{"id":852976,"date":"2026-04-04T09:37:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852976\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T09:37:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T09:37:25","slug":"michigan-star-yaxel-lendeborg-was-meant-for-this-final-four-moment-his-mom-made-sure-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852976\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg was meant for this Final Four moment. His mom made sure of it"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 After years of junior college anonymity and mid-major hoops, Yaxel Lendeborg has blossomed into a Big Ten Player of the Year and first-team All-American in his lone season at Michigan, lifting the Wolverines to the Final Four and placing himself at the center of the college hoops universe. He\u2019s gotten used to the crowds.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s still one person who can cut through the noise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of the times when she\u2019s (at the game), I get a lot more aggressive,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cShe has this certain calling that she does whenever I get the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mom, Yissel Raposo, laughed at her in-game encouragement becoming a Final Four storyline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just say in Spanish, \u2018Vamos, Yaxel!\u2019 You know, \u2018Let\u2019s go!\u2019\u201d said Raposo, who is from the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

After some prodding, she reveals the real secret.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I do a sound with my mouth, and I know he hear me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like a clicking sound, one Lendeborg can distinguish from thousands of screaming fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can hear nobody else in the stadium but her,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cIt puts me in attack mode, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raposo has witnessed every step of this NCAA Tournament run, including last weekend in the United Center as her son led the Wolverines with 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists in an Elite Eight blowout of Tennessee, sending Michigan to its ninth Final Four and first since 2018. That came less than 48 hours after a team-high 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in the Sweet 16 win over Alabama.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I\u2019m at a loss for words when I think about where I am right now. I owe it all to my mom,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cIt means the world to me (to have her here).\u201d<\/p>\n

Moms tend to be central characters. Lendeborg has made his a leading lady throughout his magical NCAA Tournament run, one of those March Madness family members who becomes a fixture on the TV broadcasts, cheering alongside Yaxel\u2019s father, Okary Lendeborg, who\u2019s often waving a Dominican flag.<\/p>\n

Yaxel’s mom is LOVING it \ud83e\udd29#MarchMadness<\/a> @umichbball<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/Db0TzQ5W6d<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/d3Hz6hd2gS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 21, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The sport is in Lendeborg\u2019s DNA. The 6-foot-9, five-tool forward was born in Puerto Rico, where his mom played basketball and volleyball at American University of Puerto Rico. She and Okary, who both stand over 6-feet, each played for the Dominican Republic national basketball teams in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Raposo understood what her son was capable of, and the opportunities the sport could offer him \u2014 even if he couldn\u2019t see it for himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say, \u2018Yaxel, you have talent, God gave you the talent. So you have to be good in life,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI talk like a mom, always in a positive way because I know he has a lot of potential. He just played PlayStation and I said, \u2018No, no, I don\u2019t want this for your life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He was a tall, athletic kid, but more interested in playing video games and cracking jokes in class. He didn\u2019t start playing organized basketball until he was 15, and his grades were so bad that he wasn\u2019t always eligible for the high school team. Raposo made him take community college classes so he could play his senior season in Pennsauken, N.J., and graduate on time.<\/p>\n

She took Lendeborg to basketball camps. She called coaches. She got him into Arizona Western College, which Lendeborg detailed last month in an article for The Players\u2019 Tribune<\/a>. She basically dragged him from their home in New Jersey to the public community college with less than 2,000 full-time students in Yuma, Ariz., minutes from the Mexican border and a long way from any good Dominican food. Lendeborg spent three seasons there before transferring to UAB for two more, where he won back-to-back AAC defensive player of the year awards and led the Blazers to an NCAA Tournament appearance, but played in front of only 4,000 fans for most home games.<\/p>\n

Then, finally, this season at Michigan. He passed up a chance to be a potential first-round NBA Draft pick. Millions in NIL money helped, but so did a chance to improve his game and his draft stock. And learn from head coach Dusty May. And play with a group of \u201csuper teammates.\u201d<\/a> And cut down nets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all wanted to make it to the national championship and win it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lendeborg\u2019s performance is a big reason why the Wolverines are in position to do so. He unlocked Michigan\u2019s offense, the ultimate wild card for a coach with May\u2019s extensive playbook. He\u2019s the versatile linchpin of a big-ball bully lineup that has stuffed opponents into lockers all season, able to run fast breaks, initiate offense in the half court, shoot outside, score inside, pass, rebound, defend. He\u2019s shooting better than 37 percent from beyond the arc on the season and has developed a lethal Euro step that has defenders backpedaling out of posters in transition.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old is still gaining altitude in the NCAA Tournament, where he\u2019s averaging 21 points and 7.3 rebounds while shooting 11-for-22 from 3-point range, earning Most Outstanding Player of the Midwest Regional and burnishing his \u201cDominican LeBron\u201d nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s improved our environment because he\u2019s been so unselfish,\u201d May said, \u201cbut he still has no idea how good he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

On-court success is not immune from off-court realities. Earlier this season, Raposo was diagnosed with appendix cancer. It upended her existence and rattled Lendeborg\u2019s. A new hurdle, one that can\u2019t be parented or reasoned with, but one Lendeborg is embracing with a more mature perspective.<\/p>\n

\"Yaxel<\/p>\n

\n Yaxel Lendeborg says his mom, Yissel Raposo, left, saw his potential before anyone else. Now he\u2019s starring in the Final Four. (Justin Williams \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is my guardian angel. My hero,\u201d Lendeborg wrote in The Players\u2019 Tribune. \u201cI can make sure she understands that I\u2019m so grateful for everything she\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raposo\u2019s doctor allowed her to pause her chemo treatments so she could follow the Wolverines, first to Buffalo, then Chicago. She acknowledges she has good days and bad, but that getting to watch her son play is worth any struggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Yaxel, \u2018When I feel good, I wanna be around you, no matter what,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cAnd when I see Yaxel playing, I feel so happy, so I think God gave me that extra happiness. It\u2019s a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lendeborg is a big personality. May called him a \u201cfun-loving guy,\u201d with an authenticity that spools out of him on the court \u2014 and has stirred up a few headlines off it. Just in the last few weeks<\/a>, Lendeborg told the Associated Press that Kentucky offered him \u201c$7 (million) to $9 (million)\u201d when he entered the transfer portal last offseason, and said before the Sweet 16 it \u201cbothered me a little bit\u201d that Alabama didn\u2019t recruit him (though May and Alabama coach Nate Oats claim the Crimson Tide did).<\/p>\n

Then during the win over Alabama in the Sweet 16, he held his shooting pose for an extra beat on a stepback 3-pointer that left his defender flailing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I kind of felt a little disrespected having a freshman guarding me,\u201d Lendeborg said afterward, eliciting a bemused look from May, shaking his head nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had several subplots this year, and he seems to be performing well up to this point, so whatever irritates him, I\u2019m going to ride with that and support him,\u201d May said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the court, Yax is free. Especially when he\u2019s emotionally invested in the game, he\u2019s at his best,\u201d said teammate Roddy Gayle Jr., who acknowledged that he\u2019s been tasked with keeping Lendeborg on his best behavior during media sessions. \u201cSome of his antics may be extra sometimes, but that fuels him to be his best. You let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The head coach has similarly embraced his star player because he also knows who Lendeborg really is. Arguably the biggest stir came in February, when an older video of a possibly overserved Lendeborg went viral, with him boasting: \u201cWhen we see Purdue we gonna spank they f\u2014ing ass! \u2026 F\u2014 Purdue!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked by the video because it was so out of character. I\u2019ve probably had too many drinks a few times and done things I shouldn\u2019t have at a bar at 3 a.m.,\u201d May said. \u201cI think he\u2019s a little bit misunderstood because he\u2019s not nearly as self-confident \u2014 I\u2019ve even read where some have called him arrogant. That\u2019s not who he is. It\u2019s probably his defense mechanism. He\u2019s as genuine a human being as I\u2019ve been around.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious when Lendeborg talks about his mom. Any varnish of bravado and trash talk gets stripped away. After his Elite Eight masterclass, as parents and loved ones mingled on the court for the net-cutting ceremony, Lendeborg scanned the crowd for Raposo, a 6-foot-9 child searching for his mom. Cameras swarmed when the two finally found each other, a glassy-eyed Lendeborg insisting to no one in particular that he would not get emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this would be possible if it wasn\u2019t for her helping me out and believing in me more than I believed in myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

March makes legends in college basketball. In an NCAA Tournament lacking Cinderella upsets, Lendeborg is authoring his own rags-to-riches story, one that will go down in Michigan lore \u2014 and may even end in Indianapolis with the program\u2019s second national championship.<\/p>\n

Raposo said she\u2019ll do everything she can to be there, cheering him on. Her son will be listening.<\/p>\n

\u201c(My mom) really dug me out of the hole that I was in,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cThis is pretty much a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n