Coach Dusty May and Yaxel Lendeborg during the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinal against Ohio State.
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It will be a busy evening for Michigan head coach Dusty May on draft night. Three of his players have been invited to the green room and all three are projected to go inside the top 20. One year ago, many questioned how everything would work in the front court with three players who had previously played the center position the season prior at their former collegiate teams.
Aday Mara, Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr., all transferred to Michigan last spring and were the driving force helping lead Michigan to a national championship. Now, Michigan could potentially be the first college program since 2014 to have three non-freshmen taken in the first round of the draft. The last team was the UCLA Bruins with sophomore Zach LaVine, sophomore Jordan Adams and junior Kyle Anderson all taken in the first round.
“Immediately after getting our group together this summer, there were days when we knew these three guys were special,” May said. “I’ll give those guys credit, even after we had two of them signed (Mara and Johnson) and Yaxel decided to come back, they were all still being actively recruited and told they’ll never play and it can’t work with three bigs and they stuck with it and it worked. Those guys believed in the vision and they believed in each other and that they could find a way to co-exist. It was risky for them and for us to have three guys that played center the previous year and have them be the core of our starting lineup.”
Lendeborg could have stayed in the draft last year after a strong combine performance but elected to leave the University of Alabama-Birmingham and join May’s squad for a chance at NCAA title.
“My decision to go back to school last year and play at Michigan was based solely on my confidence that I could continue to improve and earn my spot not only at Michigan but on an NBA roster,” Lendeborg said. “Everything I wanted to improve on in my game, I did at Michigan. My habits, my thought process as a pro. I went through a lot of trial and error and last year just definitely helped me out with my confidence level and put me in a better situation for this year.”
Mara spent two years at UCLA before entering the transfer portal and eventually landing at Michigan. He was relatively quiet for the Bruins in his two seasons, averaging just 6.4 points his sophomore season and playing only 13 minutes per game.
“Sometimes fit is everything and with Aday, once he committed to getting into better shape and putting more pressure on the rim, he unlocked a different element to his game,” May said. “He’s always been an elite passer and obviously our guys learned to play off him better and finish their cuts just with how well he passes the ball. Any NBA team that drafts him is getting a guy that measured 7-foot-3 barefoot with a 9-foot-9 standing reach and he already has an elite ability to protect the rim and his timing is impeccable around the basket. Rarely did he jump on a shot fake. You could probably count the times on one hand that he bit on a shot fake over the course of a season. His natural size and dimensions mixed with his basketball IQ are elite.”
Johnson spent his freshman season at Illinois before transferring to Michigan. He also won a gold medal with Team USA at the U19 FIBA World Cup in Lausanne, Switzerland last summer as part of a loaded roster that included AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, Mikel Brown Jr. and Koa Peat.
“When I committed to Michigan, I was just looking forward to competing every day in practice, that’s where everything started,” Johnson said. “Just building relationships with those guys off the court so we could be our best on the court was so important. When Yaxel said he was coming back to help us win, I knew what we were going to have was special.”
Johnson went from averaging 7.0 off the bench during his freshman year at Illinois to being an integral piece for Michigan and started every single game this past season. He’s a true connector and measured well at the combine. Johnson has the potential to come in right away and help any team with his physicality and the way he reads the game.
“Morez is just a freak of nature,” Lendeborg said of Johnson. “He’s the connector and can defend multiple positions. He’s going to have a long career in the NBA.”
The three Michigan bigs weren’t the flashiest players in college basketball but the way they played together on the court and spaced the floor gave NBA teams glimpses of their impact at the next level.
Going through the NCAA tournament, each did their part and were instrumental at different times. During the Final Four game against Arizona, Mara was unstoppable and had 26 points. Johnson had a double-double in the championship game against UConn and it was Lendeborg’s 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists that got the Wolverines past Tennessee in the Elite Eight.
“There were opportunities where all three of us were in the game together and nothing could get by us,” Lendeborg said. “Just in the frontcourt and switching and seeing there was nowhere to go…it was special playing with them.”
In a draft class that is littered with one-and-done talent at the top, it’s the Michigan trio that’s sprinkled in the mix, projected in the late lottery. Mara’s draft range is anywhere from 8-12 with Lendeborg and Johnson mocked somewhere in the range of 12-18.
“I enjoy telling each and every one of their stories and it’s allowed me to reflect on the stages of their year and their development and how they got to this point,” May said. “When you’re drafting in the lottery, these teams are doing so much homework and so much research that you get caught on a call for almost 45 or 50 minutes each night. It’s fun because these guys deserve it and I think with the amount of research being done, these guys will be in contention for some pretty high picks.”
It was the perfect storm for Michgian to land all three players in the portal. An unusual lineup gave May’s team the edge all season and nothing could get by the big three in the frontcourt. All three players have been at ease going through the draft process and have leaned on each other for advice and encouragement since the season has ended.
“It’s been super fun to go through this process and those guys (Johnson and Mara) are super talented and they provided a lot of versatility just having a jumbo lineup like that, it really inspired me to get better at my game,” Lendeborg said.
Emotions will be high on draft night as the three players wait to hear commissioner Adam Silver call their name and solidify their future. Instead of teammates, the three will be competing against one another during the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in a few short weeks. An unlikely trio that found a way to gel and impact winning at the highest level in college will now navigate the NBA game with physicality and spacing. After winning a national championship and experiencing that together, the three players will be in the same room together as their basketball dreams are realized.
“Draft night is just going to be crazy emotions…full tears, crying,” Lendeborg said. “I’m going to try to get around the table and hug everyone before I lose my mind, but I don’t think I’ll be able to speak once that moment happens.”
