Dusty May on Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg: 'We didn't feel like he played very well, and he had 31 and 12'

Michigan Wolverines basketball head coach Dusty May has high standards for his players. He sees the best in them and expects them to reach their potential in a given moment. If they don’t, they’ll hear about it, even when they score 31 points and grab 12 rebounds against a team that’s expected to be top-five in adjusted defensive efficiency this season.

Graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg — a UAB transfer who was a projected first-round NBA Draft pick before deciding to return to college basketball — is the guilty party. Guilty of posting 31 and 12 in Friday’s exhibition against Cincinnati, and guilty of being capable of giving more. If that doesn’t speak to how good he can be, not much does.

“He competed at a high level,” May said Monday morning. “That’s the crazy thing about Yax is cumulatively as a staff, we didn’t feel like he played very well, and he had 31 and 12.

“That shows his ability and how capable he is. But, man, he’s a unique talent.”

The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Lendeborg is considered a “guard” as much as anyone on Michigan’s roster, but he can also score down low, is one of the best rebounders in the country and possesses all sorts of defensive versatility. He is, as May put it over the summer, Michigan’s “queen on the chessboard.”

Lendeborg is getting used to his surroundings, including Michigan’s style of play. He admitted as much after the game, noting that he wasn’t pleased with his first half performance. Then he came out in the second against Cincinnati and had 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field and 9-of-9 from the charity stripe with 7 rebounds.

When Lendeborg joined the Michigan team this summer, his practice habits were still a work in progress, but he’s improved as the season approaches. May said this preseason that he’s even better when the “lights are on.”

“They were not anywhere near where they needed to be for him and for us,” May said of those habits. “He’s gradually improved, and as we told him yesterday, over mountains are more mountains. Over that mountain’s another mountain. What’s the winner of a pie eating contest typically get? More pie.

“So, it’s going to be the same. If he gets 40 and 20 the next game, we’re going to be on him about what he needs to work on and improve on, and continuing to strive to get better.

“He had 31 and 12, and me personally, I was disappointed. He can play better than that. He can impact winning more than he did. That just shows how high of a ceiling he has.”

Elliot Cadeau is the difference-maker for Michigan

The Wolverines have all sorts of frontcourt talent that could lift the team to great heights. But the straw that stirs the drink is junior point guard Elliot Cadeau, a North Carolina transfer considered one of the best passers in the nation. May has called him a “wizard” who can create great looks for others.

“If we’re going to have to rely on making hard shots, then we’re going to have to be a really good offensive rebounding team and there are going to have to be some layers to it,” May said. “Elliot, on the other hand, can break down the defense, can create advantages and knows what he’s doing and where he’s going from it.

“Hopefully, with his ability to break down the defense, the offensive rebounding becomes easier, the shots come less contested and higher quality.

“We’ve gotten more easy baskets in the summer this year than we did all of last year in practice. That’s not a shot at anyone, that’s just Elliot’s natural ability and the ability that he’s developed to being that point guard.”

That was all on display in Michigan’s exhibition loss to Cincinnati. The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder played the role of facilitator, dishing 7 assists in 31 minutes, and that number would’ve been higher had some teammates knocked down wide-open looks, particularly early in the game. He added 14 points, with 12 of those coming at the free throw line. He shot only 1 field goal, making the two-pointer.

“I thought he gave what the game gave him,” May said. “When he drives, if they fan out and stay at home on our shooters, I think he’s going to find different ways to score. If they collapse on penetration, he’s going to make the right decision and kick it out. I thought he did a good job.

“He’s still developing chemistry with each one of our guys. I thought he and Yax, he and [graduate forward] Will [Tschetter] both figured out some nice solutions for the coverages in real time.

“There are definitely going to be games when we need him to score. He’s going to have some big scoring games. But he’s a consummate point guard, and he’s going to take what the defense gives and the game presents.”

Cadeau gets where he wants to go on the floor, and a lot of the time that’s in the paint. He’ll create the ability to break down defenses and open up opportunities for Michigan in a multitude of ways offensively.

“We want to create advantages, and obviously if you can get paint touches, you got past your defender, you created an advantageous situation,” May noted.

“Literally every time we hit the paint — and that’s what we did late in the second half — we were able to get stops, rebounds and push, and just started driving and kicking. We were able to figure out some different solutions for ball-screen coverage. Hopefully going into the year, through scouting and whatnot, we’ll have a better idea of how we’ll be defended.

“But also, I was just watching film with Elliot a minute ago and trying to figure out where he’s most comfortable in this coverage and that coverage. That was the unique thing about Cincinnati, as well. They played four bigs, and each big played him in a different coverage. They played him in a different coverage based on who our center was. So, they’re a very defensive oriented program, and for him to see those looks and us to be processing, OK, next game, Elliot may see this read, this read, this read, this read, it’s all positive going forward.”