TEMPE, AZ – MARCH 3: Kansas Jayhawks forward Flory Bidunga (40) looks on during the college basketball game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Arizona State Sun Devils on March 3, 2026 at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Louisville Cardinals became the biggest winner of the transfer portal in men’s college basketball with a 1-2 punch that could immediate vault them into position as one of the top teams in the country for the 2026-2027 season.
Flory Bidunga was by far the top player available in the transfer portal, and he chose Louisville over Duke, Michigan, and St. John’s on Sunday. Bidunga also declared for the 2026 NBA Draft, so it’s possible he never steps foot on campus, but it feels more likely than not that he ends up with the Cardinals. The bouncy 6’10 big man is coming off a terrific sophomore year at Kansas where he emerged as one of the country’s best rim protectors as well a terrifying lob threat and dominant presence on the offensive glass. Bidunga is considered a fringe first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but he would likely get significantly more money from Louisville than at his draft slot.
Louisville also landed a commitment from former Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad on Sunday. Shelstad only played 12 games last season with a hand injury, but he looked like one of the better lead guards in the country last time he played a full season as a sophomore. The 6-foot guard ripped 38 percent of his threes in his last full season in 2024-25, and he seemed to be making a big leap as a playmaker before the injury. Shelstad is reportedly applying for a medical redshirt, so it’s possible he’ll have two years of college elibility left.
Bidunga and Shelstad’s commitments were framed as a packaged deal by ESPN. The Cardinals were also one of the biggest winners of last year’s transfer portal, but still couldn’t win a game in the NCAA tournament as star freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr. was limited with a back injury. Louisville is expected to return Adrian Wooley, who could also be in for a breakout junior season.
Cards head coach Pat Kelsey hit a grand slam in the transfer portal. With Duke lacking a star on the level of Cooper Flagg or Cameron Boozer next season, and North Carolina just starting to rebuild with new coach Mike Malone, it’s possible Louisville just became the preseason favorites in the ACC as long as Bidunga doesn’t jump to the draft.
TEMPE, AZ – MARCH 3: Kansas Jayhawks forward Flory Bidunga (40) looks on during the college basketball game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Arizona State Sun Devils on March 3, 2026 at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Louisville Cardinals became the biggest winner of the transfer portal in men’s college basketball with a 1-2 punch that could immediate vault them into position as one of the top teams in the country for the 2026-2027 season.
Flory Bidunga was by far the top player available in the transfer portal, and he chose Louisville over Duke, Michigan, and St. John’s on Sunday. Bidunga also declared for the 2026 NBA Draft, so it’s possible he never steps foot on campus, but it feels more likely than not that he ends up with the Cardinals. The bouncy 6’10 big man is coming off a terrific sophomore year at Kansas where he emerged as one of the country’s best rim protectors as well a terrifying lob threat and dominant presence on the offensive glass. Bidunga is considered a fringe first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but he would likely get significantly more money from Louisville than at his draft slot.
Louisville also landed a commitment from former Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad on Sunday. Shelstad only played 12 games last season with a hand injury, but he looked like one of the better lead guards in the country last time he played a full season as a sophomore. The 6-foot guard ripped 38 percent of his threes in his last full season in 2024-25, and he seemed to be making a big leap as a playmaker before the injury. Shelstad is reportedly applying for a medical redshirt, so it’s possible he’ll have two years of college elibility left.
Bidunga and Shelstad’s commitments were framed as a packaged deal by ESPN. The Cardinals were also one of the biggest winners of last year’s transfer portal, but still couldn’t win a game in the NCAA tournament as star freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr. was limited with a back injury. Louisville is expected to return Adrian Wooley, who could also be in for a breakout junior season.
Cards head coach Pat Kelsey hit a grand slam in the transfer portal. With Duke lacking a star on the level of Cooper Flagg or Cameron Boozer next season, and North Carolina just starting to rebuild with new coach Mike Malone, it’s possible Louisville just became the preseason favorites in the ACC as long as Bidunga doesn’t jump to the draft.
#Louisville #lands #transfer #portals #top #player #elite #point #guard #massive #haul">Louisville lands transfer portal’s top overall player and elite point guard in massive haul
TEMPE, AZ – MARCH 3: Kansas Jayhawks forward Flory Bidunga (40) looks on during the college basketball game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the Arizona State Sun Devils on March 3, 2026 at Desert Financial Arena in Tempe, Arizona. (Photo by Kevin Abele/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Louisville Cardinals became the biggest winner of the transfer portal in men’s college basketball with a 1-2 punch that could immediate vault them into position as one of the top teams in the country for the 2026-2027 season.
Flory Bidunga was by far the top player available in the transfer portal, and he chose Louisville over Duke, Michigan, and St. John’s on Sunday. Bidunga also declared for the 2026 NBA Draft, so it’s possible he never steps foot on campus, but it feels more likely than not that he ends up with the Cardinals. The bouncy 6’10 big man is coming off a terrific sophomore year at Kansas where he emerged as one of the country’s best rim protectors as well a terrifying lob threat and dominant presence on the offensive glass. Bidunga is considered a fringe first-round pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but he would likely get significantly more money from Louisville than at his draft slot.
Louisville also landed a commitment from former Oregon point guard Jackson Shelstad on Sunday. Shelstad only played 12 games last season with a hand injury, but he looked like one of the better lead guards in the country last time he played a full season as a sophomore. The 6-foot guard ripped 38 percent of his threes in his last full season in 2024-25, and he seemed to be making a big leap as a playmaker before the injury. Shelstad is reportedly applying for a medical redshirt, so it’s possible he’ll have two years of college elibility left.
Bidunga and Shelstad’s commitments were framed as a packaged deal by ESPN. The Cardinals were also one of the biggest winners of last year’s transfer portal, but still couldn’t win a game in the NCAA tournament as star freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr. was limited with a back injury. Louisville is expected to return Adrian Wooley, who could also be in for a breakout junior season.
Cards head coach Pat Kelsey hit a grand slam in the transfer portal. With Duke lacking a star on the level of Cooper Flagg or Cameron Boozer next season, and North Carolina just starting to rebuild with new coach Mike Malone, it’s possible Louisville just became the preseason favorites in the ACC as long as Bidunga doesn’t jump to the draft.
Michigan head coach Dusty May sold his stars on his vision of the three-big front line during the offseason recruiting process, but Mara admitted he wasn’t always sold he would be such a focal point. He had reason to be skeptical. When he entered UCLA, SB Nation projected Mara as a one-and-one done top-10 pick for the 2024 draft after standout showings in FIBA tournaments for Spain. Instead, he quickly lost his starting spot as a freshman and continued to have a small role off the bench as a sophomore. Head coach Mick Cronin often cited conditioning and matchup issues for why he didn’t get more playing time.
Mara was perhaps the single biggest breakout star of March Madness this year, and his continued climb up the 2026 NBA Draft board is next. He’ll have a few things working in his favor when he decides to make the jump to the next level.
Mara has shooting touch even if he doesn’t yet have range
Mara’s scoring efficiency inside was absurd all season: he shot 68 percent on two-pointers, 81 percent at the rim, and 41.1 percent on non-rim twos. His two-point percentage remained just about the same even against top-100 and top-50 competition, and even if you take away his dunks (he had 81 of them on the year), he still shot 72 percent at the rim.
His comfort in the post continued to grow as the season went on. By the time March Madness started, Mara was making a fool out of even very good opposing centers with his size and touch.
Mara is going to be one of the tallest and longest player in the NBA from the day he’s drafted. Victor Wembanyama and Zach Edey are just about the only players who can top him in those departments. He may have issues establishing post position against NBA bigs with a higher center of gravity, but his ability to hit baby hooks and flip shots gives him some real scoring utility even if it won’t be the best part of his game.
One of the biggest red flags in Mara’s statistical profile is his terrible free throw percentage. He shot 56.4 percent from the free throw line this season, and only 58.5 percent over his college career on 241 attempts. Free throw percentage is a proxy for touch, and at first glance it seems like Mara doesn’t have it.
It’s worth noting that Mara got consistently better from the free throw stripe all year. Over his last 20 games this season, he shot 74 percent from the foul line by hitting 37-of-50 freebies. That’s encouraging growth, and it comes back to the coaching he received at Michigan. Mara said he was hitting his free throws well in practice, but missing them in games. May started making Mara take high-pressure free throws to end practices, and encouraged him by showing there was nothing wrong with his form. Eventually, they started to drop when it really mattered.
Will Mara be able to shoot threes eventually? He only went 3-for-10 on the year, but he told me he believes it will be part of his skill set in time. He was just doing what his team needed.
“I know it’s in my game,” Mara told SB Nation. “I know I don’t shoot a lot. Sometimes I’m rushing, but I know it’s in my game. I have confidence, and if I get it again, I will shoot it again.”
Can Mara maintain his late season free throw touch? Can the three-ball be a real part of his game? Those are two of the biggest questions related to his upside at the next level. Even if the threes never come, he has a few other ways to impact the game as a scorer.
Mara is going to be a plus as an offensive rebounder, which will work in his favor as offensive rebounding takes on more emphasis in the battle for the possession game at the NBA level. He’s also a big target as a roller, and his soft hands allow him to catch the ball on the move. He’s going to be a dominant lob threat with a massive catch radius. Mara probably won’t ever be a 20-point-per-game scorer at the NBA, but his efficiency on the interior, ability to generate extra possessions on the glass, and massive length advantage gives him some bankable scoring ability as he goes on his career.
Mara’s passing ability is special
The best sight in college basketball this season was Mara’s outlet passing ability. He always has his eyes up after grabbing a rebound, and he proved he can throw full court dimes to get his team an easy two points. He did it again:
Transition offense is far more efficient than halfcourt offense at every level of the game. Mara’s ability to throw deep passes with pinpoint accuracy is basically a cheat code for igniting transition opportunities, and it should be a big part of his game at the next level.
Mara doesn’t just throw outlets. He’s an extremely creative passer with behind-the-back looks and between-the-legs drop-offs in his bag:
There are some moments where it feels like Mara holds onto the ball too long before making a pass or deciding to attack. Quicker processing will be essential to maximize his ability at the next level. It’s easy to believe that should improve with more reps for a player who never had a real role in his college career before this season. Either way, Mara is one of the best passers in the country regardless of size, and the fact that he’s doing it at 7’3 gives him unique utility as he goes on in his career.
Mara’s rim protection is elite, but there are other defensive questions
Mara’s length translates most obviously on the defensive end. He doesn’t have great coverage versatility, but he’s effective in deep drop, and his length gives him an ability to challenge shots and close windows on pull-up shooters when they bail out of their drive before getting to the rim.
Mara finished the year with a 11.9 percent block rate. Good luck challenging him at the rim. If a 23-year-old tank like Lendeborg couldn’t get Mara in practice, most NBA players won’t be able to, either.
UConn’s Tarris Reed was probably the second-best player in the NCAA tournament after Lendeborg. He had no answers for Mara when he met him in the national championship game. Mara’s length disrupted everything Reed was trying to do inside, and eventually you could see he was getting psyched out of even attempting looks he would normally drain.
That’s what Mara’s length and shot-blocking functionally provides on the court: he makes everyone second-guess if they can really get the shot off. Being tentative for even a split second can be a death wish in the NBA, and Mara makes it happen regularly to his opponents.
Mara’s perimeter defense is more of a work in progress. He can be attacked on switches by quicker guards who can separate from him with their first and second steps. Showing an ability to defend the stretch bigs all over the NBA will be vital. Can Mara recover to the perimeter on pick-and-pop attempts? Can he stay strong on his feet when a ball handler attacks a closeout? There were encouraging moments on the tape, but also plenty of instances where he got caught flat footed.
I asked Mara about his defending on the perimeter after Michigan’s Sweet 16 win over Alabama, and here’s what he told me.
“I know I’m capable of playing like a good defense outside,” Mara told SB Nation. “I think when I was against Purdue (in the Big Ten tournament championship game), I had like a terrible game there defensively. But I know that I’m able to to play defense and switch onto guards or whoever has the ball outside. Sometimes I go to a game I’m not ready to play outside defense, but I think like if I’m ready, if I’m with a good mindset and with a high intensity level, I can do it for sure.”
Mara is a team player who should be a welcome presence in any locker room
I spoke with Mara in the post-game locker room after Michigan beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament on March 14. He had a phenomenal game that afternoon, finishing with 16 points, five blocks, eight rebounds. I asked him how he’s developed more comfort as a scorer as the season has gone on, but he immediately deflected the credit.
“It doesn’t matter if I score 20 or if I score four,” Mara told me. “It’s just about helping the team win. The last two games I’ve been able to help the team by scoring. But maybe tomorrow I score 0 points and I get five blocks, you know, it will be all right.”
I covered Michigan throughout March Madness with a credential at the Big Ten tournament, Sweet 16, Final Four, and national championship game. Mara was generous and thoughtful in his media availability the entire time, speaking to reporters for long stretches in his second language. He told me getting better at English was one of his top priorities when he came to the U.S. upon committing to UCLA, and he showed how much he’s grown in that area too throughout March Madness.
At one point, I asked Mara why he thought Michigan’s three big look worked so well together.
“We are not selfish,” he said. “We play for each other. If I see Morez inside the paint, I’m going to stay out. So it’s not like I want to get here, and if Morez is here, I’m gonna get here anyways. We’re trying to do, I don’t know, different things, like move the ball.
“Today it was me. Maybe tomorrow it is going to be Morez, and the next day it’s going to be someone else. I think that’s what make us play so well together.”
As the NBA moves to more double-big looks, Mara’s ability to play with other bigs will be an essential part of his appeal. Even without a proven jump shot, he knows how to space the floor by leveraging his size and skills to help out his teammates. He doesn’t care about getting the glory.
Size is in at every level of basketball. Length is one of the most essential traits in the sport. Almost no one alive is longer than Mara, and he also brings unique skills and a positive attitude to every game.
A year ago, Mara felt like one of the most underwhelming players in America as he sat glued to Mick Cronin’s bench. Dusty May believed in him and brought out the best in his abilities. His incredible March Madness run showed the NBA he deserves lottery consideration. Given his rapid development throughout the season, it feels like this is only the start as Mara continues to grow into his body and his game.
Michigan head coach Dusty May sold his stars on his vision of the three-big front line during the offseason recruiting process, but Mara admitted he wasn’t always sold he would be such a focal point. He had reason to be skeptical. When he entered UCLA, SB Nation projected Mara as a one-and-one done top-10 pick for the 2024 draft after standout showings in FIBA tournaments for Spain. Instead, he quickly lost his starting spot as a freshman and continued to have a small role off the bench as a sophomore. Head coach Mick Cronin often cited conditioning and matchup issues for why he didn’t get more playing time.
Mara was perhaps the single biggest breakout star of March Madness this year, and his continued climb up the 2026 NBA Draft board is next. He’ll have a few things working in his favor when he decides to make the jump to the next level.
Mara has shooting touch even if he doesn’t yet have range
Mara’s scoring efficiency inside was absurd all season: he shot 68 percent on two-pointers, 81 percent at the rim, and 41.1 percent on non-rim twos. His two-point percentage remained just about the same even against top-100 and top-50 competition, and even if you take away his dunks (he had 81 of them on the year), he still shot 72 percent at the rim.
His comfort in the post continued to grow as the season went on. By the time March Madness started, Mara was making a fool out of even very good opposing centers with his size and touch.
Mara is going to be one of the tallest and longest player in the NBA from the day he’s drafted. Victor Wembanyama and Zach Edey are just about the only players who can top him in those departments. He may have issues establishing post position against NBA bigs with a higher center of gravity, but his ability to hit baby hooks and flip shots gives him some real scoring utility even if it won’t be the best part of his game.
One of the biggest red flags in Mara’s statistical profile is his terrible free throw percentage. He shot 56.4 percent from the free throw line this season, and only 58.5 percent over his college career on 241 attempts. Free throw percentage is a proxy for touch, and at first glance it seems like Mara doesn’t have it.
It’s worth noting that Mara got consistently better from the free throw stripe all year. Over his last 20 games this season, he shot 74 percent from the foul line by hitting 37-of-50 freebies. That’s encouraging growth, and it comes back to the coaching he received at Michigan. Mara said he was hitting his free throws well in practice, but missing them in games. May started making Mara take high-pressure free throws to end practices, and encouraged him by showing there was nothing wrong with his form. Eventually, they started to drop when it really mattered.
Will Mara be able to shoot threes eventually? He only went 3-for-10 on the year, but he told me he believes it will be part of his skill set in time. He was just doing what his team needed.
“I know it’s in my game,” Mara told SB Nation. “I know I don’t shoot a lot. Sometimes I’m rushing, but I know it’s in my game. I have confidence, and if I get it again, I will shoot it again.”
Can Mara maintain his late season free throw touch? Can the three-ball be a real part of his game? Those are two of the biggest questions related to his upside at the next level. Even if the threes never come, he has a few other ways to impact the game as a scorer.
Mara is going to be a plus as an offensive rebounder, which will work in his favor as offensive rebounding takes on more emphasis in the battle for the possession game at the NBA level. He’s also a big target as a roller, and his soft hands allow him to catch the ball on the move. He’s going to be a dominant lob threat with a massive catch radius. Mara probably won’t ever be a 20-point-per-game scorer at the NBA, but his efficiency on the interior, ability to generate extra possessions on the glass, and massive length advantage gives him some bankable scoring ability as he goes on his career.
Mara’s passing ability is special
The best sight in college basketball this season was Mara’s outlet passing ability. He always has his eyes up after grabbing a rebound, and he proved he can throw full court dimes to get his team an easy two points. He did it again:
Transition offense is far more efficient than halfcourt offense at every level of the game. Mara’s ability to throw deep passes with pinpoint accuracy is basically a cheat code for igniting transition opportunities, and it should be a big part of his game at the next level.
Mara doesn’t just throw outlets. He’s an extremely creative passer with behind-the-back looks and between-the-legs drop-offs in his bag:
There are some moments where it feels like Mara holds onto the ball too long before making a pass or deciding to attack. Quicker processing will be essential to maximize his ability at the next level. It’s easy to believe that should improve with more reps for a player who never had a real role in his college career before this season. Either way, Mara is one of the best passers in the country regardless of size, and the fact that he’s doing it at 7’3 gives him unique utility as he goes on in his career.
Mara’s rim protection is elite, but there are other defensive questions
Mara’s length translates most obviously on the defensive end. He doesn’t have great coverage versatility, but he’s effective in deep drop, and his length gives him an ability to challenge shots and close windows on pull-up shooters when they bail out of their drive before getting to the rim.
Mara finished the year with a 11.9 percent block rate. Good luck challenging him at the rim. If a 23-year-old tank like Lendeborg couldn’t get Mara in practice, most NBA players won’t be able to, either.
UConn’s Tarris Reed was probably the second-best player in the NCAA tournament after Lendeborg. He had no answers for Mara when he met him in the national championship game. Mara’s length disrupted everything Reed was trying to do inside, and eventually you could see he was getting psyched out of even attempting looks he would normally drain.
That’s what Mara’s length and shot-blocking functionally provides on the court: he makes everyone second-guess if they can really get the shot off. Being tentative for even a split second can be a death wish in the NBA, and Mara makes it happen regularly to his opponents.
Mara’s perimeter defense is more of a work in progress. He can be attacked on switches by quicker guards who can separate from him with their first and second steps. Showing an ability to defend the stretch bigs all over the NBA will be vital. Can Mara recover to the perimeter on pick-and-pop attempts? Can he stay strong on his feet when a ball handler attacks a closeout? There were encouraging moments on the tape, but also plenty of instances where he got caught flat footed.
I asked Mara about his defending on the perimeter after Michigan’s Sweet 16 win over Alabama, and here’s what he told me.
“I know I’m capable of playing like a good defense outside,” Mara told SB Nation. “I think when I was against Purdue (in the Big Ten tournament championship game), I had like a terrible game there defensively. But I know that I’m able to to play defense and switch onto guards or whoever has the ball outside. Sometimes I go to a game I’m not ready to play outside defense, but I think like if I’m ready, if I’m with a good mindset and with a high intensity level, I can do it for sure.”
Mara is a team player who should be a welcome presence in any locker room
I spoke with Mara in the post-game locker room after Michigan beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament on March 14. He had a phenomenal game that afternoon, finishing with 16 points, five blocks, eight rebounds. I asked him how he’s developed more comfort as a scorer as the season has gone on, but he immediately deflected the credit.
“It doesn’t matter if I score 20 or if I score four,” Mara told me. “It’s just about helping the team win. The last two games I’ve been able to help the team by scoring. But maybe tomorrow I score 0 points and I get five blocks, you know, it will be all right.”
I covered Michigan throughout March Madness with a credential at the Big Ten tournament, Sweet 16, Final Four, and national championship game. Mara was generous and thoughtful in his media availability the entire time, speaking to reporters for long stretches in his second language. He told me getting better at English was one of his top priorities when he came to the U.S. upon committing to UCLA, and he showed how much he’s grown in that area too throughout March Madness.
At one point, I asked Mara why he thought Michigan’s three big look worked so well together.
“We are not selfish,” he said. “We play for each other. If I see Morez inside the paint, I’m going to stay out. So it’s not like I want to get here, and if Morez is here, I’m gonna get here anyways. We’re trying to do, I don’t know, different things, like move the ball.
“Today it was me. Maybe tomorrow it is going to be Morez, and the next day it’s going to be someone else. I think that’s what make us play so well together.”
As the NBA moves to more double-big looks, Mara’s ability to play with other bigs will be an essential part of his appeal. Even without a proven jump shot, he knows how to space the floor by leveraging his size and skills to help out his teammates. He doesn’t care about getting the glory.
Size is in at every level of basketball. Length is one of the most essential traits in the sport. Almost no one alive is longer than Mara, and he also brings unique skills and a positive attitude to every game.
A year ago, Mara felt like one of the most underwhelming players in America as he sat glued to Mick Cronin’s bench. Dusty May believed in him and brought out the best in his abilities. His incredible March Madness run showed the NBA he deserves lottery consideration. Given his rapid development throughout the season, it feels like this is only the start as Mara continues to grow into his body and his game.
#Aday #Mara #played #lottery #latest #NBA #mock #draft">How Aday Mara played his way into the lottery of our latest NBA mock draft
Yaxel Lendeborg set a personal goal when Michigan started practice at the very beginning of what would become its 2026 national championship season. He wanted to dunk on new teammate Aday Mara.
“I tried a couple times when I first got here, and he ruined my confidence so quickly,” Lendeborg said after Michigan beat UConn in the title game.
Mara had just come over from UCLA after two disappointing seasons where he could barely get off the bench, and his size made him an inviting target for a poster. Standing 7’3 with a reported 7’7 wingspan, the Spanish big man had measurables few humans in the world could match. Realizing that Mara shouldn’t be challenged at the rim was only one part of the process. As Michigan brought in four new starters via the transfer portal, there was a steep learning curve for everyone when it came to how to maximize their gigantic center.
“He’s definitely the most unique big man I’ve ever played with,” Elliott Cadeau told SB Nation ahead of the national championship game. “It took some time for us to get some chemistry. We talk about the ball screen literally every practice. We’re both really high-IQ players. When teams play us two-on-two, we feel like we can get whatever we want.”
The entire country knows what Mara is capable of now after the Wolverines completed one of the most dominant national championship runs of the last 30 years. There were plenty of key takeaways from how Michigan built its title team, but the biggest one is size. Lendeborg, Mara, and Morez Johnson all primarily played center at their previous schools, but shared the court at Michigan with resounding success. Each of them played a part in making it work: Lendeborg flushed out his perimeter skill in an attempt to appeal to NBA scouts, Johnson showed the ability to defend all of the floor and started taking threes, and Mara proved he could play at the top of the key offensively due to his innate passing touch.
Michigan head coach Dusty May sold his stars on his vision of the three-big front line during the offseason recruiting process, but Mara admitted he wasn’t always sold he would be such a focal point. He had reason to be skeptical. When he entered UCLA, SB Nation projected Mara as a one-and-one done top-10 pick for the 2024 draft after standout showings in FIBA tournaments for Spain. Instead, he quickly lost his starting spot as a freshman and continued to have a small role off the bench as a sophomore. Head coach Mick Cronin often cited conditioning and matchup issues for why he didn’t get more playing time.
Mara was perhaps the single biggest breakout star of March Madness this year, and his continued climb up the 2026 NBA Draft board is next. He’ll have a few things working in his favor when he decides to make the jump to the next level.
Mara has shooting touch even if he doesn’t yet have range
Mara’s scoring efficiency inside was absurd all season: he shot 68 percent on two-pointers, 81 percent at the rim, and 41.1 percent on non-rim twos. His two-point percentage remained just about the same even against top-100 and top-50 competition, and even if you take away his dunks (he had 81 of them on the year), he still shot 72 percent at the rim.
His comfort in the post continued to grow as the season went on. By the time March Madness started, Mara was making a fool out of even very good opposing centers with his size and touch.
Mara is going to be one of the tallest and longest player in the NBA from the day he’s drafted. Victor Wembanyama and Zach Edey are just about the only players who can top him in those departments. He may have issues establishing post position against NBA bigs with a higher center of gravity, but his ability to hit baby hooks and flip shots gives him some real scoring utility even if it won’t be the best part of his game.
One of the biggest red flags in Mara’s statistical profile is his terrible free throw percentage. He shot 56.4 percent from the free throw line this season, and only 58.5 percent over his college career on 241 attempts. Free throw percentage is a proxy for touch, and at first glance it seems like Mara doesn’t have it.
It’s worth noting that Mara got consistently better from the free throw stripe all year. Over his last 20 games this season, he shot 74 percent from the foul line by hitting 37-of-50 freebies. That’s encouraging growth, and it comes back to the coaching he received at Michigan. Mara said he was hitting his free throws well in practice, but missing them in games. May started making Mara take high-pressure free throws to end practices, and encouraged him by showing there was nothing wrong with his form. Eventually, they started to drop when it really mattered.
Will Mara be able to shoot threes eventually? He only went 3-for-10 on the year, but he told me he believes it will be part of his skill set in time. He was just doing what his team needed.
“I know it’s in my game,” Mara told SB Nation. “I know I don’t shoot a lot. Sometimes I’m rushing, but I know it’s in my game. I have confidence, and if I get it again, I will shoot it again.”
Can Mara maintain his late season free throw touch? Can the three-ball be a real part of his game? Those are two of the biggest questions related to his upside at the next level. Even if the threes never come, he has a few other ways to impact the game as a scorer.
Mara is going to be a plus as an offensive rebounder, which will work in his favor as offensive rebounding takes on more emphasis in the battle for the possession game at the NBA level. He’s also a big target as a roller, and his soft hands allow him to catch the ball on the move. He’s going to be a dominant lob threat with a massive catch radius. Mara probably won’t ever be a 20-point-per-game scorer at the NBA, but his efficiency on the interior, ability to generate extra possessions on the glass, and massive length advantage gives him some bankable scoring ability as he goes on his career.
Mara’s passing ability is special
The best sight in college basketball this season was Mara’s outlet passing ability. He always has his eyes up after grabbing a rebound, and he proved he can throw full court dimes to get his team an easy two points. He did it again:
Transition offense is far more efficient than halfcourt offense at every level of the game. Mara’s ability to throw deep passes with pinpoint accuracy is basically a cheat code for igniting transition opportunities, and it should be a big part of his game at the next level.
Mara doesn’t just throw outlets. He’s an extremely creative passer with behind-the-back looks and between-the-legs drop-offs in his bag:
There are some moments where it feels like Mara holds onto the ball too long before making a pass or deciding to attack. Quicker processing will be essential to maximize his ability at the next level. It’s easy to believe that should improve with more reps for a player who never had a real role in his college career before this season. Either way, Mara is one of the best passers in the country regardless of size, and the fact that he’s doing it at 7’3 gives him unique utility as he goes on in his career.
Mara’s rim protection is elite, but there are other defensive questions
Mara’s length translates most obviously on the defensive end. He doesn’t have great coverage versatility, but he’s effective in deep drop, and his length gives him an ability to challenge shots and close windows on pull-up shooters when they bail out of their drive before getting to the rim.
Mara finished the year with a 11.9 percent block rate. Good luck challenging him at the rim. If a 23-year-old tank like Lendeborg couldn’t get Mara in practice, most NBA players won’t be able to, either.
UConn’s Tarris Reed was probably the second-best player in the NCAA tournament after Lendeborg. He had no answers for Mara when he met him in the national championship game. Mara’s length disrupted everything Reed was trying to do inside, and eventually you could see he was getting psyched out of even attempting looks he would normally drain.
That’s what Mara’s length and shot-blocking functionally provides on the court: he makes everyone second-guess if they can really get the shot off. Being tentative for even a split second can be a death wish in the NBA, and Mara makes it happen regularly to his opponents.
Mara’s perimeter defense is more of a work in progress. He can be attacked on switches by quicker guards who can separate from him with their first and second steps. Showing an ability to defend the stretch bigs all over the NBA will be vital. Can Mara recover to the perimeter on pick-and-pop attempts? Can he stay strong on his feet when a ball handler attacks a closeout? There were encouraging moments on the tape, but also plenty of instances where he got caught flat footed.
I asked Mara about his defending on the perimeter after Michigan’s Sweet 16 win over Alabama, and here’s what he told me.
“I know I’m capable of playing like a good defense outside,” Mara told SB Nation. “I think when I was against Purdue (in the Big Ten tournament championship game), I had like a terrible game there defensively. But I know that I’m able to to play defense and switch onto guards or whoever has the ball outside. Sometimes I go to a game I’m not ready to play outside defense, but I think like if I’m ready, if I’m with a good mindset and with a high intensity level, I can do it for sure.”
Mara is a team player who should be a welcome presence in any locker room
I spoke with Mara in the post-game locker room after Michigan beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament on March 14. He had a phenomenal game that afternoon, finishing with 16 points, five blocks, eight rebounds. I asked him how he’s developed more comfort as a scorer as the season has gone on, but he immediately deflected the credit.
“It doesn’t matter if I score 20 or if I score four,” Mara told me. “It’s just about helping the team win. The last two games I’ve been able to help the team by scoring. But maybe tomorrow I score 0 points and I get five blocks, you know, it will be all right.”
I covered Michigan throughout March Madness with a credential at the Big Ten tournament, Sweet 16, Final Four, and national championship game. Mara was generous and thoughtful in his media availability the entire time, speaking to reporters for long stretches in his second language. He told me getting better at English was one of his top priorities when he came to the U.S. upon committing to UCLA, and he showed how much he’s grown in that area too throughout March Madness.
At one point, I asked Mara why he thought Michigan’s three big look worked so well together.
“We are not selfish,” he said. “We play for each other. If I see Morez inside the paint, I’m going to stay out. So it’s not like I want to get here, and if Morez is here, I’m gonna get here anyways. We’re trying to do, I don’t know, different things, like move the ball.
“Today it was me. Maybe tomorrow it is going to be Morez, and the next day it’s going to be someone else. I think that’s what make us play so well together.”
As the NBA moves to more double-big looks, Mara’s ability to play with other bigs will be an essential part of his appeal. Even without a proven jump shot, he knows how to space the floor by leveraging his size and skills to help out his teammates. He doesn’t care about getting the glory.
Size is in at every level of basketball. Length is one of the most essential traits in the sport. Almost no one alive is longer than Mara, and he also brings unique skills and a positive attitude to every game.
A year ago, Mara felt like one of the most underwhelming players in America as he sat glued to Mick Cronin’s bench. Dusty May believed in him and brought out the best in his abilities. His incredible March Madness run showed the NBA he deserves lottery consideration. Given his rapid development throughout the season, it feels like this is only the start as Mara continues to grow into his body and his game.
This has long been considered a strong class due to the three star freshmen expected to go with the first three picks. The draft lottery on May 10 will determine in what order Duke’s Cameron Boozer, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa come off the board. The rise of fellow freshmen like North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson, Illinois guard Keaton Wagler, Arkansas guard Darius Acuff, and Houston guard Kingston Flemings makes this class even stronger in the first half of the lottery.
The Final Four had so many great NBA prospects on display. This mock draft features a whopping nine players who competed in Indianapolis for the national semifinals. Wagler will have a chance to go as high as No. 5 overall, and Brayden Mullins’ incredible Elite Eight buzzer-beater to stun Duke now has him in his highest mock draft position all season.
Here’s our latest projection of the 2026 NBA Draft. The order is determined by the NBA’s current lottery position standings.
Some do some quick takes here:
Got a question or comment about this mock? Leave a comment and I’ll respond
What a great college basketball season. The draft lottery is going to be absolute cinema.
This has long been considered a strong class due to the three star freshmen expected to go with the first three picks. The draft lottery on May 10 will determine in what order Duke’s Cameron Boozer, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa come off the board. The rise of fellow freshmen like North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson, Illinois guard Keaton Wagler, Arkansas guard Darius Acuff, and Houston guard Kingston Flemings makes this class even stronger in the first half of the lottery.
The Final Four had so many great NBA prospects on display. This mock draft features a whopping nine players who competed in Indianapolis for the national semifinals. Wagler will have a chance to go as high as No. 5 overall, and Brayden Mullins’ incredible Elite Eight buzzer-beater to stun Duke now has him in his highest mock draft position all season.
Here’s our latest projection of the 2026 NBA Draft. The order is determined by the NBA’s current lottery position standings.
Some do some quick takes here:
Got a question or comment about this mock? Leave a comment and I’ll respond
What a great college basketball season. The draft lottery is going to be absolute cinema.
#NBA #mock #draft #Updated #projection #March #Madness #ends">NBA mock draft 2026: Updated projection after March Madness ends
College basketball season is over, and the Michigan Wolverines are national champions. Now the 2026 NBA Draft is on the clock.
This has long been considered a strong class due to the three star freshmen expected to go with the first three picks. The draft lottery on May 10 will determine in what order Duke’s Cameron Boozer, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa come off the board. The rise of fellow freshmen like North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson, Illinois guard Keaton Wagler, Arkansas guard Darius Acuff, and Houston guard Kingston Flemings makes this class even stronger in the first half of the lottery.
The Final Four had so many great NBA prospects on display. This mock draft features a whopping nine players who competed in Indianapolis for the national semifinals. Wagler will have a chance to go as high as No. 5 overall, and Brayden Mullins’ incredible Elite Eight buzzer-beater to stun Duke now has him in his highest mock draft position all season.
Here’s our latest projection of the 2026 NBA Draft. The order is determined by the NBA’s current lottery position standings.
Some do some quick takes here:
Got a question or comment about this mock? Leave a comment and I’ll respond
What a great college basketball season. The draft lottery is going to be absolute cinema.
#Michigan #basketball #big #fail">In the end, Michigan basketball was too big to fail
On a night where they shot a season-worst 2-of-15 from three, where their injured star looked like a shell of himself, where they lost the rebounding battle and played a style and pace for more conducive to their opponent’s strengths, on a night where seemingly everything that needed to happen in order for Michigan to be once again deprived of its long-awaited second national championship … none of it mattered.
To quote Ellis Pine, “you can’t stop what’s coming,” and Dusty May’s Wolverines have seemed like they’ve been coming for the top of the college basketball mountain since November.
That statement is a far cry from the days of the not-so-distant past when no level of success felt like a certainty for the maize and blue.
A little over 24 months ago, Michigan was at a crossroads. “Breaking point” might be a more accurate descriptor.
The Wolverines had just gone 8-24 overall and 3-17 in the Big Ten, good for the worst season in the modern history of the program. Ann Arbor legend Juwan Howard was shown the door after five up-and-down seasons, and weeks later, Michigan beat out the likes of Louisville and Vanderbilt to hire May away from Florida Atlantic.
Three Michigan players — Nimari Burnett, Will Tschetter and walk-on Harrison Hochberg — experienced every moment of the 8-win season and still chose to stick with the program through the transition. On Monday night, 741 days after May was hired, all three climbed the ladder inside Lucas Oil Stadium to cut down a piece of the national championship net.
Of course loyalty, while an attractive subplot and an easy storyline to latch onto, might not be the central theme of the 2025-26 Michigan Wolverines. Not the team that just became the first in the history of college basketball to win a national championship with five starters who all transferred into the program.
So what is the central theme?
May’s potential to be one of the primary faces of the next wave of great college basketball coaches wasn’t exactly a secret in 2024. A year earlier he had taken Florida Atlantic all the way to the Final Four, and then proved it wasn’t a fluke by winning 25 games and earning an 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament a year later.
In just six seasons as a Division-I head coach, May had already earned the reputation for pairing a remarkable basketball mind with an incredible knack for identifying talent. That combination made him the perfect hire for a power conference program looking for a quick turnaround after falling on hard times.
Two such programs — Michigan and Louisville, both coming off of 8-24 seasons — came calling. Ultimately, UM athletic director Warde Manuel won the battle by selling May on the notion that we have more resources, more institutional support, and a better overall living arrangement for his family in Ann Arbor than anywhere else that might come calling.
“Louisville is an unbelievable basketball school. But this was the right fit for me, my family, and it just felt right,” May said at the time.
An agreement was made, and both sides got to work.
NIL and the transfer portal have both opened the door for instant turnarounds to be more of a thing in college basketball than ever before.
A decade ago, a coach brought in to take command of a Big Ten program that had just gone 3-17 in league play would have merely been expected to show an aptitude for the job and some tangible signs of progress in year one. Now, if you’ve got the bankroll, anything is possible, and it’s possible right away.
May convinced Burnett and Tschetter to stick around, he brought big man Vlad Goldin with him from FAU, and he signed Tre Donaldson (Auburn), Danny Wolf (Yale), Roddy Gayle (Ohio State) and Sam Walters (Alabama) from the transfer portal to form the nucleus of a team that seemed on paper like they should have been able to compete right out of the gate. They did. Michigan won 27 games, captured the Big Ten Tournament title, and advanced to the Sweet 16 before falling to eventual semifinalist Auburn.
With the bar raised, May used Michigan’s deep pockets to go to work again. While Gayle, Tschetter and Burnett all returned, each of UM’s five leading scorers in 2025-26 was a newcomer.
UAB’s Yaxel Lendeborg was the highest-ranked transfer in the country according to most who rank that sort of thing. When Donaldson bolted for Miami, May simply replaced him with North Carolina floor general Elliot Cadeau. Everyone knew Morez Johnson was destined for a breakout sophomore season, and May made sure it happened at Michigan and not conference rival Illinois. And then there was Aday Mara, a 7-foot-2 center who had played sparingly over two seasons at UCLA before emerging as a star for the Wolverines this season.
Identifying talent is still a skill that can pay off big in this brave, new world.
A healthy chunk of May’s imports have fit a similar description: Big, long, athletic, versatile and active. He seeks out monsters who can control the paint on both ends of the court, and is especially fond of players who can effectively guard multiple positions.
The results speak pretty loudly.
Michigan will end this season ranked No. 1 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency. They rank first in the country in effective field foal percentage defense, second in the country in two-point percentage defense, and third in the country in block percentage. Offensively, they were fourth in the country in overall efficiency and fifth in the country in two-percentage.
In each of Michigan’s last four games of the NCAA Tournament, the Wolverines held their opponents — Alabama, Tennessee, Arizona and UConn — to their worst field goal shooting performance of the season.
Michigan’s 2025-26 squad won’t just be remembered for its gaudy 37-3 final record, it’ll be remembered for the way in which it won a hefty chunk of those 37 games.
In simpler terms, it’ll be remembered for just how severely it kicked the shit out of teams all season long.
In its capturing of the Players Era Festival championship during Thanksgiving week, the Wolverines became the first team in the history of the AP poll to beat three straight ranked opponents all by 30 points or more. The last of those was a 101-61 championship game slaughtering of a Gonzaga team that, up until that point, had looked every bit as dominant as May’s team had.
When the dust finally cleared on Monday night, Michigan had won 29 of its 37 games by double figures. It won an astounding 11 games by 30 points or more, and its seven wins by 40 points or more are the most by any team in the history of the Big Ten.
From the jump, confidence was never lacking with this group. Nor should it have been.
Lendeborg, the eventual First Team All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year, was the first to raise eyebrows with a public declaration.
“I feel like we’re the best team in college basketball,” Lendeborg said after the Players Era Festival triumph in November. “We might be the best Michigan team ever. We’re going to try to go for that.”
Instead of shying away from their star’s bravado, the rest of the Wolverines leaned into it.
“We say it before every game when we step onto the court,” Morez Johnson said in February of Lendeborg’s initial proclamation. “Everybody truly believes that.”
Yaxel laughed last on Monday night, telling a national TV audience:
“We’re the best team in college basketball, and we want to go down as one of the greatest ever.”
Despite the Big Ten’s perennial status as one of the two or three best conferences in college basketball, the league has been burdened for the past two and-a-half-decades with the stigma of having won zero national championships since Michigan State cut down the nets in 2000.
From 2001-2025, Big Ten teams played in eight national championships and astoundingly lost them all. Michigan accounted for 25 percent of that total, falling to Louisville for the title in 2013 and getting blown out by Villanova on the first Monday in April five years later.
No trend was too tall for this team. Neither was any opponent.
In the end, Michigan was simply too big to fail.
#Michigan #basketball #big #fail
On a night where they shot a season-worst 2-of-15 from three, where their injured star…
The Wolverines have three NBA first-round picks in the front court, but Lendeborg is the player that makes it all work. A year ago, he was a hybrid center at UAB who played with the ball in his hands all the time. At Michigan, he’s transitioned to a wing who has to play on the perimeter to maximize Michigan’s two other star bigs in the lineup in Mara and Johnson. Lendeborg’s versatility is why the Wolverines don’t just get away with a three big look, they thrive with it.
Michigan is playing UConn in the national championship game on Monday. Lendeborg’s injury status hangs over what should be a coronation for the Wolverines. He suffered an MCL sprain in the Final Four blowout of Arizona. He’s going to play through it despite acknowledging that certain people in his circle wish he didn’t with the NBA waiting.
Lendeborg is the most unique player in college basketball: a hulking 6’9, 235-pound forward blessed with the length of an NBA center with a 7’4 wingspan, but the ability to play all over the floor on both ends. That’s just the start of it. The Michigan star is in his sixth season of college basketball after a wild journey to get here. He’ll turn 24 years old shortly after he’s drafted in June, but his development arc is unlike anything the sport has seen in recent memory.
Lendeborg’s career could have fallen apart so many times before he ever got to Ann Arbor. Somehow, he ended up exactly where he needed to be.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – APRIL 04: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts against the Arizona Wildcats during the second half in the Final Four of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 04, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty Images
Lendeborg always had the genes to be a star athlete. His father and mother both played for the Dominican Republic national basketball team. His mother also played for the country’s volleyball team, and she was playing both sports when she got pregnant with him.
Still, Lendeborg was consistently kept off the court because of his bad grades. He was cut from his middle school team, and didn’t make the freshman team at Pennsauken High School after the family moved to New Jersey because he couldn’t keep up academically. He barely played organized high school basketball at all, and was mostly concerned with playing video games all day, every day.
Lendeborg’s family helped get him a spot at a showcase for Dominican players at the end of high school, and that gave him the lifeline he needed to get back on track. Coaches at Arizona Western Junior College saw a clip of him on social media, and extended their final open scholarship to him just to get another big body on the roster. Lendeborg didn’t want to leave home to go to the desert across the country, but his parents made him do it.
Basketball was finally Lendeborg’s primary focus, and his game exploded. His physical gifts were overwhelming at the junior college level, and his skill set was quickly catching up to his tools. After winning his second ACCAC Player of the Year award, he had offers from the likes of St. John’s and Houston, but he chose to go to UAB after making a strong connection with head coach Andy Kennedy.
In his first year, Lendeborg won AAC Defensive Player of the Year and AAC tournament MVP. The next year, Lendeborg led the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks to establish himself as the best mid-major player in the country. The NBA was interested, but after going through the combine, he decided one more year of college (and a huge NIL paycheck) from Michigan couldn’t hurt.
Lendeborg might have been a first-round pick in the 2025 draft if he turned pro. When did he know he would instead go to Michigan?
“I would say honestly it was like right after the combine,” Lendeborg told SB Nation after the Sweet 16 win. “Because I talked to a lot of the NBA guys and pretty much nobody said anything was going to be wrong with my age.”
Michigan had commitments from Aday Mara and Morez Johnson, making for a crowded front court. Could all three really start together? Lendeborg embraced the three big look, because he thought a move to the wing would only make him more appealing to the NBA even if it meant sacrificing some usage and scoring numbers.
“(The NBA) wanted to see a lot more three-pointers and a lot more versatility in my defense,” Lendeborg told SB Nation. “I tried to be more of three, because in the NBA, I’m not gonna be the superstar. I’m gonna be playing next to somebody like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he doesn’t need me to score for him. He needs me to get stops. I just tried to figure out my role and do whatever I can do to get there.”
Lendeborg probably would have been a high-usage primary scoring option anywhere else in the country. At Michigan, he would be playing more off the ball for the first time in his life. It was a work in progress at some of those late summer practices when the team finally got together.
“At first it was more so like, where do I need to be so the rest of the guys can be successful,” Lendeborg said. “Last year it was just me going low post, catching and making a move. It’s completely different this year. I’m just trying to give space to the ball, move when the ball’s moving away. For me, it’s just working to help my teammates.”
BUFFALO, NEW YORK – MARCH 21: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines talks with teammates Morez Johnson Jr. #21, Aday Mara #15 and Elliot Cadeau #3 against the Saint Louis Billikens during the first half in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at KeyBank Center on March 21, 2026 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) Getty Images
Michigan started the year at No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll. It needed overtime to beat a bad Wake Forest team in the second game of the season. TCU took them down to the wire in their third game. The learning curve with team mostly built through the transfer portal was real.
Things clicked when the Wolverines went to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival starting on Nov. 24. Michigan drilled San Diego St. by 40 in its opener, then beat Auburn by 30, then beat No. 12 Gonzaga by 40. Suddenly, there started to be some hype that this could be all-time great team.
I asked starting point guard Elliot Cadeau when he knew this team would be really good.
“Once I realized that Yax could really play on the perimeter,” Cadeau said ahead of the national championship game. “Yax could play the point guard if he wanted to. That’s when I knew it would all work together.”
Michigan pulverized teams all year with a historically good +39.72 net-rating. Lendeborg’s counting stats took a dip from his time at UAB, but his impact stats went through the roof. He was second in the country in RAPM at +15.2, and the gap between himself and No. 3 (Illinois’ Keaton Wagler) was the same as the gap between Wagler and the No. 23 overall player. He was second behind Boozer again in BPM with a +15.5 rating that tied Zach Edey for the fifth-highest single-season mark ever, and only trailed Zion Williamson, Anthony Davis, and Sindarius Thornwell.
He also made major improvements in the exact areas the NBA was looking for. Lendeborg improved his three-point attempts per 100 possessions from 3.2 in his final season at UAB to 8.4 at Michigan, and his percentage actually went up from 36 to 38 percent. He showed the ability to defend out on the perimeter rather than acting as the big man for the Blazers. He also significantly cut down his turnovers despite more ball handling responsibility.
It was a dream season in every way for both Lendeborg and Michigan. Now they have a chance to end it with a national championship.
Lendeborg is a month older than Josh Giddey, who is in his fifth NBA season. That’s usually the type of thing that should prevent a college player from going in the lottery, but Lendeborg’s path to this point has been so unusual that it should afford him more excuses than the typical super-senior. He’s also so big, so versatile, and so skilled that his game feels like an ideal fit for the modern NBA. He’s projected as a top-10 pick in our latest 2026 NBA mock draft.
Lendeborg’s personality has come under the spotlight during this tournament run, and not always in a good way according to the outside noise. He giggles at press conferences when answering tough questions. He’s a constant goof ball. It’s not often the team’s biggest star is also the class clown, but it feels that way with Lendeborg. His Michigan teammates admitted they didn’t know how it would work when they first met him, but he quickly won them over.
“The first time we played, I’m like, can he lock in?,” Burnett told me. “Then he went out and dropped like 25, and I’m like, all right, I ain’t gonna question it no more.”
Lendeborg’s production wasn’t actually the thing that convinced his teammates that he would be a star at Michigan. It was his lack of ego on the court despite entering the program with so much hype.
“That was the first thing that I noticed when he came in, he was like look, I’m not a get 30, get 40 type of guy,” Burnett said of Lendeborg. “I want to win and I wanna get my teammates involved. I want to pass. He literally said that.
“And so to see it throughout the course of the season that he’s always committed to doing it on both ends of the floor and it’s all about winning, it’s been a beauty to play with.”
Mara again vouched for Lendeborg’s personality as a teammate.
“I think he’s an unbelievable person,” Mara told me. “He’s so unselfish. He’s funny. He’s always trying to help you.
“If he was an asshole, you could see it in his play. He’s not like that. He’s a good guy, and I’m very happy that I’m playing with him.”
Lendeborg’s life was perilously close to unraveling before he ever touched a college basketball court. His rise is proof is that the basketball apparatus will always find talent through any means necessary. It’s also proof that people can change for the better with second and third chances.
Both Lendeborg’s story and game feels more fitted for Hollywood than real life. He’s one win away from the perfect ending.
The Wolverines have three NBA first-round picks in the front court, but Lendeborg is the player that makes it all work. A year ago, he was a hybrid center at UAB who played with the ball in his hands all the time. At Michigan, he’s transitioned to a wing who has to play on the perimeter to maximize Michigan’s two other star bigs in the lineup in Mara and Johnson. Lendeborg’s versatility is why the Wolverines don’t just get away with a three big look, they thrive with it.
Michigan is playing UConn in the national championship game on Monday. Lendeborg’s injury status hangs over what should be a coronation for the Wolverines. He suffered an MCL sprain in the Final Four blowout of Arizona. He’s going to play through it despite acknowledging that certain people in his circle wish he didn’t with the NBA waiting.
Lendeborg is the most unique player in college basketball: a hulking 6’9, 235-pound forward blessed with the length of an NBA center with a 7’4 wingspan, but the ability to play all over the floor on both ends. That’s just the start of it. The Michigan star is in his sixth season of college basketball after a wild journey to get here. He’ll turn 24 years old shortly after he’s drafted in June, but his development arc is unlike anything the sport has seen in recent memory.
Lendeborg’s career could have fallen apart so many times before he ever got to Ann Arbor. Somehow, he ended up exactly where he needed to be.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – APRIL 04: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts against the Arizona Wildcats during the second half in the Final Four of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 04, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty Images
Lendeborg always had the genes to be a star athlete. His father and mother both played for the Dominican Republic national basketball team. His mother also played for the country’s volleyball team, and she was playing both sports when she got pregnant with him.
Still, Lendeborg was consistently kept off the court because of his bad grades. He was cut from his middle school team, and didn’t make the freshman team at Pennsauken High School after the family moved to New Jersey because he couldn’t keep up academically. He barely played organized high school basketball at all, and was mostly concerned with playing video games all day, every day.
Lendeborg’s family helped get him a spot at a showcase for Dominican players at the end of high school, and that gave him the lifeline he needed to get back on track. Coaches at Arizona Western Junior College saw a clip of him on social media, and extended their final open scholarship to him just to get another big body on the roster. Lendeborg didn’t want to leave home to go to the desert across the country, but his parents made him do it.
Basketball was finally Lendeborg’s primary focus, and his game exploded. His physical gifts were overwhelming at the junior college level, and his skill set was quickly catching up to his tools. After winning his second ACCAC Player of the Year award, he had offers from the likes of St. John’s and Houston, but he chose to go to UAB after making a strong connection with head coach Andy Kennedy.
In his first year, Lendeborg won AAC Defensive Player of the Year and AAC tournament MVP. The next year, Lendeborg led the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks to establish himself as the best mid-major player in the country. The NBA was interested, but after going through the combine, he decided one more year of college (and a huge NIL paycheck) from Michigan couldn’t hurt.
Lendeborg might have been a first-round pick in the 2025 draft if he turned pro. When did he know he would instead go to Michigan?
“I would say honestly it was like right after the combine,” Lendeborg told SB Nation after the Sweet 16 win. “Because I talked to a lot of the NBA guys and pretty much nobody said anything was going to be wrong with my age.”
Michigan had commitments from Aday Mara and Morez Johnson, making for a crowded front court. Could all three really start together? Lendeborg embraced the three big look, because he thought a move to the wing would only make him more appealing to the NBA even if it meant sacrificing some usage and scoring numbers.
“(The NBA) wanted to see a lot more three-pointers and a lot more versatility in my defense,” Lendeborg told SB Nation. “I tried to be more of three, because in the NBA, I’m not gonna be the superstar. I’m gonna be playing next to somebody like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he doesn’t need me to score for him. He needs me to get stops. I just tried to figure out my role and do whatever I can do to get there.”
Lendeborg probably would have been a high-usage primary scoring option anywhere else in the country. At Michigan, he would be playing more off the ball for the first time in his life. It was a work in progress at some of those late summer practices when the team finally got together.
“At first it was more so like, where do I need to be so the rest of the guys can be successful,” Lendeborg said. “Last year it was just me going low post, catching and making a move. It’s completely different this year. I’m just trying to give space to the ball, move when the ball’s moving away. For me, it’s just working to help my teammates.”
BUFFALO, NEW YORK – MARCH 21: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines talks with teammates Morez Johnson Jr. #21, Aday Mara #15 and Elliot Cadeau #3 against the Saint Louis Billikens during the first half in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at KeyBank Center on March 21, 2026 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) Getty Images
Michigan started the year at No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll. It needed overtime to beat a bad Wake Forest team in the second game of the season. TCU took them down to the wire in their third game. The learning curve with team mostly built through the transfer portal was real.
Things clicked when the Wolverines went to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival starting on Nov. 24. Michigan drilled San Diego St. by 40 in its opener, then beat Auburn by 30, then beat No. 12 Gonzaga by 40. Suddenly, there started to be some hype that this could be all-time great team.
I asked starting point guard Elliot Cadeau when he knew this team would be really good.
“Once I realized that Yax could really play on the perimeter,” Cadeau said ahead of the national championship game. “Yax could play the point guard if he wanted to. That’s when I knew it would all work together.”
Michigan pulverized teams all year with a historically good +39.72 net-rating. Lendeborg’s counting stats took a dip from his time at UAB, but his impact stats went through the roof. He was second in the country in RAPM at +15.2, and the gap between himself and No. 3 (Illinois’ Keaton Wagler) was the same as the gap between Wagler and the No. 23 overall player. He was second behind Boozer again in BPM with a +15.5 rating that tied Zach Edey for the fifth-highest single-season mark ever, and only trailed Zion Williamson, Anthony Davis, and Sindarius Thornwell.
He also made major improvements in the exact areas the NBA was looking for. Lendeborg improved his three-point attempts per 100 possessions from 3.2 in his final season at UAB to 8.4 at Michigan, and his percentage actually went up from 36 to 38 percent. He showed the ability to defend out on the perimeter rather than acting as the big man for the Blazers. He also significantly cut down his turnovers despite more ball handling responsibility.
It was a dream season in every way for both Lendeborg and Michigan. Now they have a chance to end it with a national championship.
Lendeborg is a month older than Josh Giddey, who is in his fifth NBA season. That’s usually the type of thing that should prevent a college player from going in the lottery, but Lendeborg’s path to this point has been so unusual that it should afford him more excuses than the typical super-senior. He’s also so big, so versatile, and so skilled that his game feels like an ideal fit for the modern NBA. He’s projected as a top-10 pick in our latest 2026 NBA mock draft.
Lendeborg’s personality has come under the spotlight during this tournament run, and not always in a good way according to the outside noise. He giggles at press conferences when answering tough questions. He’s a constant goof ball. It’s not often the team’s biggest star is also the class clown, but it feels that way with Lendeborg. His Michigan teammates admitted they didn’t know how it would work when they first met him, but he quickly won them over.
“The first time we played, I’m like, can he lock in?,” Burnett told me. “Then he went out and dropped like 25, and I’m like, all right, I ain’t gonna question it no more.”
Lendeborg’s production wasn’t actually the thing that convinced his teammates that he would be a star at Michigan. It was his lack of ego on the court despite entering the program with so much hype.
“That was the first thing that I noticed when he came in, he was like look, I’m not a get 30, get 40 type of guy,” Burnett said of Lendeborg. “I want to win and I wanna get my teammates involved. I want to pass. He literally said that.
“And so to see it throughout the course of the season that he’s always committed to doing it on both ends of the floor and it’s all about winning, it’s been a beauty to play with.”
Mara again vouched for Lendeborg’s personality as a teammate.
“I think he’s an unbelievable person,” Mara told me. “He’s so unselfish. He’s funny. He’s always trying to help you.
“If he was an asshole, you could see it in his play. He’s not like that. He’s a good guy, and I’m very happy that I’m playing with him.”
Lendeborg’s life was perilously close to unraveling before he ever touched a college basketball court. His rise is proof is that the basketball apparatus will always find talent through any means necessary. It’s also proof that people can change for the better with second and third chances.
Both Lendeborg’s story and game feels more fitted for Hollywood than real life. He’s one win away from the perfect ending.
#Yaxel #Lendeborg #needed #miracle #Michigan #hes #NBA">Yaxel Lendeborg needed a miracle to end up at Michigan. Now he’s everything the NBA should want
INDIANAPOLIS — Will Tschetter knew exactly what he was doing as No. 1 seed Michigan prepared to play Alabama in the Sweet 16. Star forward Yaxel Lendeborg had mentioned at a press conference that he was offended the Crimson Tide didn’t try to recruit him in the transfer portal after a breakout year at in-state UAB. A minor news cycle broke out over the comment, but most people probably missed that Alabama head coach Nate Oats said he did reach out, he just couldn’t afford him. That update didn’t fit Tschetter’s narrative, and he kept delivering his own message before tip-off.
“They didn’t recruit you,” Tschetter said to Lendeborg repeatedly in the pregame locker room. “That’s so messed up.”
Lendeborg came out like a man possessed. On the Wolverines’ first possession, he initiated the pick-and-roll as a ball handler, turned the corner after a screen from teammate Aday Mara, and drove hard downhill to finish through contact. A few minutes later, he ran off a screen to hit a wing three-pointer set up by point guard Elliot Cadeau. Then he took a pitch from Morez Johnson and hit a three from the top of the key after two dribbles. After consecutive rumbling transition buckets, Lendeborg drove hard again and kicked out to teammate Roddy Gayle for three.
Still, Michigan was having trouble defending Alabama’s pace-and-space attack on the other end, and trailed by two at halftime. Its season hung in the balance.
Lendeborg made sure to set the tone out of the locker room. He dropped Alabama’s Amari Allen to the floor with an ankle-breaking crossover and hit a three. He grabbed a steal and threw a frozen rope outlet pass to Nimari Burnett for the dunk. He got a putback on the offensive glass, threw an assist to a cutting Gayle for a dunk, and hit a step-back three.
Michigan survived, and its dream season was still going. As the Wolverines were making their way through the tunnel at the United Center in Chicago, Mara had some more words of motivation for his teammate.
“Dominican ‘Bron! Dominican ‘Bron,” Mara yelled as he patted Lendeborg on the head and shoulders.
Mara put it even more succinctly when asked about the impact of his star teammate.
“We have an NBA player playing for us in college,” Mara said.
The Wolverines have three NBA first-round picks in the front court, but Lendeborg is the player that makes it all work. A year ago, he was a hybrid center at UAB who played with the ball in his hands all the time. At Michigan, he’s transitioned to a wing who has to play on the perimeter to maximize Michigan’s two other star bigs in the lineup in Mara and Johnson. Lendeborg’s versatility is why the Wolverines don’t just get away with a three big look, they thrive with it.
Michigan is playing UConn in the national championship game on Monday. Lendeborg’s injury status hangs over what should be a coronation for the Wolverines. He suffered an MCL sprain in the Final Four blowout of Arizona. He’s going to play through it despite acknowledging that certain people in his circle wish he didn’t with the NBA waiting.
Lendeborg is the most unique player in college basketball: a hulking 6’9, 235-pound forward blessed with the length of an NBA center with a 7’4 wingspan, but the ability to play all over the floor on both ends. That’s just the start of it. The Michigan star is in his sixth season of college basketball after a wild journey to get here. He’ll turn 24 years old shortly after he’s drafted in June, but his development arc is unlike anything the sport has seen in recent memory.
Lendeborg’s career could have fallen apart so many times before he ever got to Ann Arbor. Somehow, he ended up exactly where he needed to be.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – APRIL 04: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts against the Arizona Wildcats during the second half in the Final Four of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 04, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty Images
Lendeborg always had the genes to be a star athlete. His father and mother both played for the Dominican Republic national basketball team. His mother also played for the country’s volleyball team, and she was playing both sports when she got pregnant with him.
Still, Lendeborg was consistently kept off the court because of his bad grades. He was cut from his middle school team, and didn’t make the freshman team at Pennsauken High School after the family moved to New Jersey because he couldn’t keep up academically. He barely played organized high school basketball at all, and was mostly concerned with playing video games all day, every day.
Lendeborg’s family helped get him a spot at a showcase for Dominican players at the end of high school, and that gave him the lifeline he needed to get back on track. Coaches at Arizona Western Junior College saw a clip of him on social media, and extended their final open scholarship to him just to get another big body on the roster. Lendeborg didn’t want to leave home to go to the desert across the country, but his parents made him do it.
Basketball was finally Lendeborg’s primary focus, and his game exploded. His physical gifts were overwhelming at the junior college level, and his skill set was quickly catching up to his tools. After winning his second ACCAC Player of the Year award, he had offers from the likes of St. John’s and Houston, but he chose to go to UAB after making a strong connection with head coach Andy Kennedy.
In his first year, Lendeborg won AAC Defensive Player of the Year and AAC tournament MVP. The next year, Lendeborg led the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks to establish himself as the best mid-major player in the country. The NBA was interested, but after going through the combine, he decided one more year of college (and a huge NIL paycheck) from Michigan couldn’t hurt.
Lendeborg might have been a first-round pick in the 2025 draft if he turned pro. When did he know he would instead go to Michigan?
“I would say honestly it was like right after the combine,” Lendeborg told SB Nation after the Sweet 16 win. “Because I talked to a lot of the NBA guys and pretty much nobody said anything was going to be wrong with my age.”
Michigan had commitments from Aday Mara and Morez Johnson, making for a crowded front court. Could all three really start together? Lendeborg embraced the three big look, because he thought a move to the wing would only make him more appealing to the NBA even if it meant sacrificing some usage and scoring numbers.
“(The NBA) wanted to see a lot more three-pointers and a lot more versatility in my defense,” Lendeborg told SB Nation. “I tried to be more of three, because in the NBA, I’m not gonna be the superstar. I’m gonna be playing next to somebody like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he doesn’t need me to score for him. He needs me to get stops. I just tried to figure out my role and do whatever I can do to get there.”
Lendeborg probably would have been a high-usage primary scoring option anywhere else in the country. At Michigan, he would be playing more off the ball for the first time in his life. It was a work in progress at some of those late summer practices when the team finally got together.
“At first it was more so like, where do I need to be so the rest of the guys can be successful,” Lendeborg said. “Last year it was just me going low post, catching and making a move. It’s completely different this year. I’m just trying to give space to the ball, move when the ball’s moving away. For me, it’s just working to help my teammates.”
BUFFALO, NEW YORK – MARCH 21: Yaxel Lendeborg #23 of the Michigan Wolverines talks with teammates Morez Johnson Jr. #21, Aday Mara #15 and Elliot Cadeau #3 against the Saint Louis Billikens during the first half in the second round of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at KeyBank Center on March 21, 2026 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) Getty Images
Michigan started the year at No. 7 in the preseason AP Poll. It needed overtime to beat a bad Wake Forest team in the second game of the season. TCU took them down to the wire in their third game. The learning curve with team mostly built through the transfer portal was real.
Things clicked when the Wolverines went to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival starting on Nov. 24. Michigan drilled San Diego St. by 40 in its opener, then beat Auburn by 30, then beat No. 12 Gonzaga by 40. Suddenly, there started to be some hype that this could be all-time great team.
I asked starting point guard Elliot Cadeau when he knew this team would be really good.
“Once I realized that Yax could really play on the perimeter,” Cadeau said ahead of the national championship game. “Yax could play the point guard if he wanted to. That’s when I knew it would all work together.”
Michigan pulverized teams all year with a historically good +39.72 net-rating. Lendeborg’s counting stats took a dip from his time at UAB, but his impact stats went through the roof. He was second in the country in RAPM at +15.2, and the gap between himself and No. 3 (Illinois’ Keaton Wagler) was the same as the gap between Wagler and the No. 23 overall player. He was second behind Boozer again in BPM with a +15.5 rating that tied Zach Edey for the fifth-highest single-season mark ever, and only trailed Zion Williamson, Anthony Davis, and Sindarius Thornwell.
He also made major improvements in the exact areas the NBA was looking for. Lendeborg improved his three-point attempts per 100 possessions from 3.2 in his final season at UAB to 8.4 at Michigan, and his percentage actually went up from 36 to 38 percent. He showed the ability to defend out on the perimeter rather than acting as the big man for the Blazers. He also significantly cut down his turnovers despite more ball handling responsibility.
It was a dream season in every way for both Lendeborg and Michigan. Now they have a chance to end it with a national championship.
Lendeborg is a month older than Josh Giddey, who is in his fifth NBA season. That’s usually the type of thing that should prevent a college player from going in the lottery, but Lendeborg’s path to this point has been so unusual that it should afford him more excuses than the typical super-senior. He’s also so big, so versatile, and so skilled that his game feels like an ideal fit for the modern NBA. He’s projected as a top-10 pick in our latest 2026 NBA mock draft.
Lendeborg’s personality has come under the spotlight during this tournament run, and not always in a good way according to the outside noise. He giggles at press conferences when answering tough questions. He’s a constant goof ball. It’s not often the team’s biggest star is also the class clown, but it feels that way with Lendeborg. His Michigan teammates admitted they didn’t know how it would work when they first met him, but he quickly won them over.
“The first time we played, I’m like, can he lock in?,” Burnett told me. “Then he went out and dropped like 25, and I’m like, all right, I ain’t gonna question it no more.”
Lendeborg’s production wasn’t actually the thing that convinced his teammates that he would be a star at Michigan. It was his lack of ego on the court despite entering the program with so much hype.
“That was the first thing that I noticed when he came in, he was like look, I’m not a get 30, get 40 type of guy,” Burnett said of Lendeborg. “I want to win and I wanna get my teammates involved. I want to pass. He literally said that.
“And so to see it throughout the course of the season that he’s always committed to doing it on both ends of the floor and it’s all about winning, it’s been a beauty to play with.”
Mara again vouched for Lendeborg’s personality as a teammate.
“I think he’s an unbelievable person,” Mara told me. “He’s so unselfish. He’s funny. He’s always trying to help you.
“If he was an asshole, you could see it in his play. He’s not like that. He’s a good guy, and I’m very happy that I’m playing with him.”
Lendeborg’s life was perilously close to unraveling before he ever touched a college basketball court. His rise is proof is that the basketball apparatus will always find talent through any means necessary. It’s also proof that people can change for the better with second and third chances.
Both Lendeborg’s story and game feels more fitted for Hollywood than real life. He’s one win away from the perfect ending.
INDIANAPOLIS — Will Tschetter knew exactly what he was doing as No. 1 seed Michigan…
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – May 22: Michael Malone speaks before the game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on May 22, 2025 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Malone’s key tie to UNC is through his daughter, who is a volleyball player in Chapel Hill, making this a reunion of sorts. However, the hiring has much more to do with adding some gravitas to a men’s basketball program that was limping along under Davis in both recruiting and performance, with UNC boosters and insiders growing increasingly frustrated with the program falling further and further behind Duke.
This move gives the Tar Heels some serious chops at head coach. Malone was unfairly fired by the Sacramento Kings to start his NBA tenure, before the Denver Nuggets saw potential in him as a tactician and team builder. Aided in large part by the emergence of Nikola Jokic, Malone helped lead the Nuggets to an NBA Championship in 2022-23.
The all-time winningest coach in Nuggets history, Malone was fired by the team in April of 2025 along with GM Calvin Booth, under the belief from ownership that a new coach and front office could lead to more playoff success than the feuding Booth and Malone.
A truly fascinating hire, Malone hasn’t had experience coaching college basketball since 2001 as an assistant for Manhattan. The bulk of his time has been spent in the NBA, which will lead to some fascinating recruiting challenges for the Tar Heels moving forward. Tactically and organizationally, this feels like a home run hire in a cycle where many top coaches committed to staying with their programs, even while the pitfall of Malone not having college experience is clear.
This is a new era for Tar Heel basketball, and it’s going to be fascinating to see it unfold.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – May 22: Michael Malone speaks before the game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on May 22, 2025 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Malone’s key tie to UNC is through his daughter, who is a volleyball player in Chapel Hill, making this a reunion of sorts. However, the hiring has much more to do with adding some gravitas to a men’s basketball program that was limping along under Davis in both recruiting and performance, with UNC boosters and insiders growing increasingly frustrated with the program falling further and further behind Duke.
This move gives the Tar Heels some serious chops at head coach. Malone was unfairly fired by the Sacramento Kings to start his NBA tenure, before the Denver Nuggets saw potential in him as a tactician and team builder. Aided in large part by the emergence of Nikola Jokic, Malone helped lead the Nuggets to an NBA Championship in 2022-23.
The all-time winningest coach in Nuggets history, Malone was fired by the team in April of 2025 along with GM Calvin Booth, under the belief from ownership that a new coach and front office could lead to more playoff success than the feuding Booth and Malone.
A truly fascinating hire, Malone hasn’t had experience coaching college basketball since 2001 as an assistant for Manhattan. The bulk of his time has been spent in the NBA, which will lead to some fascinating recruiting challenges for the Tar Heels moving forward. Tactically and organizationally, this feels like a home run hire in a cycle where many top coaches committed to staying with their programs, even while the pitfall of Malone not having college experience is clear.
This is a new era for Tar Heel basketball, and it’s going to be fascinating to see it unfold.
#UNC #basketball #unexpected #splash #hiring #Nuggets #coach">UNC basketball makes unexpected splash by hiring former Nuggets coach
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – May 22: Michael Malone speaks before the game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on May 22, 2025 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Malone’s key tie to UNC is through his daughter, who is a volleyball player in Chapel Hill, making this a reunion of sorts. However, the hiring has much more to do with adding some gravitas to a men’s basketball program that was limping along under Davis in both recruiting and performance, with UNC boosters and insiders growing increasingly frustrated with the program falling further and further behind Duke.
This move gives the Tar Heels some serious chops at head coach. Malone was unfairly fired by the Sacramento Kings to start his NBA tenure, before the Denver Nuggets saw potential in him as a tactician and team builder. Aided in large part by the emergence of Nikola Jokic, Malone helped lead the Nuggets to an NBA Championship in 2022-23.
The all-time winningest coach in Nuggets history, Malone was fired by the team in April of 2025 along with GM Calvin Booth, under the belief from ownership that a new coach and front office could lead to more playoff success than the feuding Booth and Malone.
A truly fascinating hire, Malone hasn’t had experience coaching college basketball since 2001 as an assistant for Manhattan. The bulk of his time has been spent in the NBA, which will lead to some fascinating recruiting challenges for the Tar Heels moving forward. Tactically and organizationally, this feels like a home run hire in a cycle where many top coaches committed to staying with their programs, even while the pitfall of Malone not having college experience is clear.
This is a new era for Tar Heel basketball, and it’s going to be fascinating to see it unfold.
It didn’t always look like this year’s Huskies would be playing on the final day of the season. UConn lost to an under .500 Creighton team at home in the middle of February. A few weeks later, it lost the last game of the regular season to a terrible Marquette team that finished only 12-20 overall. UConn even entered the NCAA tournament on a sour note after it got drilled by 20 points against St. John’s in the Big East tournament championship game, which finalized its destiny as a No. 2 seed.
Hurley once again has his team peaking at the right time, even without the obvious NBA lottery talent he enjoyed two years ago with Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle leading his team. He’s also had to keep his staff focused even after top assistant Luke Murray accepted Boston College’s head coaching job with the transfer portal already unofficially underway.
“The year hasn’t been a joyride,” Hurley said after the win over Illinois. “We haven’t been a machine of destruction. We’ve been a team that’s had to grind out games like this.”
In what ways have Hurley’s previous two national championship runs changed the head coach? Senior forward Alex Karaban, a four-year starter who is also going for his third ring, scoffed at me even asking the question.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” Karaban said. “He’s the same guy. If anything winning has only made him hungrier for more.”
It seems like every UConn player has a story about the fire that still burns inside of Hurley. When asked about the private moments they’ll remember five or 10 years from now, the Huskies couldn’t hide their smiles thinking back on their coach’s antics.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – APRIL 04: Head coach Dan Hurley of the UConn Huskies looks on prior to the Final Four against the Illinois Fighting Illini in the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 04, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty Images
Tarris Reed didn’t dunk the ball during an early season pick-and-roll drill this winter, and Dan Hurley was completely disgusted by it. He decided the punishment would be to make the entire team run the stairs at UConn’s practice facility.
The Huskies got back to business, and Reed again finished the drill with a layup. Hurley made the team run the stairs again, only this time the whole coaching staff had to do it with them. As his players and coaches were huffing and puffing on the steps, Hurley was ranting. He’s yelling at Reed for not dunking. He’s screaming at the rest of his team for not encouraging their star teammate to dunk more often. He’s also ranting at the coaches for having the audacity to bring in players who don’t dunk the ball in practice or hold their teammates accountable to dunking.
Silas Demary was one of UConn’s biggest additions in the portal this season. Last year’s Huskies were faulty in two areas: at point guard and on defense. Demary helped fix both of those problems when he transferred in after two years at Georgia. Demary could barely hold back his laughter thinking about the first time he tasted Hurley’s wrath.
“It was in August at our first real practice,” he said. “It was a rough practice for me.”
A ball got tipped out of bounds and Demary jogged after it. Bad move.
“He was irate,” Demary recalled on Sunday ahead of the national championship game. “He was pissed off about it.”
Hurley threw a ball beyond the reach of teammate Solo Ball and told him to show Demary how UConn goes after loose balls. Ball sprinted hard after it and immediately dove on the floor to recover it. Then he made everyone get in a line as he whipped balls all over the court and made them hit the floor to dive for it.
“That was my ‘welcome to UConn moment,’” Demary said with a smile.
Jaylin Stewart thought back to a moment during his freshman season on the dominant 2024 championship team. There was a turnover in practice, and Hurley lost it. He decided to deal with this crime against basketball by laying down in the middle of the floor while play continued back and forth.
Stewart was a top-100 recruit out of high school, but he hasn’t much played in his first three years at UConn. He’s an opportunity to transfer out and find more playing time at another program every offseason, but he keeps coming back. Why?
“Coach believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.”
Stewart actually found himself on the floor during a crucial stretch in the second half of UConn’s Final Four win against Illinois. The Illini were starting to make a comeback with about 12 minutes left when Stewart checked in for Karaban. Ball found him spotted up behind the arc. Stewart lined up the shot and knocked it down for a big three.
Hurley loves his players even if he also likes to show them up in practice by cursing them out and wearing his emotions on his sleeve. There may be times when Hurley’s antics start to wear thin, but overall message never gets lost.
“We want rings and not watches,” Smith said on Saturday night. (Hurley) has been saying that every day. So that just makes us lock in.”
It didn’t always look like this year’s Huskies would be playing on the final day of the season. UConn lost to an under .500 Creighton team at home in the middle of February. A few weeks later, it lost the last game of the regular season to a terrible Marquette team that finished only 12-20 overall. UConn even entered the NCAA tournament on a sour note after it got drilled by 20 points against St. John’s in the Big East tournament championship game, which finalized its destiny as a No. 2 seed.
Hurley once again has his team peaking at the right time, even without the obvious NBA lottery talent he enjoyed two years ago with Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle leading his team. He’s also had to keep his staff focused even after top assistant Luke Murray accepted Boston College’s head coaching job with the transfer portal already unofficially underway.
“The year hasn’t been a joyride,” Hurley said after the win over Illinois. “We haven’t been a machine of destruction. We’ve been a team that’s had to grind out games like this.”
In what ways have Hurley’s previous two national championship runs changed the head coach? Senior forward Alex Karaban, a four-year starter who is also going for his third ring, scoffed at me even asking the question.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” Karaban said. “He’s the same guy. If anything winning has only made him hungrier for more.”
It seems like every UConn player has a story about the fire that still burns inside of Hurley. When asked about the private moments they’ll remember five or 10 years from now, the Huskies couldn’t hide their smiles thinking back on their coach’s antics.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – APRIL 04: Head coach Dan Hurley of the UConn Huskies looks on prior to the Final Four against the Illinois Fighting Illini in the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 04, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty Images
Tarris Reed didn’t dunk the ball during an early season pick-and-roll drill this winter, and Dan Hurley was completely disgusted by it. He decided the punishment would be to make the entire team run the stairs at UConn’s practice facility.
The Huskies got back to business, and Reed again finished the drill with a layup. Hurley made the team run the stairs again, only this time the whole coaching staff had to do it with them. As his players and coaches were huffing and puffing on the steps, Hurley was ranting. He’s yelling at Reed for not dunking. He’s screaming at the rest of his team for not encouraging their star teammate to dunk more often. He’s also ranting at the coaches for having the audacity to bring in players who don’t dunk the ball in practice or hold their teammates accountable to dunking.
Silas Demary was one of UConn’s biggest additions in the portal this season. Last year’s Huskies were faulty in two areas: at point guard and on defense. Demary helped fix both of those problems when he transferred in after two years at Georgia. Demary could barely hold back his laughter thinking about the first time he tasted Hurley’s wrath.
“It was in August at our first real practice,” he said. “It was a rough practice for me.”
A ball got tipped out of bounds and Demary jogged after it. Bad move.
“He was irate,” Demary recalled on Sunday ahead of the national championship game. “He was pissed off about it.”
Hurley threw a ball beyond the reach of teammate Solo Ball and told him to show Demary how UConn goes after loose balls. Ball sprinted hard after it and immediately dove on the floor to recover it. Then he made everyone get in a line as he whipped balls all over the court and made them hit the floor to dive for it.
“That was my ‘welcome to UConn moment,’” Demary said with a smile.
Jaylin Stewart thought back to a moment during his freshman season on the dominant 2024 championship team. There was a turnover in practice, and Hurley lost it. He decided to deal with this crime against basketball by laying down in the middle of the floor while play continued back and forth.
Stewart was a top-100 recruit out of high school, but he hasn’t much played in his first three years at UConn. He’s an opportunity to transfer out and find more playing time at another program every offseason, but he keeps coming back. Why?
“Coach believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.”
Stewart actually found himself on the floor during a crucial stretch in the second half of UConn’s Final Four win against Illinois. The Illini were starting to make a comeback with about 12 minutes left when Stewart checked in for Karaban. Ball found him spotted up behind the arc. Stewart lined up the shot and knocked it down for a big three.
Hurley loves his players even if he also likes to show them up in practice by cursing them out and wearing his emotions on his sleeve. There may be times when Hurley’s antics start to wear thin, but overall message never gets lost.
“We want rings and not watches,” Smith said on Saturday night. (Hurley) has been saying that every day. So that just makes us lock in.”
#Dan #Hurleys #players #recall #angriest #practice #tirades #UConn #moment">Dan Hurley’s players recall his angriest practice tirades: ‘That was my Welcome to UConn moment’
INDIANAPOLIS — Malachi Smith knew what he was getting into when he committed to UConn in the transfer portal last April. After four seasons at Dayton, Smith craved the intensity and success fostered by Dan Hurley’s Huskies. He had heard of stories of head coach’s legendary practice tirades, and it didn’t take long for him to become the focal point of one.
Hurley was instructing Smith about passing reads during an early season practice when the senior guard gave a nonchalant acknowledgement that he heard the coach’s message.
“I said, ‘OK, bet,’” Smith recalled after UConn’s thrilling 2026 Final Four victory over Illinois on Saturday night. It turned out that was a poor choice of words.
“He told me, say ‘yes, coach,’ and I said, ‘yes coach,’” Smith said. “He said no, say ‘yes fucking coach.’ And I said, ‘yes, fucking coach.’ Ever since I’ve been saying ‘yes coach’ or ‘yes sir.’”
It didn’t always look like this year’s Huskies would be playing on the final day of the season. UConn lost to an under .500 Creighton team at home in the middle of February. A few weeks later, it lost the last game of the regular season to a terrible Marquette team that finished only 12-20 overall. UConn even entered the NCAA tournament on a sour note after it got drilled by 20 points against St. John’s in the Big East tournament championship game, which finalized its destiny as a No. 2 seed.
Hurley once again has his team peaking at the right time, even without the obvious NBA lottery talent he enjoyed two years ago with Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle leading his team. He’s also had to keep his staff focused even after top assistant Luke Murray accepted Boston College’s head coaching job with the transfer portal already unofficially underway.
“The year hasn’t been a joyride,” Hurley said after the win over Illinois. “We haven’t been a machine of destruction. We’ve been a team that’s had to grind out games like this.”
In what ways have Hurley’s previous two national championship runs changed the head coach? Senior forward Alex Karaban, a four-year starter who is also going for his third ring, scoffed at me even asking the question.
“He hasn’t changed at all,” Karaban said. “He’s the same guy. If anything winning has only made him hungrier for more.”
It seems like every UConn player has a story about the fire that still burns inside of Hurley. When asked about the private moments they’ll remember five or 10 years from now, the Huskies couldn’t hide their smiles thinking back on their coach’s antics.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – APRIL 04: Head coach Dan Hurley of the UConn Huskies looks on prior to the Final Four against the Illinois Fighting Illini in the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 04, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty Images
Tarris Reed didn’t dunk the ball during an early season pick-and-roll drill this winter, and Dan Hurley was completely disgusted by it. He decided the punishment would be to make the entire team run the stairs at UConn’s practice facility.
The Huskies got back to business, and Reed again finished the drill with a layup. Hurley made the team run the stairs again, only this time the whole coaching staff had to do it with them. As his players and coaches were huffing and puffing on the steps, Hurley was ranting. He’s yelling at Reed for not dunking. He’s screaming at the rest of his team for not encouraging their star teammate to dunk more often. He’s also ranting at the coaches for having the audacity to bring in players who don’t dunk the ball in practice or hold their teammates accountable to dunking.
Silas Demary was one of UConn’s biggest additions in the portal this season. Last year’s Huskies were faulty in two areas: at point guard and on defense. Demary helped fix both of those problems when he transferred in after two years at Georgia. Demary could barely hold back his laughter thinking about the first time he tasted Hurley’s wrath.
“It was in August at our first real practice,” he said. “It was a rough practice for me.”
A ball got tipped out of bounds and Demary jogged after it. Bad move.
“He was irate,” Demary recalled on Sunday ahead of the national championship game. “He was pissed off about it.”
Hurley threw a ball beyond the reach of teammate Solo Ball and told him to show Demary how UConn goes after loose balls. Ball sprinted hard after it and immediately dove on the floor to recover it. Then he made everyone get in a line as he whipped balls all over the court and made them hit the floor to dive for it.
“That was my ‘welcome to UConn moment,’” Demary said with a smile.
Jaylin Stewart thought back to a moment during his freshman season on the dominant 2024 championship team. There was a turnover in practice, and Hurley lost it. He decided to deal with this crime against basketball by laying down in the middle of the floor while play continued back and forth.
Stewart was a top-100 recruit out of high school, but he hasn’t much played in his first three years at UConn. He’s an opportunity to transfer out and find more playing time at another program every offseason, but he keeps coming back. Why?
“Coach believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.”
Stewart actually found himself on the floor during a crucial stretch in the second half of UConn’s Final Four win against Illinois. The Illini were starting to make a comeback with about 12 minutes left when Stewart checked in for Karaban. Ball found him spotted up behind the arc. Stewart lined up the shot and knocked it down for a big three.
Hurley loves his players even if he also likes to show them up in practice by cursing them out and wearing his emotions on his sleeve. There may be times when Hurley’s antics start to wear thin, but overall message never gets lost.
“We want rings and not watches,” Smith said on Saturday night. (Hurley) has been saying that every day. So that just makes us lock in.”
Edey tipped the jump ball to teammate Braden Smith, and the 2024 men’s national championship game was underway. At the time, it felt like hardly anyone realized it was a matchup that would dictate the future of the sport.
Even NBA scouts were comparing college basketball’s two great centers to a dying breed along the lines of an elite NFL running back. Giants like Edey and Clingan would have been a focal point at the highest levels of the game years ago, but not anymore. Now, the plodding big man was said to be a complementary piece in a small ball world defined by spreading the floor, jacking up three-pointers, and cranking the pace.
NBA teams saw Edey and Clingan dominate college basketball, but they still decided to take a 3-and-D wing with the No. 1 overall pick in that year’s draft instead. Clingan fell to the seventh pick, where skeptics questioned his conditioning and his offensive impact. Edey was a surprise selection at No. 9 overall, and was criticized as “one of the worst picks in history” by respected outlets.
A couple years later, that 3-and-D wouldn’t go in the lottery of a redraft, while Edey and Clingan should both be locks for the top-5, and may even go No. 1 and No. 2. Their most immediate legacy, though, comes in how they’ve shaped college basketball in the short time since they’ve left.
All sports are copycat leagues, and college basketball is no exception. Top programs haven’t hid their desire to get bigger since Clingan and Edey ran roughshod over the sport, and their fingerprints are all over the 2026 Final Four.
The Michigan Wolverines targeted three players who played center for their previous teams, and put them all together in the starting lineup to form college basketball’s best front line. The Arizona Wildcats’ success starts with Lithuanian center Motiejus Krivas, who is listed at 7’2, 260-pounds, with a 7’5 wingspan. The Illinois Fighting Illini have the tallest team in the country according to KenPom with an average height of 80 inches, or 6’6.5. The UConn Huskies needed a miracle to knock out college basketball’s second tallest team, Duke, in the Elite Eight, but they wouldn’t be here without star center Tarris Reed and his reported 7’5 wingspan and 260-pound frame.
Point guard has long been considered the most important position in men’s college basketball. It sure doesn’t feel that way after watching this season.
BOULDER, COLORADO – MARCH 07: Motiejus Krivas #13 of the Arizona Wildcats dunks the ball during the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the CU Events Center on March 07, 2026 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images) Getty Images
How did giants take back college basketball? You first have to start with the idea of scarcity.
The average height in the United States is 5’9. Roughly one percent of the men on Earth are 6’4. At this point in basketball history, a player who is 6’4 is probably a point guard. Breakout freshman sensation Keaton Wagler will run the show for Illinois in the Final Four at 6’6. If the guards are getting bigger, it only makes sense the big men should be, too.
To find more modern centers, college basketball coaches had to start looking in different places. The international basketball boom is a direct result of the Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics, and only recently have foreign-born players started to take over college basketball. Some coaches were on it earlier than others.
“We scoured the earth for size,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said during the 2024 Final Four. “We try to go out there and get it because it’s proven, if you can work with it.”
Painter’s peers have started catching on. Michigan’s starting center Aday Mara was born in Zaragoza, Spain, and he stands 7’3 with a reported 7’7 wingspan. Illinois went to the Balkins to secure commitments from twins Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, who are both listed at 7’2 but shoot three-pointers like wings. Arizona found Krivas in Lithuania, where he had already played Euroleague minutes for his club Zalgiris before coming to campus.
The next step ties into how analytics have changed the way coaches and evaluators view the game, and this time it’s a little more nuanced than three points being worth more than two. For years, NBA coaches bypassed attacking the offensive glass because they believed it hurt their teams’ transition defense. As recently as 2020-21 season, only one team posted an offensive rebound rate above 30 percent. This year, 16 teams are above 30 percent in offensive rebounding rate, with four more on the cusp. The reason is because the numbers showed that the death of transition defense was greatly exaggerated by crashing the glass.
These days, the possession game feels just as vital as three-point volume, if not more so. Want to increase your possessions? Hit the offensive glass. The best way to do it is by having bigs with a length and strength advantage over their opponents. Of course, having players who don’t turn the ball over and routinely get to the free throw line helps, too.
The final piece is the transfer portal. Coaches used to wait for years for big men to develop. Now, they can let or smaller or lesser program handle the growing pains of those early years before college basketball’s top dogs hand-pick the players they want in the transfer portal every offseason.
“We used to recruit guys for three years and spend 200 man hours away from our families begging these 15 to 18 year olds to come play at our university, and then they’d decide to go in another direction,” said May ahead of the Final Four. “Think about all the time and resources you wasted. Recruiting has definitely been streamlined and it is much more efficient than it’s ever been.”
May got Mara from UCLA after he languished on Mick Cronin’s bench for two years. Illinois got ‘Big Z’ Ivisic after stops at Kentucky and Arkansas under John Calipari. Texas made the Sweet 16 this season with breakout 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis as a driving force a year after he started his college career at Florida Atlantic. No. 1 seed Florida’s elite front court was bolstered by bringing in Rueben Chinyelu and his 7’8 wingspan from Washington State.
All these factors and more have led to the big man being back in vogue in college hoops. This may just be the start.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – MARCH 28: Tomislav Ivisic #13 of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on during the Elite Eight round game of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament held at Toyota Center on March 28, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Kentucky coach Mark Pope might have accidentally coined a defining term of college basketball’s big man obsession back in December when asked about what he expected when his team matched up with Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad.
“Smash. Mouth. Basketball,” Pope said. “I think it’s gonna be really fun and ugly and gruesome and brutal and violent. It’s awesome. It’s great. It won’t be (that style) forever; it’s just for now. Just for now.”
The biggest teams in college basketball thrived this year. The teams that weren’t quite big enough enter the offseason doing everything they can to get more size. Look at the Houston Cougars, whose 6’8 big men were overwhelmed by Illinois’ big men in the Sweet 16. Next season, Kelvin Sampson has five-star recruit Arafan Diane — listed at 7’1, 300 pounds, with a 7’4 wingspan — coming in to take over in the middle.
Arizona wouldn’t be in the Final Four without point guard Jaden Bradley, but he’s also only fourth on the team in BPM. If Michigan falls short of a national championship, it will probably be because their guard play can be a little shaky. UConn’s best player has been its center, and Illinois’ raw size feels every bit as important as Wagler’s rise to their success. The best teams in the country not to make the Final Four this season — Florida and Duke — also bludgeoned their opponents with size all season long.
Most of the best players in college basketball history are bigs. Start with George Mikan and Bill Russell, go to Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, stop at Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon, and continue with Patrick Ewing, Tim Duncan, Anthony Davis, and now Edey. Wanting size isn’t exactly a new trend, but it suddenly feels more important than ever as teams have learned about the limits of small ball and the thin margins of volume three-point shooting. Arizona ranks No. 362 out of 265 DI teams in three-point rate this year, but it hasn’t mattered because they run over everything in their path with size, strength, and athleticism.
It’s been said that wins are a point guard stat in college basketball. There’s certainly some truth to it — but after watching the sport this year, would anyone really take a star point guard ahead of a star big man?
Edey tipped the jump ball to teammate Braden Smith, and the 2024 men’s national championship game was underway. At the time, it felt like hardly anyone realized it was a matchup that would dictate the future of the sport.
Even NBA scouts were comparing college basketball’s two great centers to a dying breed along the lines of an elite NFL running back. Giants like Edey and Clingan would have been a focal point at the highest levels of the game years ago, but not anymore. Now, the plodding big man was said to be a complementary piece in a small ball world defined by spreading the floor, jacking up three-pointers, and cranking the pace.
NBA teams saw Edey and Clingan dominate college basketball, but they still decided to take a 3-and-D wing with the No. 1 overall pick in that year’s draft instead. Clingan fell to the seventh pick, where skeptics questioned his conditioning and his offensive impact. Edey was a surprise selection at No. 9 overall, and was criticized as “one of the worst picks in history” by respected outlets.
A couple years later, that 3-and-D wouldn’t go in the lottery of a redraft, while Edey and Clingan should both be locks for the top-5, and may even go No. 1 and No. 2. Their most immediate legacy, though, comes in how they’ve shaped college basketball in the short time since they’ve left.
All sports are copycat leagues, and college basketball is no exception. Top programs haven’t hid their desire to get bigger since Clingan and Edey ran roughshod over the sport, and their fingerprints are all over the 2026 Final Four.
The Michigan Wolverines targeted three players who played center for their previous teams, and put them all together in the starting lineup to form college basketball’s best front line. The Arizona Wildcats’ success starts with Lithuanian center Motiejus Krivas, who is listed at 7’2, 260-pounds, with a 7’5 wingspan. The Illinois Fighting Illini have the tallest team in the country according to KenPom with an average height of 80 inches, or 6’6.5. The UConn Huskies needed a miracle to knock out college basketball’s second tallest team, Duke, in the Elite Eight, but they wouldn’t be here without star center Tarris Reed and his reported 7’5 wingspan and 260-pound frame.
Point guard has long been considered the most important position in men’s college basketball. It sure doesn’t feel that way after watching this season.
BOULDER, COLORADO – MARCH 07: Motiejus Krivas #13 of the Arizona Wildcats dunks the ball during the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the CU Events Center on March 07, 2026 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images) Getty Images
How did giants take back college basketball? You first have to start with the idea of scarcity.
The average height in the United States is 5’9. Roughly one percent of the men on Earth are 6’4. At this point in basketball history, a player who is 6’4 is probably a point guard. Breakout freshman sensation Keaton Wagler will run the show for Illinois in the Final Four at 6’6. If the guards are getting bigger, it only makes sense the big men should be, too.
To find more modern centers, college basketball coaches had to start looking in different places. The international basketball boom is a direct result of the Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics, and only recently have foreign-born players started to take over college basketball. Some coaches were on it earlier than others.
“We scoured the earth for size,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said during the 2024 Final Four. “We try to go out there and get it because it’s proven, if you can work with it.”
Painter’s peers have started catching on. Michigan’s starting center Aday Mara was born in Zaragoza, Spain, and he stands 7’3 with a reported 7’7 wingspan. Illinois went to the Balkins to secure commitments from twins Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, who are both listed at 7’2 but shoot three-pointers like wings. Arizona found Krivas in Lithuania, where he had already played Euroleague minutes for his club Zalgiris before coming to campus.
The next step ties into how analytics have changed the way coaches and evaluators view the game, and this time it’s a little more nuanced than three points being worth more than two. For years, NBA coaches bypassed attacking the offensive glass because they believed it hurt their teams’ transition defense. As recently as 2020-21 season, only one team posted an offensive rebound rate above 30 percent. This year, 16 teams are above 30 percent in offensive rebounding rate, with four more on the cusp. The reason is because the numbers showed that the death of transition defense was greatly exaggerated by crashing the glass.
These days, the possession game feels just as vital as three-point volume, if not more so. Want to increase your possessions? Hit the offensive glass. The best way to do it is by having bigs with a length and strength advantage over their opponents. Of course, having players who don’t turn the ball over and routinely get to the free throw line helps, too.
The final piece is the transfer portal. Coaches used to wait for years for big men to develop. Now, they can let or smaller or lesser program handle the growing pains of those early years before college basketball’s top dogs hand-pick the players they want in the transfer portal every offseason.
“We used to recruit guys for three years and spend 200 man hours away from our families begging these 15 to 18 year olds to come play at our university, and then they’d decide to go in another direction,” said May ahead of the Final Four. “Think about all the time and resources you wasted. Recruiting has definitely been streamlined and it is much more efficient than it’s ever been.”
May got Mara from UCLA after he languished on Mick Cronin’s bench for two years. Illinois got ‘Big Z’ Ivisic after stops at Kentucky and Arkansas under John Calipari. Texas made the Sweet 16 this season with breakout 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis as a driving force a year after he started his college career at Florida Atlantic. No. 1 seed Florida’s elite front court was bolstered by bringing in Rueben Chinyelu and his 7’8 wingspan from Washington State.
All these factors and more have led to the big man being back in vogue in college hoops. This may just be the start.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – MARCH 28: Tomislav Ivisic #13 of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on during the Elite Eight round game of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament held at Toyota Center on March 28, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Kentucky coach Mark Pope might have accidentally coined a defining term of college basketball’s big man obsession back in December when asked about what he expected when his team matched up with Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad.
“Smash. Mouth. Basketball,” Pope said. “I think it’s gonna be really fun and ugly and gruesome and brutal and violent. It’s awesome. It’s great. It won’t be (that style) forever; it’s just for now. Just for now.”
The biggest teams in college basketball thrived this year. The teams that weren’t quite big enough enter the offseason doing everything they can to get more size. Look at the Houston Cougars, whose 6’8 big men were overwhelmed by Illinois’ big men in the Sweet 16. Next season, Kelvin Sampson has five-star recruit Arafan Diane — listed at 7’1, 300 pounds, with a 7’4 wingspan — coming in to take over in the middle.
Arizona wouldn’t be in the Final Four without point guard Jaden Bradley, but he’s also only fourth on the team in BPM. If Michigan falls short of a national championship, it will probably be because their guard play can be a little shaky. UConn’s best player has been its center, and Illinois’ raw size feels every bit as important as Wagler’s rise to their success. The best teams in the country not to make the Final Four this season — Florida and Duke — also bludgeoned their opponents with size all season long.
Most of the best players in college basketball history are bigs. Start with George Mikan and Bill Russell, go to Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, stop at Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon, and continue with Patrick Ewing, Tim Duncan, Anthony Davis, and now Edey. Wanting size isn’t exactly a new trend, but it suddenly feels more important than ever as teams have learned about the limits of small ball and the thin margins of volume three-point shooting. Arizona ranks No. 362 out of 265 DI teams in three-point rate this year, but it hasn’t mattered because they run over everything in their path with size, strength, and athleticism.
It’s been said that wins are a point guard stat in college basketball. There’s certainly some truth to it — but after watching the sport this year, would anyone really take a star point guard ahead of a star big man?
#College #basketball #isnt #point #guards #game #anymore #Size #king #Final">College basketball isn’t a point guard’s game anymore. Size is king at Final Four once again
The most anticipated big man matchup in the recent history of men’s college basketball seemed like a novelty at first. On one side, there was UConn center Donovan Clingan, who measured at 7’1¾ barefoot with a 7’6¾ wingspan, a 9’7 standing reach, and a 282-pound frame. On the other side was Purdue’s Zach Edey, who was somehow even bigger at 7’3¾ barefoot with a 7’10¾ wingspan, a 9’7 standing reach, and a 306-pound frame.
Edey tipped the jump ball to teammate Braden Smith, and the 2024 men’s national championship game was underway. At the time, it felt like hardly anyone realized it was a matchup that would dictate the future of the sport.
Even NBA scouts were comparing college basketball’s two great centers to a dying breed along the lines of an elite NFL running back. Giants like Edey and Clingan would have been a focal point at the highest levels of the game years ago, but not anymore. Now, the plodding big man was said to be a complementary piece in a small ball world defined by spreading the floor, jacking up three-pointers, and cranking the pace.
NBA teams saw Edey and Clingan dominate college basketball, but they still decided to take a 3-and-D wing with the No. 1 overall pick in that year’s draft instead. Clingan fell to the seventh pick, where skeptics questioned his conditioning and his offensive impact. Edey was a surprise selection at No. 9 overall, and was criticized as “one of the worst picks in history” by respected outlets.
A couple years later, that 3-and-D wouldn’t go in the lottery of a redraft, while Edey and Clingan should both be locks for the top-5, and may even go No. 1 and No. 2. Their most immediate legacy, though, comes in how they’ve shaped college basketball in the short time since they’ve left.
All sports are copycat leagues, and college basketball is no exception. Top programs haven’t hid their desire to get bigger since Clingan and Edey ran roughshod over the sport, and their fingerprints are all over the 2026 Final Four.
The Michigan Wolverines targeted three players who played center for their previous teams, and put them all together in the starting lineup to form college basketball’s best front line. The Arizona Wildcats’ success starts with Lithuanian center Motiejus Krivas, who is listed at 7’2, 260-pounds, with a 7’5 wingspan. The Illinois Fighting Illini have the tallest team in the country according to KenPom with an average height of 80 inches, or 6’6.5. The UConn Huskies needed a miracle to knock out college basketball’s second tallest team, Duke, in the Elite Eight, but they wouldn’t be here without star center Tarris Reed and his reported 7’5 wingspan and 260-pound frame.
Point guard has long been considered the most important position in men’s college basketball. It sure doesn’t feel that way after watching this season.
BOULDER, COLORADO – MARCH 07: Motiejus Krivas #13 of the Arizona Wildcats dunks the ball during the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the CU Events Center on March 07, 2026 in Boulder, Colorado. (Photo by Andrew Wevers/Getty Images) Getty Images
How did giants take back college basketball? You first have to start with the idea of scarcity.
The average height in the United States is 5’9. Roughly one percent of the men on Earth are 6’4. At this point in basketball history, a player who is 6’4 is probably a point guard. Breakout freshman sensation Keaton Wagler will run the show for Illinois in the Final Four at 6’6. If the guards are getting bigger, it only makes sense the big men should be, too.
To find more modern centers, college basketball coaches had to start looking in different places. The international basketball boom is a direct result of the Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics, and only recently have foreign-born players started to take over college basketball. Some coaches were on it earlier than others.
“We scoured the earth for size,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said during the 2024 Final Four. “We try to go out there and get it because it’s proven, if you can work with it.”
Painter’s peers have started catching on. Michigan’s starting center Aday Mara was born in Zaragoza, Spain, and he stands 7’3 with a reported 7’7 wingspan. Illinois went to the Balkins to secure commitments from twins Tomislav and Zvonimir Ivisic, who are both listed at 7’2 but shoot three-pointers like wings. Arizona found Krivas in Lithuania, where he had already played Euroleague minutes for his club Zalgiris before coming to campus.
The next step ties into how analytics have changed the way coaches and evaluators view the game, and this time it’s a little more nuanced than three points being worth more than two. For years, NBA coaches bypassed attacking the offensive glass because they believed it hurt their teams’ transition defense. As recently as 2020-21 season, only one team posted an offensive rebound rate above 30 percent. This year, 16 teams are above 30 percent in offensive rebounding rate, with four more on the cusp. The reason is because the numbers showed that the death of transition defense was greatly exaggerated by crashing the glass.
These days, the possession game feels just as vital as three-point volume, if not more so. Want to increase your possessions? Hit the offensive glass. The best way to do it is by having bigs with a length and strength advantage over their opponents. Of course, having players who don’t turn the ball over and routinely get to the free throw line helps, too.
The final piece is the transfer portal. Coaches used to wait for years for big men to develop. Now, they can let or smaller or lesser program handle the growing pains of those early years before college basketball’s top dogs hand-pick the players they want in the transfer portal every offseason.
“We used to recruit guys for three years and spend 200 man hours away from our families begging these 15 to 18 year olds to come play at our university, and then they’d decide to go in another direction,” said May ahead of the Final Four. “Think about all the time and resources you wasted. Recruiting has definitely been streamlined and it is much more efficient than it’s ever been.”
May got Mara from UCLA after he languished on Mick Cronin’s bench for two years. Illinois got ‘Big Z’ Ivisic after stops at Kentucky and Arkansas under John Calipari. Texas made the Sweet 16 this season with breakout 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis as a driving force a year after he started his college career at Florida Atlantic. No. 1 seed Florida’s elite front court was bolstered by bringing in Rueben Chinyelu and his 7’8 wingspan from Washington State.
All these factors and more have led to the big man being back in vogue in college hoops. This may just be the start.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – MARCH 28: Tomislav Ivisic #13 of the Illinois Fighting Illini looks on during the Elite Eight round game of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament held at Toyota Center on March 28, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Logan Riely/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Kentucky coach Mark Pope might have accidentally coined a defining term of college basketball’s big man obsession back in December when asked about what he expected when his team matched up with Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad.
“Smash. Mouth. Basketball,” Pope said. “I think it’s gonna be really fun and ugly and gruesome and brutal and violent. It’s awesome. It’s great. It won’t be (that style) forever; it’s just for now. Just for now.”
The biggest teams in college basketball thrived this year. The teams that weren’t quite big enough enter the offseason doing everything they can to get more size. Look at the Houston Cougars, whose 6’8 big men were overwhelmed by Illinois’ big men in the Sweet 16. Next season, Kelvin Sampson has five-star recruit Arafan Diane — listed at 7’1, 300 pounds, with a 7’4 wingspan — coming in to take over in the middle.
Arizona wouldn’t be in the Final Four without point guard Jaden Bradley, but he’s also only fourth on the team in BPM. If Michigan falls short of a national championship, it will probably be because their guard play can be a little shaky. UConn’s best player has been its center, and Illinois’ raw size feels every bit as important as Wagler’s rise to their success. The best teams in the country not to make the Final Four this season — Florida and Duke — also bludgeoned their opponents with size all season long.
Most of the best players in college basketball history are bigs. Start with George Mikan and Bill Russell, go to Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton, stop at Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon, and continue with Patrick Ewing, Tim Duncan, Anthony Davis, and now Edey. Wanting size isn’t exactly a new trend, but it suddenly feels more important than ever as teams have learned about the limits of small ball and the thin margins of volume three-point shooting. Arizona ranks No. 362 out of 265 DI teams in three-point rate this year, but it hasn’t mattered because they run over everything in their path with size, strength, and athleticism.
It’s been said that wins are a point guard stat in college basketball. There’s certainly some truth to it — but after watching the sport this year, would anyone really take a star point guard ahead of a star big man?
