INDIANAPOLIS — The biggest question following Michigan’s 91-73 demolition of Arizona wasn’t how the Wolverines did that, but rather: Is Yaxel Lendeborg OK?
And why was the Big Ten player of the year playing when the Wolverines had a comfortable double-digit lead, and he was obviously in pain, not moving well laterally?
Well, for starters, good luck trying to keep Lendeborg out of the game.
After rolling his left ankle and tweaking his left MCL in the first half, Lendeborg limped off the court and back to the locker room. He’d played just five minutes in the first period, scoring five points. Part of that was early foul trouble. But when he landed awkwardly on an opposing player’s foot, the collective Michigan fan base sucked in their breath.
Lendeborg spent halftime getting re-taped and receiving physical therapy treatment. During the second half warmups, he jumped around the floor, wincing in pain. Then he told coach Dusty May that if Arizona got it under 20, he was going back in.
Wait a minute, who’s in charge here — the 23-year-old player or the 49-year-old coach?
“Me, I was in charge,” said a smiling Lendeborg roughly 45 minutes after he’d scored 11 points in the win, draining all three of his 3-point attempts. “It’s my body, I gotta go.”
May confirmed this on his walk back to the locker room, giving reporters a curt nod.
“Yeah, just like at home,” May quipped. “I have no desire to be in charge. It’s a group effort.”
Yaxel Lendeborg played in the second half despite his injury and made three 3-pointers total. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
And yes, Lendeborg plans to go Monday against UConn, too. A national championship is what he came back for — you think he’s sitting out now?
He knows that people in his circle — most notably his mom and his agent — might not trust his judgement. Midway through the second half, when Lendeborg again insisted on subbing in, he turned behind the bench where his family was sitting and told them, “I have to, I have to.”
“Man, I’m going in there,” he said afterward. “They can’t stop me.”
Lendeborg told reporters he hadn’t yet had an MRI but was planning one for early Sunday. Adrenaline carried him through the game, but close to an hour afterward he said that was “going away, so I definitely feel the pain now. During the game I didn’t feel it, but man, it doesn’t feel too good right now.”
May defended his decision to play Lendeborg late, citing the East Regional final last week when Duke blew a 19-point lead, losing to UConn on a buzzer-beater.
“You’re playing Arizona, statistically, the No. 1 or 2 team all year in the country, and you’re up with 20 with 10 minutes left, with eight and a half minutes left,” May said. “We didn’t feel quite as confident as you guys did that we could just put the kids to bed. He came in and … held it down.”
“Well apparently you guys missed the UConn-Duke game.” 🤣
Dusty May explains why Yaxel was in the game late in the second half. #MarchMadness @umichbball pic.twitter.com/o9ZtIZPVlH
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 5, 2026
Lendeborg roamed the perimeter in the second half, declining to drive to the rim. He drained both his attempts from deep, scoring six points in nine minutes.
“Shooting those 3s, I just wanted to get a little confidence and feel a little better,” he said. “I was definitely afraid of going in the paint. I might be afraid Monday, too, but as long as the shot’s falling, man, I’m gonna give it my all.”
His teammates weren’t surprised he came back — though they were stressed initially. “He knew that we needed him and he stepped up,” said Elliot Cadeau, adding that he was “definitely nervous” when he first saw Lendeborg go down.
Lendeborg was scared, too — and angry. He appeared to hurt his leg when he landed on the foot of Arizona center Motiejus Krivas. He started hopping around, hollering in pain. He said in the immediate aftermath, his mind raced with images of other great athletes who suffered major injuries on the biggest stage.
Overwhelmed with frustration, he cried out a few times because “I didn’t know how to express myself in the moment.” Back in the tunnel, he started crying, terrified his season might be over. Michigan’s trainer, Chris Williams, assured him it would be OK.
“I was very emotional,” Lendeborg said. “He was trying to calm me down. He’s always a goofy guy, but this time he wasn’t too goofy.”
Yaxel envisions the next 45 hours as “a lot of treatment, a lot of time with my trainer … which I’m not going to like.”
Sitting on a folding chair outside the Wolverines’ locker room with a large ace bandage wrapped around his left knee, he stood up to walk back inside. He wore a big smile and a noticeable limp.
It didn’t matter. And it won’t on Monday either.