Michigan Star Yaxel Lendeborg Thanks ‘Superwoman’ Mom in Championship Celebration

The 2026 Big Ten Player of the Year played 36 minutes in the championship game. Despite spraining his left MCL and re-injuring his left ankle during the Final Four win over the Arizona Wildcats two days earlier, he started the final and finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting and went a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line, adding two rebounds and one block. 

During the trophy presentation, Lendeborg was asked about how his mother, Yissel Raposo, sparked his career. The 23-year-old paused and let it all out on the championship stage.

"Man, I owe you everything," he said. "You mean the world to me. You're a superhuman, you're a superwoman. I won't be here without you and I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure you're okay forever."

Lendeborg’s championship tribute to his mother followed a difficult season. In a February essay, he shared that she was fighting Stage 4 appendix cancer but had kept it secret so he could focus on basketball. 

She also pushed him through academic failures in New Jersey and sent him to a junior college in Arizona to get his life on track. This path eventually led him to Michigan, where he chose the program’s coaching approach after turning down a much larger $7-9 million offer from the Kentucky Wildcats.

And when asked whether playing through the injury was ever really in doubt, Lendeborg replied, "These guys poured so much into us this whole season. I'm a new guy here; they welcomed me in with open arms. So this is the least I could do; no matter how bad or how good I was playing, I was going to be on that floor no matter what.

Lendeborg played his best basketball during the tournament, averaging 21.5 points leading up to the final. His mother was in the stands for every game. TV cameras often caught her celebrating or wiping away tears, including at Lucas Oil Stadium when Michigan finally secured the championship.