. Yet, he ended up withdrawing and will play in Ann Arbor for one season after all. As it turns out, he already has a pretty good idea of what the roster looks like, what it can do, and how it can help him improve as a player. "I feel like I have a pretty good knowledge of it right now," Lendeborg told Brian Boesch on the Defend the Block Podcast. "I know our bigs are really athletic, really long shot blockers. A lot of us are pretty good rebounders, so it's going to be a little bit of a battle on the boards. "We have Elliot Cadeau, who's -- I think they said, the best passer, the best passer in college basketball, which is amazing as well. Something that I could probably try to take from him, just see what he sees on the floor, something to learn about. And, we have a lot of good shooters like Nimari Burnett. I think they said he shot 45 percent, which is ridiculous. "We just got Trey (McKenney), (Mr.) Basketball -- you know, that's great. I haven't looked into many of the other guys as much, but I know that we have a good roster formulated, and we have a lot of length, which is something great as well." Coming from UAB, Lendeborg isn't used to his team having high and lofty expectations. But the Wolverines are coming off a Big Ten Tournament championship and a Sweet 16 run. Now, those expectations are risin,g and the program is aiming higher. With Lendeborg on the roster, that helps elevate the program, as well. And he's not shying away from heightened prospects when it comes to what the maize and blue can do in 2025-26. "Oh, yeah. I'm super excited," Lendeborg said. "You know, "I feel like it's giving me more of a chip on my shoulder to try to be the best that I can be, just not let the fans down, not let the people that support us down, you know. So I am super excited. I'm happy to get up to that stage. I made a promise as well that I want to at least take us to the Final Four. So, I'm going to do whatever I can to get us there." Lendeborg joins transfers Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr., and Aday Mara, as well as freshmen McKenney, Winters Grady, and Patrick Liburd as new faces who will reshape the Michigan basketball roster in 2025-26.
USA Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Yaxel Lendeborg discusses choosing Dusty May, Michigan over NBA draft
Yaxel Lendeborg discusses choosing Dusty May, Michigan over NBA draft Michigan basketball made a big coup via the transfer portal, not only getting former UAB standout Yaxel Lendeborg to commit to the Wolverines, but also getting him to withdraw from the NBA draft after it appeared he'd likely be league-bound. But now it's time for Dusty May and the enigmatic forward to get to work. Lendeborg would have likely been a first-round NBA draft pick had he stayed in the process, but with something of a promise of further developing and being selected higher with a guaranteed contract. But that notion isn't the only thing that attracted Lendeborg to Ann Arbor. Initial impressions on Dusty May and Michigan Lendeborg's first impression of the Michigan basketball head coach and the program are two separate things. While May made the early push for the former UAB star to get him to Ann Arbor, Lendeborg's first impressions actually came before they met in the process of May working to get him to transfer. "The initial conversation was great. I already liked Dusty May as a coach," Lendeborg told Brian Boesch on the Defend the Block Podcast. "My first year watching basketball, me and my friends (in) JUCO, we were watching March Madness, we're watching FAU and then another team watching this so I just started to like how he coached his team, how he looked. "Obviously, when he was coaching, because a lot of coaches are always just fired up, angry. He just seems so cool, calm, and collected. That's how I try to be as a player as well. So it's kind of nice to have that. It's refreshing. But when he came out to visit me, it was amazing. It was big time. It was huge for me and just like my emotions, because I always wanted a coach to be like a father figure for me, someone I can look up to. I feel like Dusty May is going to be a real big part of that. He can for sure be a father figure for me and help me grow as a person rather than just a basketball player." As far as Michigan itself, the big move started when Lendeborg visited Ann Arbor in April and ended with the combine. Lendeborg was blown away by everything that the Wolverines have to offer once he got to see Ann Arbor in person. Knowing the level of development that the coaching staff could bring, seeing the facilities and the city, and meeting with the staff helped ease Lendeborg's mind when it came to the idea of staying in college for one more year. But when he got to Chicago for the NBA combine, he learned that it might be his best route to see his commitment through. "Well, there was two things: No. 1 was when I came out here on my visit, it pretty much turned everything around for me," Lendeborg said. "Because the NBA, I was like, oh my gosh, I can make it. But then when I came out here, it was like, he's promising me like next year, I can be better than what I was last year, higher ranking draft-wise than I can be if I come here and put the work in. "And then, two, was this: I spoke to NBA teams, the majority of them were saying that it wouldn't be a bad idea to come back here, develop a little bit more, play at a higher level, just to see what I'm capable of doing. And I've always asked that question to make sure because my mind was always like, I want to come to Michigan, but the NBA is the NBA. You have to go when you have the chance. So just hearing that type of feedback from NBA teams is pretty much what helped me more lean towards Michigan." More on his game and his expectations with Michigan Lendeborg is a walking double-double, averaging 17.7 points per game, 11.4 rebounds, while also managing an average of 4.2 assists per game -- all at the forward position. He told Boesch that the best part of his game is the facilitation. But now that he's joining the maize and blue, he hopes that his shooting improves, while he reshapes his body to become more NBA-ready. "Most confidence I have in my game, I would say my passing ability and my rebounding -- for like a natural gift with passing, my favorite thing to do as well," Lendeborg said. "Things that will get better with the help of Michigan, of course, is my shooting, just shooting off the dribble or shooting a little quicker, and just being on target -- and my defense as well. Just helping my body out, my strength, my speed. "I have a lot of faith that they'll get me right, body-wise. I didn't really put up the most athletic numbers at the combine, but I do feel like that's going to change." Lendeborg is one of four transfer portal additions that Michigan basketball made this offseason. He joins North Carolina guard Elliot Cadeau, Illinois forward Morez Johnson Jr., and UCLA center Aday Mara becoming new Wolverines this year.
USA Today
5 days ago
- Business
- USA Today
Dusty May discusses Yaxel Lendeborg's impact on Michigan's 2025 roster for first time
Dusty May discusses Yaxel Lendeborg's impact on Michigan's 2025 roster for first time It's been just over a year since Dusty May joined the Michigan basketball program as the new head coach, replacing Juwan Howard, and the difference couldn't be more clear as far as the tenor in Ann Arbor is concerned. While Howard had raised the ceiling of Michigan basketball recruiting, the team got worse year over year. May appears to have a similar recruiting prowess while also being able to press the same development and in-game buttons that John Beilein used to. As far as building a roster is concerned, if that wasn't clear last year after May took over, it was this offseason when he managed to secure the No. 1 overall player in the transfer portal, former UAB forward Yaxel Lendeborg. How Dusty May and Michigan landed Yaxel Lendeborg Lendeborg appeared to be headed to the NBA, having declared for the draft. But he also entered the transfer portal and committed to May and the maize and blue, leaving either option open to him. Last week, he ultimately chose to honor his commitment to Michigan basketball, which should, again, raise the ceiling for May's team. But how did the second-year Michigan head coach land Lendeborg in the first place? Now that he's officially signed with U-M, May was free to open up about it with Brian Boesch on the Defend the Block Podcast. "We knew Yax from competing against him. I coached at UAB, and so we were friendly with their staff," May said. "We were very, I guess -- familiar with everything around him. So we thought at the end of the day, we might have a chance to recruit him if he went into the portal. And so in the back of our minds, we were just monitoring the situation after they lost. "He came up with a very concise plan of what he was going to do. And immediately after going into the portal, myself and the staff drove to Chicago, where he was interviewing or meeting with agents. And we asked if we could just carve out an hour or two just to visit face to face. And some other schools did that as well. And they immediately narrowed everything down to just a handful of schools that they were considering based on what he was looking for and what was important to him. And it moved pretty quickly at that point. "But we also felt like this was a year that we could gamble on someone we thought who we felt was the best player and the most productive, best player in the portal. And what I mean is, some years, you can't wait this long. Well, in this case, we felt like we had the roster depth, the positional size across the board, where we could roll the dice and go the duration with someone like Yax. And fortunately, it paid off because he raises our ceiling exponentially." How Lendeborg will impact the roster Like last year, the Wolverines will have some returning players as well as a bevy of transfers and recruits. May got transfers from North Carolina point guard Elliot Cadeau, Illinois forward Morez Johnson Jr., and Aday Mara, as well as commitments from five-star Trey McKenney, four-star Winters Grady, and three-star Patrick Liburd. That's in addition to the returning players: Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr., Will Tschetter, and LJ Cason. May said that while there's a few players who can do the same things as the others, there's a lot of versatility within this group that opens up all kinds of options. "Yeah, obviously, there's going to be a reaction to everyone that we sign. But the beautiful thing about Yax is we think we can play him all over the board," May said. "And so we have guys that can slide up, can slide down, even when you look at the guys we brought in. "One of the things that Elliot Cadeau's prep school coach said was that he's one of the best, toughest switching defenders for a size that he's ever been around. And so when you're able to, it's more about who you can defend. And so Elliot's able to guard bigger, stronger guys because of his competitive spirit. And then you look at Morez and you look at Will Tschetter. Will Tschetter was one of the better -- he graded, was one of our best on-ball defenders last year on the perimeter. And so you add Yax, who's very similar to Will and Morez, so you add some switchability. And just the more players we have that can slide up and down the lineup and play different positions just gives us more versatility, more options to go in either any direction on either side of the ball. "So obviously, everyone we sign each year, especially older players, is going to have an impact on everyone else. But we as a program that's striving to be championship level, we have to be much more concerned with maximizing our minutes and playing at an optimal performance level versus counting how many minutes we're playing. So we're all going to have to sacrifice, but hopefully we're sacrificing to win championships." Similarities and differences to Danny Wolf Of course, part of the pitch to Lendeborg -- which appears to have worked -- was how May and the Michigan basketball staff developed and utilized center Danny Wolf. Despite being a big man, the former Yale transfer was both a facilitator and scorer, able to share the court with fellow big man Vlad Goldin. So how will it work with Lendeborg in Ann Arbor? Wolf was a selling point, and just as there's other players on the roster who also have similar skill sets, May sees where he'll be able to differentiate Lendeborg from the others, aside from simple production. "Well, they're very similar in that they're both big players who are skilled," May said. "They're different in how they approach things. But the one thing about Yax, we think he'll be able to unlock some playmaking ability here. And once again, that league is a lot different. It's smaller, it's more athletic. We were able to play extremely small at FAU. At the Big Ten, he'll be defended by much bigger players a lot of the time. So he'll be able to use his speed and his quickness. "But the one thing about Yax is when he draws to, the ball comes out of his hands probably as well as anyone that we've recruited in the last several years, where he just has a really good feel for playing team basketball. And so you don't really have to change a lot. And so we'll just simply use him as a weapon, as a queen on a chessboard, like Derik Queen at Maryland, like Danny Wolf, just guys that can create, make plays. And then obviously Vlad had a lot to do with Danny's success. And then our shooting and cutting ability of Nimari and Roddy and Trey, and those guys. "So a lot goes into it. But we do think with Aday, his ability to play above the rim, his ability to pass it, we will have some unique abilities on offense again because of the size and skill level of those guys." With Lendeborg's signing on Monday, the Michigan basketball roster is officially set. Fans will get an opportunity to see the new-look team in action in November.
