Senior forward Yaxel Lendeborg established himself amongst the best college basketball players this season, powering the Michigan Wolverines to an appearance as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
They’ve since steamrolled over their first two opponents with a 21-point win over Howard and a 23-point victory over the Saint Louis Billikens. Now they’ll face a determined Alabama Crimson Tide squad, hoping to score another of the tournament’s surprising upsets.
Michigan is already considered a significant favorite to win, which would put them into the Elite Eight and one step closer to that championship they want. They’ll get Alabama on Friday night, with Lendeborg having some extra motivation to prove himself against these particular opponents.
Other teams’ passing on talented players is often a talking point before big games where those teams meet. That was the case before Zuby Ejiofor and St. John’s played Kansas in the second round, and it is now the case for Lendeborg heading into the Sweet 16.
Lendeborg previously played two seasons for the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) before entering the transfer portal and joining Michigan this season. However, he couldn’t help but recall how he felt about the Crimson Tide never recruiting him once he entered the portal.
“I was hoping to get recruited by Alabama, and when I didn’t, it kinda hurt me a little bit, you know, not in a way where I can say that I hate them or anything, it just bothered me a little bit,” he said.
“I was very proud of the moments in Birmingham. I definitely learned to be more aggressive, get out of my shell a little bit more,” Lendeborg shared during his team’s Sweet 16 press conference.
He averaged 15.8 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game in his two seasons at UAB. The 6-foot-9 Lendeborg then entered the transfer portal in March of last year, immediately being ranked the top player available in the portal by multiple outlets.
A recent NBA mock draft via Tankathon projects Lendeborg as the No. 11 pick, possibly joining the Golden State Warriors, a team most young players would probably love to join and learn from experienced champions and stars like Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler.
Before he can begin preparing for June’s event, where he’s likely to be selected within the top 15 picks, he and the Wolverines have important business to handle as they look to knock off another team en route to their goal of cutting down the nets in March Madness.
Update 3/26/26 6:08 p.m. EST: Alabama head coach Nate Oates indicated they made a call to recruit Lendeborg, but it “never got very deep,” and it ended up being something they probably couldn’t do.
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