March Madness Elite Eight All-Tournament team: Yaxel Lendeborg grabs the throne

March Madness just always delivers. Cinderella or no Cinderella, chalk or no chalk, the tournament just finds a way to create indelible moments. That’s exactly what Braylon Mullins’ 35-foot game-winner to cap off a 19-point second half comebacker was: indelible. 

No matter who wins the national title in Indianpolis next week, that shot will enter the roladex of incredible moments that March delivers year after year. Alongside Christian Laettner’s Elite Eight game-winner against UConn 36 years ago. 

Moments aren’t the only thing the NCAA Tournament traffics in. It’s at once a great incubator for and a pressure test of the next generation of basketball stars. So while Mullins has the biggest moment, he hasn’t been the tournament’s biggest star. 

For UConn, that’s Tarris Reed Jr. whose met the challenge for Dan Hurley like Donovan Clingan and Adama Sanogo before him. For Illinois, Keaton Wagler, the most unlikely star who went from unknown and underrated recruit to lethal scorer. For Arizona, it’s the hometown kid. For Michigan, the big mouth transfer whose game is even bigger. 

They’ll be in Indy with a chance to make another moment. For Duke, it was the latest freshman sensation whose season ended a few games too soon. He’ll be at home, but they’ll all be immortalized in that special part of our memories dedicated to the greatest month of the year. 

Keaton Wagler, Illinois

Wagler’s ascension has come on the back of his ridiculous shot-making ability. He’s an elite off-the-dribble shooter, and that gravity is critical for an Illinois team that attempts over half its shots from beyond the arc. On Saturday night, Ben McCollum and Iowa were determined to take that away. 

Iowa stayed glued to shooters and refused to get forced into rotation for Illinois to spring open catch-and-shoot threes. Illinois went just 3-17 from three, and of course, two of those three were courtesy of Wagler. Both created off the dribble. None of his eight field goals came off an assist, and though his finishing ability has been maligned this year, his other six buckets all came inside the paint. 

Wagler controls the pace of a game incredibly well for a freshman, but he often does it from the perimeter. Iowa dared him to play downhill, and once again, he was up to the challenge. Wagler's freshman season is one of the most unlikely, but it’s also becoming unforgettable. 

Koa Peat, Arizona

Koa Peat was Mr. Basketball in Arizona, and that couldn’t be a more perfect description of the 6-foot-8, 235-pound wrecking ball who epitomizes the philosophy of Tommy Lloyd’s program better than any player he’s had in five years. Peat attacks relentlessly. He seeks out contact on the way to his rim and punishes defenders who dare to get in his path. 

When Lloyd left Gonzaga to take over his own program in Tucson, he bucked the trend of five-out basketball and the variance that high-volume three-point shooting welcomes. The Wildcats are 363rd among 365 Division I teams in three-point attempt rate, yet ninth in offensive rating. You need players like Peat to make that possible, and the freshman was a force against Purdue’s veteran-laden front court. 

Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan

Yaxel Lendeborg was a first-team All-American after averaging fewer than 15 points a game. That helps to encapsulate all the different ways he impacts the game from enabling Michigan’s supersized three-big lineup to function with his playmaking, floor-spacing, and remarkable perimeter defense, to his rim protection and rebounding, and everything else. That’s all been on display in the tournament, but the Big Ten Player of the Year has taken things to another level as a scorer. 

After scoring nine points against Howard, he’s submitted a 25-point outing on 9-13 shooting against Saint Louis, an 8-12, 23-point night against Alabama, and now 27 in a blowout Elite Eight win over Tennessee on 19 shots. In the last three games, he’s averaging 25 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists while shooting 61 percent from the field and 53 percent from the field. 

Cameron Boozer deserved to be the National Player of the Year. But Yaxel Lendeborg is the best player in college basketball. He’s simply on another plane athletically as a 23-year-old, and he’s completely unflappable. 

Tarris Reed Jr., UConn

Jon Scheyer threw a wrench in UConn’s offensive game plan in the first half by putting Cameron Boozer on the Huskies’ point guard to keep him out of Dan Hurley’s complex off-ball actions. That allowed Duke’s lengthy wings to chase Solo Ball, Alex Karaban, and Braylon Mullins off threes and disrupt shots. While that happened, Tarris Reed Jr. was an offensive life raft, keeping the offense afloat through choppy waters with 12 first-half points. 

In the second half, Hurley and his staff found answers, and that freed Reed to have an even bigger impact on the interior. In an era of college basketball when most dominant teams have at least two bigs, if not three, UConn has Reed, and that’s about it. Yet, in the tournament, he’s lived up to that immense responsibility, becoming the next in a line of Hurley’s Husky centers with Adama Sanogo and Donovan Clingan. 

Cameron Boozer, Duke

Cameron Boozer’s physical below-the-rim offensive style is not the most aesthetically pleasing, but it’s effective. Even as everything was going wrong for Duke, he was hitting tough shots in the paint, getting to the line, and trying desperately to drag the MASH-unit Blue Devils into the Final Four. He came his twin brother’s brutal turnover away from doing it. 

Boozer wasn’t the all-powerful decision-making force Scheyer needed him to be in the Sweet 16, but as always, he found a way to make positive plays on the offensive end of the floor, most of them on the interior. He finished the game with a nice shiner on his right eye to show for his efforts.

Busting Brackets March Madness All-Tournament Team

• Round of 64
• Round of 32
• Sweet 16
• Elite Eight
• Final Four