CHICAGO, Ill. (WXYZ) — Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg has been named the 2025-26 Big Ten Player of the Year, announced on the Big Ten Network this afternoon.
Conference coaches and a select group of media members select the awards after every Big Ten regular season. In his first season at Michigan after transferring from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Lendeborg averaged 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 50.8 percent from the field, 34.3 percent from three and 82.7 percent from the free throw line.
In a record-setting 29-2 season, Lendeborg led Michigan to winning it's final 15 Big Ten games and set a program and conference record with a 19-1 record in conference play. Lendeborg and the Wolverines won the Big Ten regular season title for the third time in program history (2014, 2021), earning a 1-seed in the Big Ten Tournament happening in Chicago this week.
Lendeborg led the Wolverines in minutes (29.2 per game), points, and steals. On KenPom, an advanced analytics site that measures a player's impact on the court, Lendeborg is ranked as the third most valuable player in all of college basketball. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound grad transfer is projected to be a top-20 pick in the 2026 NBA draft by ESPN, The Athletic and CBS Sports.
On Bracket Matrix, a site that aggregates projections from bracketologists across the country, Michigan is expected to be a 1-seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. The Wolverines have the chance to win the Big Ten tournament under Dusty May for the second year in a row this week; as the 1-seed, the Wolverines won't play until Friday, March 13, and will face either 8-seed Ohio State, 9 seed Iowa, 16-seed Oregon, or 17-seed Maryland.
Here's a look at the other Big Ten awards announced on Tuesday:
- Michigan center Aday Mara, who leads the Big Ten in blocks per game (2.6), was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
- Lendeborg, Mara and forward Morez Johnson Jr. were all named to the All Big Ten Defensive Team
- Michigan head coach Dusty May was named Big Ten Coach of the Year by the media
- The coaches and the media named Michigan State point guard Jeremy Fears to the Big Ten First Team
- Johnson was named to the Big Ten second team by media and to the third team by the coaches
- Mara was named to the Big Ten third team by the coaches
Watch our coverage from Michigan's 90-80 win over MSU this past weekend