CHICAGO – Yaxel Lendeborg came out after halftime with a heat wrap on his lower back, looking every bit the grouchy neighbor getting ready to mow the yard.
Then he started the second half telling Alabama to get off his lawn, starting with freshman Amari Allen, then flirting with a triple-double.
On Michigan’s first possession of the second half, the 6-foot-9 Lendeborg jab-stepped into the 6-foot-8 Allen, then hopped back, sending the off-balance Allen sprawling to the floor, perhaps with a little nudge from Lendeborg’s forearm. Lendeborg pulled up for a 3-pointer over the fallen Allen that gave Michigan the lead for good at 50-49. Lendeborg held the pose. The Wolverines never looked back.
“Honestly, I kind of felt a little disrespected having a freshman guarding me,” Lendeborg said afterward. “So, it was just keep attacking the guy. I kind of had the hot hand at that moment, so I just kept trying to be aggressive and continue to try to find shots either for myself or my team, the team, to create. I think that’s the first time I made somebody fall since, like, middle school or when we were playing in the park. I just had to take that moment in.”
With a 90-77 win over the Crimson Tide in a Midwest Regional semifinal Friday at the United Center, the top-seeded Wolverines (34-3) move on to face the winner of Friday night’s Iowa State-Tennessee game Sunday. They’re one win away from the Final Four only two years after they bottomed out with an 8-24 finish.
After that collapse, Michigan brought in Dusty May from FAU, and May made Lendeborg the centerpiece of his first full transfer portal class over the summer. The former UAB star did not disappoint, winning Big Ten player of the year honors, and he put his personal stamp on the win over No. 4 Alabama (25-10) with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists on 8-of-12 shooting.
Guard Labaron Philon Jr. had a game-high 35 points for the Crimson Tide, while guards Trey McKinney and Elliot Cadeau each scored 17 points for Michigan and wing Roddy Gayle Jr. added 16, but Lendeborg was the unquestioned fulcrum of the game and the Wolverines’ win.
“You got ‘Yax’ playing like that, just the kind of competitiveness he had today, I think he’s the best player in the country without a doubt,” Gayle said. “(When) he’s like that, we’re the best team. I feel like we need that ‘Yax’. We need that from him.”
The last time Lendeborg was in this building, less than two weeks ago for the Big Ten Tournament, he had a relatively quiet week by player-of-the-year-contender standards. He hit a buzzer-beater to dispatch Wisconsin after Michigan blew a 15-point lead, and he played well in the title-game loss to Purdue despite turning an ankle late, but he was hardly the game-changing impact player he was for Michigan during the regular season.
Perhaps it was seeing Alabama, a school he claimed Thursday didn’t pursue him to stay in-state when he was leaving UAB. (“Don’t tell ‘Yax,’” May said. “They did try to recruit him.”) Perhaps it was another few days to let the ankle heal, or the confidence gained from his 25-point performance against Saint Louis in the second round. Perhaps it was just the matchup, with Alabama’s roster ill-suited to defend a player built like a power forward at 6 feet 9 and 240 pounds, yet still capable of roaming the perimeter like a guard. Not many are.
With Alabama going under screens against Lendeborg, and Michigan’s array of bigs using their bodies effectively to give him shooting space, he had plenty of opportunities to shoot over shorter defenders. Michigan wasn’t running plays for him. He found a rhythm all on his own.
“It was just the flow of the game,” Michigan assistant coach Kyle Church told Hoops HQ. “I think that’s the beauty of our team. Obviously they have an All-American as well (Philon), but they have to ride him hard. They have to go back to him and back to him. And we have the luxury of having the best front line in the country and one of the best point guards in the country and a bunch of really good players on our team. ‘Yax’ can find his offense in more random ways.”
And with the game in the balance after a whiplash first half, Lendeborg ditched the heat wrap and put the Wolverines on his back. After sending Allen to the floor, he put together one sequence that started with a dish to Gayle for a layup, then saved a ball going out of bounds at the other end, then chased the play back up the court and stepped back for another 3. He did it all. A jump-ball rebound in a forest of arms? Lendeborg came from behind and swatted it out of the crowd to a teammate.
This was the takeover performance Michigan needed from its best player, and it came after Alabama scrapped and shot its way to a 49-47 halftime lead, going 9-of-24 from 3-point range. Those shots stopped falling in the second half. Lendeborg’s did not.
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