Former AWC Star Lendeborg Helps Michigan Win 2026 NCAA Championship

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SUMMARY: Yaxel Lendeborg scored 13 points on a sprained MCL to help Michigan beat UConn 69-63 and end a 37-year title drought, capping a journey that began at AWC in Yuma.

CONTENT:

Yaxel Lendeborg played 36 minutes in Monday night's national championship game on a sprained MCL and a damaged ankle, shot 4-of-13 from the floor, went 5-for-5 from the free-throw line, and finished with 13 points as Michigan defeated UConn 69-63 in Indianapolis to claim the program's first NCAA men's basketball title since 1989. For anyone who watched him develop at Arizona Western College in Yuma, the degree of difficulty only added to the story.

Lendeborg, the Big Ten Player of the Year and a consensus All-American this season, was limited early as UConn's defense controlled tempo and closed off transition opportunities in the first half. He shot just 1-for-5 before halftime, but the senior forward logged more minutes than any other Wolverine and provided the veteran steadiness Michigan needed as the game tightened. Michigan guard Elliot Cadeau earned Most Outstanding Player honors with 19 points, and the Wolverines held UConn to 31 percent shooting and recorded six blocks as a team. Michigan coach Dusty May, in just his second season leading the program, called Lendeborg's path to this moment "one of the most unique in the history of our sport."

That path ran directly through Yuma. Lendeborg spent three seasons with the Arizona Western Matadors from 2020 through 2023, building steadily from a freshman averaging 6.1 points and 7.1 rebounds into one of the most dominant junior college forwards in the country. By his final season with the Matadors, he was averaging 17.2 points and an NJCAA-leading 13.0 rebounds per game, earning back-to-back Arizona Community College Athletic Conference Player of the Year awards and NJCAA All-American recognition. He left Yuma as the first Arizona Western product to ever reach the Final Four, a milestone reached before Monday's title made it all academic.

From AWC, Lendeborg transferred to UAB for two seasons before landing at Michigan with one year of eligibility remaining, preserved by the COVID-19 pandemic. He made that final season count, averaging 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for a Wolverines team that earned the tournament's No. 1 overall seed. The championship Monday closed a 37-year gap for Michigan and positioned Lendeborg, now projected as a potential NBA lottery pick, as the most prominent alumnus AWC athletics has ever produced.

For a program that competes at the junior college level, recruiting often means persuading players that the JUCO route is not a ceiling. Lendeborg's trajectory, from a modest gym on the AWC campus in Yuma to hoisting a national championship net in Indianapolis, is the most persuasive version of that argument the program has ever had.