INDIANAPOLIS, IN — When Latino Sports interviewed Yaxel Lendeborg during the early stages of the 2025-2026 College Basketball season back in October, as Michigan and St. John’s went down to the wire at Madison Square Garden in an overtime exhibition thriller, we asked the Dominican-American about his potential of becoming a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, among the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns (2015: No. 1 by Minnesota) and Al Horford (2007: No. 3 by Atlanta).
“That would be an honor,” he said five-plus months ago, not knowing the road ahead. “I want to get on the (Dominican Republic) national team with those guys just to embrace our side and play with that competition. Hopefully I get to meet them soon and be able to share the court with them.”
Following our interview on camera, Lendeborg—who was born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents, spending time in the D.R., Ohio and then New Jersey—told us that hearing his name called in the NBA Draft is something high up on his list and would make for a moment he and his family would hold close to their hearts.
Yaxel Lendeborg and the Michigan Wolverines had the goal of being the last team standing in the 2025-2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball season from the very beginning with their eyes set on Indianapolis for a national championship – Image Credit: Michigan Men’s Basketball
However there were other goals in mind. Goals he had hoped to achieve before venturing off to start his professional basketball playing career.
Number one on that list was delivering a national championship back to Ann Arbor, the first since 1989 and just the second in Michigan Men’s Basketball program history.
A tall task, the most challenging of Lendeborg’s career, but nothing he and the Wolverines, led by head coach Dusty May, believed they could not accomplish if they stuck together as one group.
Through the highs and lows of the season while each and every week players and those on the coaching staff reminded one another their intentions of being the last team left standing in Indianapolis.
The team that raises the 2026 NCAA national title at Lucas Oil Stadium as championship confetti rains down.
As Lendeborg and several of his Michigan teammates along with May put it late Monday night after defeating UConn in the national championship game, 69-63, “nothing came easy,” the Wolverines ultimately did what they set out to do from the very beginning.
“We talked about it early in the season, to hang a center banner—Michigan has got a proud tradition, there’s a lot of banners on the side and there’s one lonely banner up in the middle,” said the 49-year-old May, finishing his second year at Michigan, with the Wolverines winning their second all-time national title.
“And if we were having a bad practice or we didn’t have our edge, we would remind them that if we were ever going to hang another banner so that one (1989) has some company, then we can’t have these types of days or these types of practices. Usually that was one way that we could refocus our group.”
One key storyline leading up to UConn-Michigan’s battle for all of the marbles Monday was Lendeborg’s status after fighting through lower body injuries to his left calf and ankle in the Wolverines’ Final Four win over Arizona this past Saturday.
Knowing he, May and the Wolverines were just one win away from hanging Michigan’s second “center banner”—Lendeborg (13 points, two rebounds, one assist, and one block), with the heart of a lion, made sure to be out there, playing in all but four minutes.
“It took a lot to get on the court, honestly, and to stay on there,” he said, becoming the fourth-ever Dominican player to win a NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness Tournament championship title—joining Eloy Vargas (Kentucky: 2012), Horford (Florida: 2007 & 2006) and Charlie Villanueva (UConn: 2004).
“I was dealing with a lot of mental issues today. These guys all leaned in on me and helped me out, helped me dig myself out of the hole and just continued to keep fighting. Chris (Williams, Michigan’s Associate Athletic Trainer), shout-out to him because he was with me pretty much all day, all night, making sure I was even 50%, 60% ready to play.”
The former transfer of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, making his decision to become a Wolverine last spring for one final year of collegiate basketball, later added, “I knew there was no way I was going to miss this game no matter what was going on. We got the win, so I’m just glad we got it done.”
Soon after the national championship-securing win, the first for a program of the Big Ten Conference since 2000 (Michigan State), Horford, who has felt the same emotions Lendeborg had Monday night in the past, posted a message on his X/Twitter profile, congratulating Lendeborg and his Michigan teammates.
Al Horford’s congratulatory message to Yaxel Lendeborg and the Michigan Wolverines on X/Twitter Monday night following the program’s national championship win over UConn in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium – Image Credit: X/Twitter
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