After Yaxel Lendeborg's 'awful' first half, his Michigan teammates lifted him up and the rest is history — 'We needed Mad Yax, not Sad Yax'
Lendeborg was all but broken physically and said at halftime he felt "super weak." But his teammates rallied around him and the Wolverines are college basketball's champs after a resurgent second half from the do-it-all forward.
INDIANAPOLIS — The best player on college basketball’s best team could not hide his frustration. Yaxel Lendeborg hated that the knee and ankle injuries he suffered two days earlier were preventing him from showcasing his All-American form with Michigan locked in a tight battle against UConn on Monday night and the national championship at stake . He winced and punched the air in frustration when he airballed an open jump shot.
He walked off the floor with his jersey between his teeth after he blew a defensive assignment. He even described his first-half performance to Turner Sports sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson as “awful” and “super weak. ” “I was very tentative,” Lendeborg said.
“I felt like I was holding our team back. I felt like we could have been up way more early in the game. I kept having opportunities to make a play and I couldn’t make a play.
” One of the biggest reasons Michigan was able to stave off UConn and grind out a 69-63 victory was because Lendeborg’s teammates refused to allow the Big Ten player of the year to let his disgust with himself fester. Nimari Burnett patted Lendeborg on the chest and told him his teammates were with him. L.
Continue to the original source for the full article.