With a New Jersey Presence, a Championship All The Same
Michigan indeed may have had some injuries going into Monday night’s NCAA Basketball National Championship Game.
It ended up not mattering, as the Wolverines won the National Championship against UConn, 69–63, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Two stars from New Jersey provided only a portion of Michigan’s onslaught on Saturday night against the #1-ranked Arizona.
At the end of the 91–73 contest , it didn’t end up mattering, either.
As reported by ESPN, Michigan’s 18-point margin of victory is tied for the largest in an NCAA tournament game between top-seeded teams, dating back to the beginning of NCAA seeding in 1979. Michigan is also the first in all of NCAA tournament history to put up ninety–plus points in five consecutive games in a single tournament. Michigan led by sixteen at halftime and was also up by sixteen in the first half , and stretched that lead to thirty in the second half.
Yaxel Lendeborg and Elliot Cadeau
The monumental win was overshadowed by an ACL-MCL Strain to star Yaxel Lendeborg , who did return in the second half. But when he went down, there was yet another star from New Jersey on the floor for Michigan.
Elliot Cadeau attended The Patrick School in New Jersey for two years. He and his team also won the 2019 Under Armor Nationals. Originally starting his high school career at Bergen Catholic High School , he transferred to Link Academy in Missouri before his junior season. In thirty-three minutes , he had thirteen points, including three of seven from downtown.
Cadeau also played AAU basketball in the EYBL circuit. After attending North Carolina from 2023–2025 including winning Pre-Season Rookie of the Year ACC honors — he transferred to Michigan for the 2025-2026 season.
The other example making national headlines is also from across the river in New Jersey.
Yaxel Lendeborg would arrive from the Dominican Republic in Pennsauken, New Jersey, at age 8. When basketball came calling for the 6-foot-9 Lendeborg, he would actually play only one season for Pennsauken High School due to academic ineligibility. In college, his basketball skills went from great to dominant. He played for Pennsauken, and now he’s positioning himself for a National Championship.
Lendeborg would first join Arizona-Western, then UAB, and finally Michigan, where the Wolverines have a 33–3 record and are three wins away from the program‘s last National Championship since 1989.
In the opening round against Howard , Lendeborg dropped 27 points as Michigan eclipsed 100 total. Against St. Louis in the Round of 32 — he scored 25 points.
During a comeback on Friday night against Alabama, he scored 23 points, including 4-for-5 from beyond the arc.
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