"They might still be calling us mercenaries," an exuberant Yaxel Lendeborg said on the floor at Lucas Oil Stadium after Michigan's 69-63 national championship win over UConn on Monday night, "but we're the hardest playing team in national basketball, we're the best team in college basketball, and we're going to be one of the greats ever."
He's right. Michigan's dominant run through the NCAA Tournament may not have quite measured up to Dan Hurley's 2024 Huskies, but with a record five-straight 90+ point outings before snapping a 37-year title drought for the Maize and Blue, they're one of the best. And it's not because they spent the most.
Dusty May's roster build maximized everything in Ann Arbor
Michigan’s entire starting lineup consisted of transfer portal pickups, the first title team ever to make that claim, but contrary to a runaway narrative, they didn’t “buy” a title. While Kentucky went on a $22 milllion offseason spending splurge and North Carolina assembled a $14 million roster, Michigan undoubtedly got the most bang for its buck.
Yaxel Lendeborg was the marquee pickup of Dusty May’s $10 million haul, one of two players, along with national player of the year Cooper Flagg, to lead their team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks last season at UAB. The eventual Big Ten Player of the Year delivered on Michigan’s major investment, but knee and ankle injuries against Arizona relegated him to a role player on Monday night.
If Lendeborg was the big ticket item, Michigan’s two biggest stars in the Final Four, Aday Mara and Elliot Cadeau, the Final Four's most outstanding player, came from the bargain bin. May’s refurbished former five-star recruits were cast off from UCLA and UNC a year ago, but now they’re heading back to Ann Arbor as national champions and ready to cash in on their final season of eligibility.
Fit is everything for Aday Mara and Elliot Cadeau
After Michigan’s win over Arizona, Cadeau spoke about the confidence he derives from Dusty May’s trust in him. "They have so much confidence in me. I missed a lot of shots today, I had a lot of turnovers today, but I didn't hear one thing about that from the coaching staff, and it just helps me stay calm."
It clearly comes in stark contrast to his first two seasons in college basketball with Hubert Davis’s Tar Heels, where he was often the scapegoat for the program’s shortcomings.
Cadeau became Davis’s starting point guard from Year 1 in Chapel Hill, but a high turnover rate and shaky jump shot drew the ire of the fan base. His shot improved in Year 2, but the damage was done, and he fled after a first-round NCAA Tournament exit in 2025. This season, his 10 points and six assists were nearly identical, but his turnovers fell, efficiency improved, and he shot nearly 40 percent from three.
Against the Wildcats, Cadeau, as he did too often in Chapel Hill, shot it terribly, going 5-17, but that didn’t derail his game. He controlled everything on the floor, finishing with 10 assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Monday night, with Lendeborg hobbled, he led the way offensively with 19 points. UConn dared him to be a scorer, and now, he’s good enough and confident enough to punish them for it.
Cadeau has become the player everybody expected he’d be when he was the No. 11 player in the country coming out of Branson, Missouri, in 2023. He’s a creative playmaker and situational scorer, the ideal floor general for a roster loaded with front-court talent and designed to dominate at the rim. In other words, it’s the perfect fit, and recognizing that is the key to getting the most out of your money in the Transfer Portal.
Mara is the same way. The 7-foot-3 big man started just one game for Mick Cronin’s Bruins last year, but he’s the perfect combination of passing and rim protection to fill the Vladislav Goldin role for May. He torched the Wildcats with 26 and 10, and for stretches Monday night, he erased Tarris Reed, who was putting up Tim Duncan-esque numbers for much of the tournament.
May has proved that the portal era is more about how you spend your money than how much money you spend. Cadeau and Mara proved that early struggles don’t define your career. And together, they proved that after 26 years of waiting, the Big Ten can win a title on the hardwood.
Michigan's bet on a supersized lineup with Lendeborg, Mara, and Morez Johnson Jr., another transfer pickup from Illinois, proved to be a stroke of brilliance. His development of freshman Trey McKenney to fill LJ Cason's role when he went down with a season-ending knee injury as the calendar turned to March proved vital, and the depth of his roster, for the $10 million he spent, proved to be unmatched.