Yaxel Lendeborg practice habits ripped by Michigan coach Dusty May

Yaxel Lendeborg scored 31 points and had 12 rebounds in Michigan’s exhibition loss to Cincinnati last week.Despite the impressive stats, coach Dusty May stated the staff did not feel Lendeborg played very well, nor were his practice habits good enough after he transferred into the program from UAB.Injuries and sickness slowed the Wolverines’ offensive installation, with few set plays practiced for Lendeborg.Lendeborg was named a preseason first-team AP All-American, the first for Michigan since 2013-14.

The best player on the floor in Michigan basketball’s 100-98 exhibition loss to Cincinnati was clear.

Yaxel Lendeborg, the No. 1 transfer player in the nation from UAB, stuffed the stat sheet in his first game with the Wolverines on Friday, Oct. 17, at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor. He scored 31 points on 10-for-16 shooting (2-for-7 from 3) and 9-for-9 from the foul line, and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

It was everything Michigan fans could hope for in a debut.

To second-year coach Dusty May? Well that’s another story.

“That’s the crazy thing about Yax is as cumulative as a staff, we didn’t feel like he played very well,” May said Monday as he previewed U-M’s next exhibition game, Saturday against St. John’s at Madison Square Garden. “He got 31 and 12 that shows his ability and how capable he is … but he can impact winning more than he did.”

There are some reasons for that.

U-M has been banged up much of the fall. When the team held a pro day for scouts earlier in October, there were only “seven or eight” healthy bodies on display. Two of those injuries — transfer big men Aday Mara (UCLA) and Morez Johnson Jr. (Illinois) — lingered into the first exhibition.

As a result, Michigan had to move Will Tschetter (who dropped 30 pounds this offseason in order to play small forward) back to the five, where he was undersized.

It messed with the spacing.

Furthermore, without healthy bigs or, at other times, guards (L.J. Cason nursed a sprained ankle and bone bruise for a few weeks), U-M’s offensive installation was slowed.

The focal point of the attack? Lendeborg.

“We don’t really have anything in,” May said. “We don’t have entries to get Yax on his spots, we don’t have entries to do this, to do that. So I’d like us to go get a little more organized on both sides of all, we really didn’t have our post fires in and our rotations.

“It’s difficult to put something in when you have five guys ill, or you have four starters out with injuries.”

There’s also the preparation aspect of the game. Lendeborg began his career at Arizona Western College (JUCO) before he caught national attention at UAB.

He’s now at a championship contending Michigan program which enters the 2025-26 season with expectations it will be playing on the last weekend of the year in Indianapolis.

But to get there is a daily process that requires buy-in from everyone, every day on everything. Lendeborg is said to be a selfless player and good teammate. His practice habits, however, were not formed in championship culture.

“They were not anywhere near where they need to be,” May said. “For him and for us.”

Lendeborg said after the exhibtion game he was “figuring out how to play in the system” when he had five points in the first half. Then as he realized they “needed me to do more,” he focused on scoring more than creating and scored 26 in the second half.

It’s a blessing and a curse to be a player like this. The upside is obvious: notoriety, admiration, financial benefits and stardom.

The downside, if there is one, is the microscope. Like the quarterback of a football team, Lendeborg will get praised if his team wins and some blame when they lose.

Is it always fair? No, but that’s the life of a budding superstar. It’s a role he has agreed to play, and the scrunity he’s under — so much so that the coaches believe he can be much better after what would be a career game for most.

Those are the heights Lendeborg is chasing. It’s why he decided to forgo the NBA for another year in college. U-M sold him on the idea it can develop him into an NBA lottery pick (top 14), as opposed to a late first-rounder where he was projected to go last summer.

Expectations aren’t just high internally, but nationally.

On Monday, Lendeborg was named a preseason first-team AP All-American, the first Wolverine to get the nod since Mitch McGary in 2013-14.

But he will only achieve that by season’s end if he continues to climb. And, evidently, eat.

“We told him yesterday, you know what’s over mountains? More mountains,” May said. “Over that mountain is another mountain. What’s the winner of a pie eating contest? Typically get more pie.”

Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.

Make “Hail Yes!” your go-to Wolverines podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify).