Kentucky Hounds Pay $8 Million to Land Lendeborg
Are you buying this?
Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg (23) walks off the court after 80-72 loss to Purdue at the Big Ten Tournament final at United Center in Chicago on Sunday, March 15, 2026. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images If nothing else, the new landscape of college basketball is producing a push for more transparency within the sport. As it remains a challenge to discern what’s real and what’s fabricated, at least we’re given the opportunity to hear more about what supposedly goes on behind the scenes.
On Monday, an interesting story broke concerning a player that Mark Pope and Kentucky Basketball were pursuing this summer. Yaxel Lendeborg passed on the chance to attend Kentucky and instead has dominated college basketball this season with the Michigan Wolverines. In a recent interview with the AP , the 6-9, 240-pound versatile forward said that the UK offered him between $7 to $9 million to be a Wildcat.
That’s a pretty insane number, so I’ll leave it up to you to form your own opinion as to its true merit. Regardless, Lendeborg hammered home the point that he took a considerable pay cut by choosing to play for Dusty May instead of Pope. According to Larry Lage from the AP, the difference was about three times less signing with Michigan.
“I was thinking long term. What if I mess up my career because I chased the money instead of a future? Another big reason why I went with Dusty was that he didn’t talk about money at all.