Even in the final week of the regular season, Yaxel Lendeborg is still embroiled in a fairly wide-open race for Big Ten Player of the Year. Purdue’s Braden Smith is unlikely to repeat, so Lendeborg is a top contender with Illinois’s Keaton Wagler, Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears Jr., and even Iowa’s Bennett Stirtz could have a convincing argument as a dark-horse.
That was, at least before Thursday night, because Lendeborg’s last week should end the discussion altogether.
The 6-foot-9 UAB transfer posted solid offensive outings, finishing with 16 points and four assists in last Friday’s 84-70 win over Illinois and another 16 points in a nail-biting 71-68 road win over Iowa on Thursday. However, it’s what he did defensively, guarding two of the league’s best back-court scorers, Wagler and Stirtz, that put an exclamation mark on his candidacy.
Yaxel Lendeborg is guarding point guards now, and he’s not doing a bad job
Player of the Year isn’t necessarily a value proposition like the NBA’s MVP award, but there’s undoubtedly a value aspect to the evaluation. From that perspective, it’s easy to view Wagler or even Stirtz as the most important players as heliocentric engines of their team’s respective offenses. In that sense, Lendeborg is more like a critical cog in a finely-tuned watch.
However, Lendeborg is the most unique player in the Big Ten, and he adds tremendous value in that way. As a 6-foot-9 forward, Lendeborg has spent most of the year as a small forward, providing ample spacing despite shooting 32 percent from three.
Michigan can get away with that supersized front court and maximize the impact of it because Lendeborg is athletic enough to pick up players like Stirtz at Wagler at mid-court and hound them for nearly 40 minutes. With LJ Cason now out for the season, that’s even more vital because it protects Elliot Cadeau from getting into foul trouble as the team’s point of attack defender.
Lendeborg didn’t shut down Wagler and Stirtz. Illinois’s breakout freshman still put up 23 points, and Iowa’s senior finished with 21, but he made them work hard for it. Wagler got his 23 on 17 shots and had four turnovers, and Stirtz needed 23 attempts for his 21 points and made just two trips to the free-throw line.
The list of 6-foot-9 forwards who can truly guard 1-5 like Lendeborg is incredibly short. That ability makes him remarkably unique and uniquely valuable. And, after taking down two other Player of the Year contenders head-to-head while guarding them from the opening tip, he should have locked up the award.
Still, for good measure, he’ll get a shot at Fears on Sunday, and Dusty May might just give him another chance to guard one of the sport’s top point guards and further bolster his argument as the best player in the Big Ten and the most versatile player in the country.