Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg pushed Michigan into the Final Four, and he’s just getting started

Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg pushed Michigan into the Final Four, and he’s just getting started originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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There were 12 minutes left in a game that should have been allowed to die a natural death at least 12 minutes earlier when Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg showed all those still engaged in this game the breadth of his gifts for the game of basketball.

It began with Lendeborg firing an open 3-pointer from just to the right of the top of the key, clearing himself by executing a dribble move that pushed Tennessee’s Felix Okpara back the few steps necessary for the shot’s release to be unblockable.

As Okpara recovered sufficiently to attempt a closeout, Lendeborg immediately recognized his shot was falling short. He casually discarded Okpara then sprinted toward the goal like Noah Lyles approaching the 100-meter finish line. No one noticed his approach as the ball tumbled off the right side of the rim, and Lendeborg seized the ball and gracefully banked it off the glass for another bucket.

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Those few seconds offered a comprehensive illustration of how Michigan has come to be the most destructive force in the 2025-26 college basketball season, and why they’re heading to the Final Four for the third time in the past 13 tournaments.

A unanimous first-team All-American in his one season with the Wolverines, Lendeborg has proven to be the prize of the 2025 transfer portal. In Sunday’s NCAA Midwest Region final against No. 6 seed Tennessee, he produced 27 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks, a dominant performance in a staggering 95-62 destruction of the Vols.

He’s the primary reason Michigan has a good chance to defeat Arizona’s extraordinary Big 12 champions in Saturday’s national semifinal. His transition to a new position allowed everyone else among the Wolverines to be the…

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Publish date : 2026-03-29 22:50:00

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