Michigan Star Yaxel Lendeborg has Extra Motivation in Sweet 16 Game vs. Alabama

Yaxel Lendeborg came to Michigan in hopes of winning a national championship and the Big Ten Player of the Year is four games away from doing just that.

But there was a world where Lendeborg didn't end up in Ann Arbor. Looking back to his recruitment in the transfer portal, Lendeborg was close to staying in the NBA Draft. He went through the process of staying in the 2025 NBA Draft, while keeping his options open to return to college.

After starring at UAB, Lendeborg was the top-ranked player in the transfer portal, but according to the 6'9" do-it-all big man, he felt slighted that his home state team didn't go after him harder. On Thursday, ahead of Michigan's game against Alabama, Lendeborg noted that he's excited to go against the Tide.

"Yeah, once I entered the transfer portal out of UAB, I was hoping to get recruited by Alabama," admitted Lendeborg. "And when I didn't, it kind of hurt me a little bit. Not in a way with I can say I hate them and all that. It's just — it bothered me a little bit.

"But I was very proud of the moments that I had in Birmingham. I definitely learned to be more aggressive, get out of my shell a lot more. And in situations where I feel like I need to step up in a way, I'm not afraid of those moments anymore. And that definitely happened because of how much pressure Coach Kennedy put on me and how much he wanted me to be an aggressive scorer.

"Those two things really helped me out. But I'm super excited for Alabama and just pretty much like a second home, I guess you could say."

Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg (23) dunks against Saint Louis during the second half — Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

And with how Lendeborg's mindset is, he is going to take that and add some extra juice for Michigan's game against Alabama. He is coming off a 25-point outing against Saint Louis in the Round of 32, and now, Lendeborg is looking to have a big game against the team that didn't go after him hard enough.

"There's going to be a lot of extra juice for sure," said Lendeborg. "I know I'm going to try my best to be the best player on the floor tomorrow. All it is is extra motivation, just 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 or something like that. Something like that.

"But yeah, there's no bad blood. Maybe I didn't fit the system or anything like that. But I'm excited to see him."

But maybe they did try to recruit the top-rated player

While Lendeborg doesn't feel like Bama recruited him hard enough, Michigan head coach Dusty May recalls a different story. Coach May is friends with a lot of different coaches and Alabama coach Nate Oats is one of them.

May is going to ride Lendeborg's story and if that puts his star player on a different level come Friday, he will ride the wave. However, May said Alabama did indeed attempt to recruit Lendeborg.

"I think we've had several subplots this year and he seems to be performing well up to this point, so whatever irritates him, I'm going to ride with that and support him," May said. "Nate and I being friends, we talked through that process. And don't tell Yax, but they did try to recruit him."

At the end of the day, everyone wanted Lendeborg on their team, but he chose Michigan. And now that decision has led Lendeborg to a potential lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, along with a chance to win a national title. But Lendeborg will have to get past Alabama in the Sweet 16.