Michigan's Yaxel Lendeborg says Sweet 16 game vs. Alabama comes with 'extra motivation' after the Crimson Tide didn't recruit him
· Yahoo Sports
Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg is heading into the Sweet Sixteen with a little extra to prove. During a press conference on Thursday, Lendeborg revealed that Alabama, the Wolverines’ third-round opponent on Friday, was a school he was hoping to transfer to.
Lendeborg entered the transfer portal last year after two years at University of Alabama-Birmingham, which included a memorable NCAA tournament appearance in 2024. After entering the portal, the forward said that joining the Crimson Tide was high on his list, but that he wasn’t recruited by the team.
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“Once I entered the transfer portal out of UAB, I was hoping to get recruited by Alabama. And when I didn’t, it kind of hurt me a little bit,” Lendeborg said, via multiple reporters. “Not in a way where I can say I hate them and all that. It just bothered me a little bit.”
Instead, he ended up with the No. 1-seeded Wolverines, and gets a chance to get a little bit of revenge during Friday’s game against the No. 4 Crimson Tide.
“All it is is extra motivation,” Lendeborg said. “Not in the sense where I’m like, This is what you guys missed out on, but like, you guys could have at least called. There’s no bad blood. Maybe I didn’t fit the system.”
Yaxel Lendeborg: "I'm going to try my best to be the best player on the floor tomorrow. All it is is extra motivation,not in the sense where I'm like, 'This is what you guys missed out on,' but like, 'You guys could have at least called.' "
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During his own press conference, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said that the team did reach out to Lendeborg, but didn’t recruit him very heavily.
“We did make a call. It never got very deep,” Oats said. “I think there were some programs that were in a little deeper with a lot more money at the time. It’s one of those, you kind of call, see where the situation is at. Probably wasn’t something we were going to be able to do, so didn’t spend a lot of time on it.”
Michigan coach Dusty May added in his availability that he and Oats had actually spoken about Lendeborg, before May ended up successfully recruiting him to join the Wolverines.
“Nate (Oats) and I being friends, we talked through that. Don’t tell Yax but they did try to recruit him,” May said.
So far, it’s seemed to work out well for both Lendeborg and Michigan. The 23-year-old forward has become the face of the team during their NCAA tournament run, after earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors and becoming a consensus All-American.
Lendeborg didn’t think Kentucky comments would become “such a big deal”
On Thursday, Lendeborg also addressed another story related to his recruitment out of the transfer portal. Ahead of the first round of the tournament, Lendeborg said that he had been offered $7-9 million to play for Kentucky, but that he had opted instead to join May and Michigan, choosing not to just go after the money.
The number was big enough that Wildcats head coach Mark Pope was forced to address the claim, which he dismissed. In a press conference, Pope told fans to “please don’t believe anything you read about anything.”
This week, Lendeborg told The Athletic that he didn’t think that the comment would blow up the way that it did, and that he regretted that Pope was forced to address the claim.
“I didn’t think it was going to be such a big deal,” Lendeborg told The Athletic. “In a way, when I’m being called a liar and stuff too, it’s like, man, what would I gain from lying, you know?
“I felt bad because they put a spotlight on Pope because of that,” Lendeborg added. “Whatever he said, I’ll just stick with what he said. I don’t want to make it a bigger deal.”