Pennsauken, New Jersey rallies around native son Yaxel Lendeborg, as he leads Michigan to NCAA Final Four
Years after starring in Pennsauken, New Jersey, Yaxel Lendeborg has led the Michigan Wolverines to the NCAA men's basketball March Madness Final Four.
The 6-foot-9, 23-year-old forward dominated in the Elite Eight games this past weekend, leading all players with 27 points in a win over Tennessee.
Lendeborg was born to ball: his parents both played for the Dominican Republic's national basketball team.
"I played with Yaxel in my belly for two months and no one knew," Yaxel's mother, Yissel Raposo, told CBS News Philadelphia. "After the season, I told everyone, and they were so happy."
He has only played organized basketball for six full seasons, after getting cut his freshman year of high school due to poor grades.
"It was frustrating to us because he's such a great person and he's so intelligent," said Harrison Carsillo, Pennsauken's varsity basketball head coach.
Lendeborg missed his sophomore and junior seasons but became eligible to join the varsity team for the last 11 games of his senior year. They won 10 of them.
"It was amazing to see a 6-foot-5 'point guard' be able to create and finish for himself," Carsillo said.
The Lendeborg legacy is continuing in Pennsauken. Yaxel's sister, Yisendy, is a sophomore hooper, and she says the entire school has rallied behind her brother.
"I'm so happy that people have someone to look up to, the basketball players too, that someone made it where you're from," Yisendy Lendeborg said.
Yaxel Lendeborg transferred to Michigan this season after stints at junior college and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This season, he won Big Ten Player of the Year, but his 2025-26 story is not over just yet.
Michigan will face Arizona on Saturday, April 4, in Indianapolis, with the winner heading to the NCAA National Championship, taking on the winner of the UConn-Illinois game.
CBS Sports' Evan Washburn asked Yaxel how he would have felt about this six years ago. Would he have believed it?
"I would say, you're crazy man!" Lendeborg said.