Yaxel Lendeborg brimming with excitement for Michigan basketball season
Yaxel Lendeborg speaks Sept. 30, 2025 about his experience with Michigan basketball thus far after transferring from UAB to the Wolverines.
For a team of players who enjoy being on the court together, the last week must have been torture.
Michigan basketball tipped off its 2025-26 season in historic fashion on Monday, Nov. 3, toppling Oakland 121-78 while scoring the most points in the first game of a season in program history. Its reward? Waiting eight days before its next contest, which comes Tuesday, Nov. 11, against Wake Forest at Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit.
The silver lining, however, is it gave a banged up Michigan group a chance to get healthy. Coach Dusty May said star transfer Yaxel Lendeborg should be “close to 100%,” Winters Grady is “back practicing now” and L.J. Cason “the last two days of practice looked like he did before his injuries.”
U-M will need to play another solid game in order to knock off the Demon Deacons (2-0), which came back from a double-digit deficit last year in Greensboro, North Carolina, and won, 72-70.
“Well it matters because it puts you in a terrible mood one you rewatch,” May said. “But that game taught us a lot about ourselves. … As programs, we all have certain things we can write down when we play team X they’re going to be really good at this year in and year out. … Wake is one of those teams.
“Some of the things they hurt us with last year they’re doing at a high level again this year.”
Steve Forbes is in year six at the helm and has put together a solid roster this season. The Demon Deacons have nine players who are averaging more than 13 minutes per game after wins against American (88-74) and Morehead State (81-65). But they play as well as leaders do, Juke Harris and Tre’Von Spillers.
Both were on the team a season ago but have taken massive leaps. Harris (who scored 6.0 points per game last year but had 11 vs. U-M) averages 23.5 points and eight rebounds. Spillers scored 16 points vs. Michigan a year ago (the second most of his career) and has taken a leap as a junior, putting up 18.0 points and nine rebounds per game.
May said his staff was pleased with its opening night, but it “can’t count on making 19 threes” every single night. He’s also looking for improved defense against players like Spillers ‒ who is 6-foot-7, 215 pounds. He doesn’t have the same size as the Wolverines’ front court, but has still been formidable this season.
“Wake is going to be a very challenging matchup for us,” May said. “They’re physical like Cincinnati. They’re going to push us off our spots. … They also have smaller, versatile bigs and as the first three game have shown us, that’s been a little bit of a hole for us in defense.
“On the other end we’ve been able to take advantage of that size around the rim, but on the defensive end we’ve got to find a way to contain these small, versatile, athletic, wing-type of bigs.”
Will Tschetter, one of the vocal leaders of the Wolverines, came into the postgame press conference last Monday pleased with the victory, but agreed the team’s defense was “[not] something to be desired.” Among the most notable areas U-M is looking to improve, is taking away the high-efficiency shots that it knows on offense it’s trying to generate.
Those are layups and rhythm 3-pointers and right now “teams are getting to many of both of those” May said, while simultaneously U-M is not forcing turnovers enough “to be at our best.”
Michigan knows this will be an entirely different test than its last time out, where it’s combination of size and passing against Oakland’s zone defense is akin to a hot knife through butter: It sets up well for success. To the Wolverines’ credit, they capitalized at an incredible offensive clip, but May knows that isn’t reliable game-in and game-out.
“We’re just trying to get to the point when the shots are going in, we are able to separate,” May said. “And when the shots aren’t going in. Still tough enough defensively, we’re still gritty enough on the glass to find a way to win.”
One of the grittiest, grimiest games of the year last season came against Wake Forest. Neither team shot above 45% and 31 on 3-pointers. There were 29 turnovers, 21 combined offensive rebounds and Wake Forest generated nine steals.
But this time, U-M will get the home-court boost, playing in LCA where it’s 3-0 all-time. The game is dubbed the Wolverine-Demon Deacon Challenge. Michigan is 0-2 against Wake Forest but after a week of practice, the team feels like it’s taken major strides as a group
“I feel like we’re a much better team than we were one week ago,” May said. “We’re not where we need to be but I do think we’re inching in the right direction.”
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.
