Michigan fans got some great news to end the month of May. After testing the NBA Draft waters, UAB transfer Yaxel Lendeborg will be returning to school and spend his final year of eligibility with the Michigan Wolverines.
Here are three quick thoughts on this news:
The ceiling for the 2025-26 squad just got significantly higher
Lendeborg was widely considered one of, if not the best player to enter the transfer portal this offseason. Evan Miya ranks Michigan as having the top transfer class, with 247Sports ranking it second behind St. John’s, and On3 ranking it fourth. Both 247 and On3 ranked Lendeborg as the top player in the portal, and getting a consensus top player is a huge win for the Wolverines for a number of reasons.
It’s easy to see why the UAB star was so highly ranked. He’s excellent on both sides of the floor. Lendeborg is an excellent defender with quick hands at 6-foot-9. Among the 5,000+ players on KenPom, Lendeborg ranks 178th in block percentage (5.1) and 366th in steal percentage (2.8). He’s an absolute menace when it comes to taking the ball from the opponent.
Lendeborg is also a polished player who can beat you in more ways than one on offense. His 7-foot-2 wingspan helps him produce takeaways, and he is a versatile scorer who can get buckets in the iso and out of the pick and roll. He can also knock down catch-and-shoot threes towards the end of offensive sets.
This is the type of player who can take over in a close game, and Lendeborg’s defensive prowess is an added bonus.
Lendeborg slides in as Michigan’s best player, and his talents on both ends of the floor increase the likelihood of the Wolverines staying at the top of the conference and returning to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Michigan has established a track record for developing transfers
Establishing a culture takes longer than just one season, but if last season showed us anything, Dusty May and Michigan’s coaching staff know how to develop players, especially players with experience.
Both Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin improved their draft stock in one season at Michigan, with Wolf showing off his playmaking prowess and Goldin proving he’s more than a rim runner and rim protector. Wolf is projected to get picked at the end of the lottery or just after it, and Goldin has recently started to appear on more two-round mock drafts.
Playing at Michigan for one season next to other players with NBA traits, and playing against some of the best teams in the sport, will help Lendeborg acquire more tape against quality players. If he can be one of the best players in the Big Ten, his draft stock will exponentially grow. And while this is a new regime, Michigan has the resources to help hardworking players improve their draft stock in a hurry, with Kobe Bufkin’s breakout sophomore season helping him be drafted in the top-15.
This is a huge victory for college basketball, NIL, players like Lendeborg
More talented players like Lendeborg deciding to stay in college basketball is good for the sport as a whole. More star players means more dominant squads, more fun matchups and potentially more teams in the mix to win the tournament.
The entire sports viewing public shifts their focus to college basketball to March Madness on a yearly basis, but players like Lendeborg can get casual fans watching the sport months before the greatest postseason in sports.
This is also a victory for NIL and the massive amounts of backing behind it. As I wrote a few weeks ago, based on recent contracts for players in the 22nd-27th pick range Lendeborg was projected to be drafted, $3 million in NIL would outpace Lendeborg’s NBA earnings in Year 1. While Lendeborg’s NIL price tag has not been reported, we’d be naive to ignore that factoring in his decision to return to school.
There’s a lot wrong with NIL. It’s great student athletes can get paid, but very few guidelines and safeguards give the shady characters in college athletics even more power. But players like Lendeborg returning to school is a benefit for all involved.
Lendeborg can get better at Michigan while getting the national exposure the program brings, all while earning a few million bucks in Ann Arbor. Michigan gets better in the short-term, and college basketball is better with more great players taking part.
We’ll have much more on Lendeborg and his impact at Michigan in the coming weeks.
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