How Yaxel Lendeborg’s mid-major roots have propelled him to new heights
The Michigan star got his start in obscure places that we know all too well here.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - MARCH 29: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines cuts down the net after winning a NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Elite Eight game against the Tennessee Volunteers at the United Center on March 29, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. The Michigan Wolverines won the game 95-62. (Photo by Aaron J.
Thornton/Getty Images) | Getty Images The story of the man who has led Michigan to the 2026 Final Four almost didn’t start. To get here, Yaxel Lendeborg — the Wolverines’ 6-foot-9, do-everything, superstar forward — took the path less traveled, to say the least. Academically ineligible throughout most of his high school career, Lendeborg only played 11 games of varsity ball in his hometown of Pennsauken, New Jersey.
His collegiate career began at JUCO Arizona Western College, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea that anyone playing at Arizona Western, let alone an unsure, inexperienced kid from New Jersey, would one day make front-page, nationwide headlines was a far-fetched one. But Lendeborg did it.
And his roots — the roots of Michigan’s national championship hopes and dreams — draw their nourishment deep underneath the national topsoil. In every way, Lendeborg’s journey was improbable, if not borderline impossible. Yaxel, who moved from Puerto Rico to Cincinnati to Pennsauken, all before his ninth birthday, barely played at the high school level.
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