Ann Arbor — In order for the Wolverines to reach their ceiling, they need the best version of forward Yaxel Lendeborg.
By the sounds of it, Lendeborg is inching closer to returning to form after suffering a bruised left calf earlier this month.
“The majority of the swelling in my leg went down,” Lendeborg said after Tuesday’s 86-72 win over Indiana, which was arguably his best outing since the injury.
“I’ve been feeling a lot better. I would just say I can’t make any shots right now. That’s pretty much all. I don’t think that the leg is bothering me as much.”
Lendeborg estimated he’s at “like 90-95%” and noted the only movement that still bothers him a little bit is when he turns a corner and pushes off his left leg.
Aside from that, he feels he’s able to move the way he was before he was hurt in the first half of the Jan. 2 win against USC, when a player’s knee went into the back of his lower leg as he landed from grabbing an offensive rebound.
“It was bruised pretty badly. And then once the bruising started going away, then the swelling started coming in. I think it grew to like 2½ inches of swelling on my leg,” said Lendeborg, who noted there’s still one-half inch of swelling left.
“We worked a lot putting compression on there, ice all the time, just trying our best to lower the swelling.”
Despite that, Lendeborg said he never considered sitting out a game or missing time, just like earlier this season when he hurt his right shooting hand and played with it heavily wrapped.
He was deemed a game-time decision for the Jan. 6 game at Penn State and was also listed as questionable on the Big Ten availability report for the Jan. 10 matchup against Wisconsin. He shed that designation starting with last week’s game at Washington.
“I’ve never been a guy to sit out, regardless of how much pain is bringing me,” Lendeborg said. “(Coach) Dusty (May) had called me into his office and said that he was planning on benching me or sitting me out for a little while in the (Penn State) game. I said no, I want to go out there and help my teammates.”
After the Penn State game, May told reporters that Lendeborg had been medically cleared and the medical staff stated there was no further risk of injury. The decision was left with Lendeborg, who opted to tough it out and battle through the ailment.
“Penn State, I’ll probably say I was like 60-70%,” Lendeborg said. “It was brutal. I got hit in (calf) that game again, so it kind of messed up my progress.”
Lendeborg clearly wasn’t the same after the injury. In the first 12 games of the season, he averaged 17.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists while shooting 77.8% on 2-pointers and 40.4% on 3-pointers. In the five games since he was hurt, including the USC contest, he averaged 10.4 points, seven rebounds and two assists while shooting 46.4% on 2-pointers and 19% on 3-pointers.
While there have been some encouraging signs that he’s getting back to being himself — like the two chase-down blocks in transition against Oregon — Tuesday’s performance looked more like the player Lendeborg was before the injury.
During Michigan’s stifling defensive start against Indiana, Lendeborg was active and all over the place on switches and rotations. He hounded Lamar Wilkerson, Indiana’s leading scorer, and never let him get into a rhythm. He had three steals and blocked two shots.
Then after a quiet first half offensively, Lendeborg got going after halftime. He had a hand in Michigan’s first three baskets, with two assists and a 3-pointer. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half, with nine coming in the first 7:36 as Michigan stretched its 11-point halftime lead to 23 points.
Perhaps Lendeborg’s most notable bucket came late in the game, when he launched off his left leg and took flight for a one-handed, alley-oop dunk in transition.
“I feel like I draw a good amount of attention, especially when I’m actually being active and moving around trying to help my teammates out,” said Lendeborg, who finished 5-for-11 from the floor and led the team with four assists.
“When I’m sitting there acting like I don’t know what’s going on, it really hurts our offense, especially me not moving the defense.”
Still, the way Lendeborg moved throughout the Indiana contest was a welcome sight.
“I think he’s improving. He looked like he had some pop around the rim coming off of his calf injury,” May said. “I thought the second half he played really well offensively. The first half, those were his best minutes defensively. In the first half, I thought he was flying around, blocking 3s, deflecting passes. We’re going to need more of that.”
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