Dusty May: Yaxel Lendeborg is a 'queen on the chess board' who raises Michigan's ceiling 'exponentially'

Michigan Wolverines basketball landed the No. 1 player in the NCAA transfer portal this offseason — UAB forward Yaxel Lendeborg — in early April, but it wasn’t until late May that it found out he’d suit up in the maize and blue this coming year. Head coach Dusty May and Co. supported the 6-foot-9, 240-pounder as he went through the NBA Draft process, and their patience paid off with Lendeborg withdrawing from the process one day before the May 28 deadline.

NIL played a factor in Lendeborg landing at Michigan, but he was going to get paid well no matter where he ended up, with the NBA, Auburn and Kentucky being some other top options. However, the Wolverines’ connections proved to be difference-makers.

May, a former assistant coach at UAB from 2007-09, coached Lendeborg’s mentor, Blazers staffer and former point guard Aaron Johnson, nearly 20 years ago. Plus, Lendeborg played against May’s Florida Atlantic Owls in 2022-23 and became a “fan” of the coach, due in part to his positive demeanor on the sideline.

Appearing on the ‘Defend The Block’ podcast with host Brian Boesch, May gave his point of view on Lendeborg’s recruitment and NBA decision.

“Looking back now, you gather information of what their thought process was and the chain of events,” May said.

“We knew Yax from competing against him. I coached at UAB. So, we’re friendly with their staff, we were very 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. In the back of our minds, we were kinda just monitoring this situation after they lost [in the NIT].

“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 and meeting with agents, and we asked if we could just carve out an hour or two to visit face to face. 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. It moved pretty quickly at that point.”

A Pennsauken, NJ, product, Lendeborg has a unique journey in basketball. Lacking motivation, he didn’t join the basketball team at his high school until his senior year, playing in only 12 games. He began his career at the JUCO level at Arizona Western, where he started to blossom. Lendeborg transferred up to UAB and was a two-time first-team All-AAC pick and back-to-back winner of the conference’s defensive player of the year award. He averaged 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game as a do-it-all big man.

The Wolverines had already added to their front court, adding Illinois forward transfer Morez Johnson Jr. before Lendeborg committed. Less than a week after the pledge, 7-foot-3 UCLA center transfer Aday Mara joined the fold. But there was room for a ceiling-raising player like Lendeborg, who puts Michigan in the conversation as a national championship contender.

“We also felt like this was a year where we could gamble on someone we felt was the most productive, best player in the portal,” the Michigan coach continued. “And what I mean is, some years you can’t wait this long. 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. Fortunately, it paid off, because he raises our ceiling exponentially.”

Yaxel Lendeborg / Danny Wolf comparisons

Lendeborg watched from afar as former Michigan forward/center Danny Wolf ran ball screens with center Vladislav Goldin, becoming a playmaker at seven-foot. That was appealing and served as a blueprint for what Lendeborg can go alongside Johnson, Mara and redshirt senior forward Will Tschetter, one of four returning scholarship players on the 2025-26 roster.

“They’re very similar in that they’re both big players that are very skilled,” May said of the Lendeborg / Wolf comparisons. “They’re different in how they approach things, but the one thing about Yax is that we think he’ll be able to unlock some playmaking ability here.

“That league is a lot different. It’s smaller, it’s more athletic. We were able to play extremely small at FAU. In the Big Ten, he’ll be defended by a lot bigger players most of the time, so he’ll be able to use his speed and quickness.

“But the one thing about Yax — when he draws two [defenders], the ball comes out of his hand 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.”

Possessing a unique talent that’s tough to guard due to his expansive skill set is something that could set Michigan apart next season.

“So, you don’t really have to change a lot, so we’ll just simply use him as a weapon, as a queen on the chess board, like Derik Queen at Maryland, like Danny Wolf — guys that can create and make plays,” May said. “Obviously, Vlad had a lot to do with Danny’s success, and then the shooting and cutting ability of [guards] Nimari [Burnett] and Roddy [Gayle Jr.] and Tre [Donaldson] 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’ll have some unique abilities on offense again because of the size and skill level of those guys.”

The ‘reaction’ to Yaxel Lendeborg addition

If Lendeborg would’ve forwent his opportunity at Michigan in favor of sticking in the NBA Draft, Tschetter could’ve benefitted with more minutes, and the same goes for Johnson and Mara. Redshirt freshman forward Oscar Goodman would’ve surely had a better chance of being in the rotation, too. Since Lendeborg, who averaged 33 minutes per game last season at UAB, will eat up a lot of playing time, the Wolverines will have to be creative to use all of their weapons.

“Obviously, there’s gonna be a reaction to everyone that we sign,” May pointed out. “But the beautiful thing about Yax is we think we can play him all over the board. 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 [North Carolina point guard transfer] Elliot Cadeau’s prep school coach said was that he’s one of the best, toughest switching defenders — for his size — that he’s ever been around.

“It’s more about who you can defend, and Elliot’s able to defend bigger, stronger guys because of his competitive spirit. You look at Morez, and you look at Will Tschetter … Will Tschetter graded out as one of our best on-ball defenders last year on the perimeter. You add Yax, who’s very similar to Will and Morez, so you add some switchability.

“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 ay direction on either side of the ball.

“Obviously, anyone we sign each year, especially older players, is gonna 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 gonna have to sacrifice — but hopefully we’re sacrificing to win championships.”