The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1543845
40 THE WOLVERINE ❱ APRIL 2026 BY CHRIS BALAS I t's been a historic season for Michi- gan basketball, and it's not over yet … not by a long shot. After finishing the toughest part of their conference schedule with wins at Purdue, Illinois and Iowa, clinching the outright title in Champaign Feb. 27, the Wolverines put the exclamation point on their title with a second win over Michigan State, 90-80, in Ann Arbor March 8. As a result, Michigan finished 19-1 in the conference and was set to enter the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 1 seed, earning the triple bye. U-M was slated to open the tourney on Friday, March 13. Illinois, Michigan State and Nebraska tied for second in the league at 15-5, fol- lowed by Wisconsin at 14-6. "This journey … everything comes at you so fast and even trying to celebrate with your guys who just did something incredibly difficult together is so re- warding and gratifying, but we have so much ball to play," head coach Dusty May said after a senor night celebration that included a banner raising for the 2025-26 title. "It's hard to even put words around what you want to say to this group, because our journey is hopefully only three-fourths of the way done. But to see our guys go through this journey and continue to take turns to support each other, to love each other like brothers, it's been amazing. And as long as we don't change, we have a lot of ball in front of us. We've heard a lot about this 'super- team,' and as a staff, we felt like we had a super team. We went back and we looked at it and we were KenPom No. 11 pre- season. We were AP seventh … which is not typical for a superteam or super- power or whatever you want to call it." In short, no, this wasn't the " best team money could buy," as some wanted to characterize it. Not by a long shot. Junior center Aday Mara hadn't played much at all at UCLA in his first two years, but he developed into a domi- nant defender who averaged 11.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game this sea- son and blocked 80 shots. Junior point guard Elliot Cadeau was essentially a North Carolina castoff before end- ing up at Michigan, where he averaged 9.9 points and dished 171 assists, while Morez Johnson Jr. was solid as an Illinois freshman but blossomed this year with 13.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Veterans Nimari Burnett, Roddy Gayle Jr., and Will Tschetter all returned to help, and freshman Trey McKenney (9.6 points per game) was a huge addi- tion as a rookie. But the biggest gun was the Wolver- ines' highest-profile acquisition — Ala- bama-Birmingham transfer Yaxel Lend- eborg. He led the way with 27 points against the Spartans and clinched Big Ten Player of the Year honors. "I've been around this game for a long time, and I've been around players for four years that don't leave a great legacy where they just left — or two years, or three years, whatever the case," May said. "With us, we want these guys, if they're in here for one year, or five years, or six years barring an injury, we want them to leave this place better than they found it. We want them to have an im- pact. "When you walk around Ann Arbor and you ask anyone about Yaxel Lend- eborg and the type of imprint he's left here, it's phenomenal, just because of who he is on a daily basis. I'm excited for the awards to come out, because I think he's going to be justly recognized for how important he's been to our team ❱ MICHIGAN BASKETBALL Wolverines Clinch Big Ten Outright With Win At Illinois Dusty May and Co. clinched the Big Ten regular-season title Feb. 27 at Illinois, but waited until the March 8 finale against Michigan State to celebrate their accomplishment with their fans in Crisler Center. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL