The decision is in and it’s good news for the Wolverines.
Yaxel Lendeborg, one of the top transfers in this year’s portal class who committed to Michigan, announced in a [social media post](https://x.com/Yaxel_Lendeborg/status/1927387084962111696) Tuesday that he’s withdrawing from the NBA Draft and will play in Ann Arbor next season.
Lendeborg, a 6-foot-9 forward who starred at UAB the past two seasons, was one of the big names that was still on the fence heading into Wednesday’s NCAA withdrawal deadline.
He [pledged to Michigan on April 5](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/2025/04/05/top-player-in-transfer-portal-yaxel-lendeborg-commits-to-michigan-wolverines-basketball/82949074007/) after he had entered the portal and declared for the draft while maintaining his college eligibility. Lendeborg’s plan all along was to go through the pre-draft process before determining where he was going to play next season.
At the NBA combine earlier this month, Lendeborg told reporters he was 50-50 and felt torn on his looming stay-or-go decision.
“This whole process is really opening my eyes,” he said. “I feel like now I’m definitely equal. I’m super stuck, quicksand, whatever you want to call it. I’m stuck in between for sure.
“I love Michigan. I love the idea of going over there and developing, but the NBA is what everyone wants.”
When asked what he needed to hear to keep his name in the draft, Lendeborg noted he wanted to receive a promise from an NBA team and wanted to be in a “safe” position with a chance to play.
“Hopefully a guaranteed contract would be cool,” he said.
Yet, when it came down to the competition between Dusty May’s Wolverines and the NBA, Lendeborg said it “wasn’t about the money.”
“We made it a point that the money wasn’t going to move me anyway. The (Michigan) coaches’ honesty, faith and belief in me is what was competing with the NBA,” said Lendeborg, who crossed paths with May in the AAC during his last year at Florida Atlantic and was a fan of May’s before he took over at Michigan.
“From the jump, (May) was expressing to me he was willing to wait while I go through this NBA combine process. Other teams weren’t saying the same thing. They were willing to outbid the NBA. I wasn’t messing with that. I wanted someone who was going to rock with me from the beginning to the end, and that was Dusty.”
In the end, Lendeborg was going to pick whichever path he felt more comfortable with. After weighing his options following a strong showing at the combine, it went Michigan’s way.
May acknowledged it was a “gamble” pursuing a player of Lendeborg’s caliber — a projected late first-rounder and an uber-productive two-way player who averaged 17.7 points, 11.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists 1.8 blocks and 1.7 steals last season — but it was one he was willing to take.
“If you’re going to recruit the best players and you’re going to have the best players in your program, they’re going to have these options,” May said on WTKA’s “The Michigan Insider” last month. “If you don’t, then you don’t have to worry about the NBA Draft and all this other stuff. But if you’re going to recruit the best players, then this is part of it.
“You have to build in some contingency plans. You have to have some reserves ready to go in case something doesn’t work out. But it’s like everything else in life, it’s a gamble. … You gather all the information, you take calculated risks, and you decide is it worth going for it or not?”
According to assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr., the coaching staff wanted to get a solid foundation set on the roster before targeting a player who could raise their ceiling and “really move the needle” like Lendeborg, a two-time All-AAC first-team selection and two-time conference defensive player of the year.
“As a staff, we wanted to be able to meet the expectations that we set so far after one year and be able to continue to compete for Big Ten championships and make runs in NCAA Tournament. We wanted to set our roster where our base was that,” Boynton said on the program’s “Defend the Block” podcast earlier this month.
“Then beyond that, could we add someone who could take us to another level, who could potentially take us from a team who you’re talking about as a contender to possibly being a favorite to win the Big Ten, or somebody expected to at least make the Sweet 16 and maybe possibly be playing beyond that and competing for a national championship.”
Regardless of Lendeborg’s decision, the Wolverines felt good about the roster they’ve assembled up to this point.
But after Tuesday’s news, they certainly feel even better.
“The key was setting a team … that we thought still could compete at a really, really high level,” Boynton said, “and give us a chance to replicate some of the things we did this year, continue to build our fans’ interest in Michigan basketball and continue to fill Crisler as often as possible.”
Originally Published: May 27, 2025 at 3:18 PM EDT