Welcome to Final Four week!
To preview the Arizona Wildcats’ return to the championship weekend for the first time in 25 years, we’ll be going through three parts of the matchup against the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, a national semifinal matchup many experts feel might as well be the title game.
Before diving into some critical swing players in the backcourt and key areas of the floor to watch, we have to start with the frontcourts, a dream duel.
The only way it would be better is if it was for the national championship.
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Arizona-Michigan Final Four matchup set for Saturday in Indianapolis
Arizona-Michigan Final Four matchup set for Saturday in Indianapolis
Top-seeded Arizona and top-seeded Michigan meeting in the Final Four feels right. The two teams stood above the rest of college basketball since the first month of the season. The Wildcats put the sport on notice by taking down the defending champions Florida in their very first contest, and just three weeks later, Michigan obliterated Auburn by 40 and Gonzaga by 30 in a statement of its own.
And the two teams win the same way. This is not going to be chess or even checkers. This will be trial by combat.
The only reason you had to put “arguably” in front of the claim that either frontcourt was college basketball’s best is because the other existed. The two facing off could feature five first-round picks, not including Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year Tobe Awaka, considered the best reserve in the country.
Both groups have annihilated on the interior to get to Indianapolis.
In four wins, Arizona went a combined +72 in free-throw attempts and +44 in points in the paint. In four wins, Michigan went a combined +37 in free-throw attempts and +58 in points in the paint.
The decisive nature in which both frontcourts dictate games will be halted in some form or fashion. Neither has faced one as good as the other, but Michigan designed its team last summer specifically with this type of matchup in mind.
How Michigan built the country’s best frontcourt
The Wolverines were built to win this way. They were the clear winners of last year’s transfer portal and proved you can build out the top of your roster through it, to the heights of a Final Four squad.
But in April of last year, it seemed as if the Wolverines had fallen into the ol’ trap of going grocery shopping while they were hungry.
After securing the services of No. 1 transfer Yaxel Lendeborg out of UAB, a hyper-versatile 23-year-old big man, they landed Illinois transfer Morez Johnson Jr., a switchable sophomore big that also plays with power by munching on the glass.
This already formed a dynamic and unique frontcourt as it was. But head coach Dusty May wasn’t done. A week later, he then snagged UCLA junior transfer Aday Mara, a nearly invisible Bruin for two years that surely (like Johnson) was looking for starting minutes to relocate the potential of his 7-foot-3 frame with massive arms.
The summer produced conversations on who should start and who should come off the bench. But little did everyone know, there was no discussion for May. He was going to start all three.
Through the eyes of maximizing Lendeborg’s talents, a potential lottery pick, the jumbo starting lineup felt like too much. When watching the Wolverines early in the year, it looked like too much. Johnson and Mara rarely shot 3s, so this would largely relegate Lendeborg to a floor-spacing and secondary off-ball role. He wouldn’t have room to use his playmaking as a ball-handler, nor feature consistently as a screen-setter.
But May knew what he was doing, and instead, he formed a menacing three-man starting frontcourt that no one has had an answer for on both ends all year. It’s clear that he believed the defense would be worth the aforementioned trade-off and he’s been right. The defense has been just as elite as he had hoped, while the offense still functions relatively well to get something out of each guy.
Because Mara (23.2 MPG) and Johnson (25.1 MPG) aren’t out there for long stretches, May can mix the trio up, too. That allows him to utilize everyone properly, and Michigan’s got decent enough shooters and ball-movers on the perimeter so the balance stays in a good place.
All three frontcourt players could have been All-Americans.
Aday Mara’s mirroring matchup with Motiejus Krivas
Michigan couldn’t have thought Mara would be this good after how out of the picture he was at UCLA. Perhaps May had to adapt on the fly in the summer after seeing how improved Mara was, and he made the right call in immediately starting him as a focal point of both the offense and defense. As the anchor defensively and a hub offensively, Mara has perhaps been the best two-way center in all the land.
Mara is second only to Arizona junior center Motiejus Krivas as a pure rim protector, and the only reason Krivas gets an edge is because of his fundamentals in ball screen coverage as a mistake-free presence from 15 feet in. Krivas’ positioning and verticality are nearly perfect each rep, while Mara can make up for some slight missteps because of his additional agility and length. Which one is able to impact the game more defensively will be a deciding factor.
Mara is enormous and the superior shot-blocker. Turn down the sliders on Victor Wembanyama by a few notches and you get that blend of pure space coverage unlike anyone else.
Mara is nimble enough to move his feet and has great instincts swatting for the ball, a package that made him Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.
In terms of shot influence + rim deterrence at the collegiate level, there’s not many better all-time than Michigan’s Aday Mara.
Mara’s 7.7 D-BPM ranks 5th all-time (!) in single-season D-BPM, tied with Anthony Davis back in 2012. pic.twitter.com/7jyR7ENmDo
— Mohamed (@mcfNBA) March 14, 2026
Like Krivas, however, he’s mainly stuck in drop coverage, something Arizona’s guards could look to exploit. And Mara can get picked on in space a bit, too.
Offensively, Mara’s passing was what really flashed at UCLA over anything else and it has continued at a lightning pace. We’ll cover Michigan’s offense more when going over the backcourt, where a reliance on Mara’s playmaking has been a crutch of sorts, but it’s with good reason. He can move it and has some advanced footwork in the post, too. Like Wemby, he is a blink of a step away from simply reaching for the rim in a nerf-hoop style.
Since 2008, no player 7’2 or taller has recorded a higher AST% than Michigan’s Aday Mara this season (18.1% AST).
Mara’s blend of passing touch, playmaking instinct and turnoved aversion make him one of the best long-term bets of the 2026 NBA Draft. t.co/YkcJBeD4ab pic.twitter.com/3S7MxFejtS
— Mohamed (@mcfNBA) February 12, 2026
Mara’s playmaking and individual defense will be two huge tests for Krivas.
Arizona likes to cram the paint defensively, and rotating to shooters is often an extra step away, setting up kick-out passes Mara makes in his sleep. On the other end, the Wildcats use Krivas 1-on-1 in the post more than any other big in their system, and that’s where Krivas relying on his hook shots might be an issue shooting over Mara.
How Arizona chooses to use its signature combination of high-low passes and the duo of duck-in post-ups and seals to clear out a certain side of the paint will be fascinating counters to Mara’s presence.
Morez Johnson Jr. switches things up in dynamic ways
In a situation that worked out really well for all three of these Michigan kids, it couldn’t have gone any better than for a player like Johnson.
Because of Mara’s low playing time, Johnson gets plenty of run playing both the 4 and the 5, a combo big role an athlete with his physical skillset deserves. When Michigan’s defense gets special, it’s because of Johnson.
He can fly around on the aggressive coverages May smartly deploys. Mara isn’t the worst at sliding his feet, either, so May will go with some switching as well. And when it’s Johnson and Lendeborg out there together, that’s when the Wolverines can really dial it up on the perimeter.
Johnson is totally overwhelming out there, oftentimes in a free safety role.
NBA teams that lean on aggressive pick and roll coverages (nets, pistons, etc) should covet morez johnson, rare mobility and explosiveness allow him to thrive in blitz/show/high drop situations
has some issues as a traditional rim defender, but the perimeter D could be elite pic.twitter.com/9K4HQXA0q8
— Ben Pfeifer (@bjpf_) March 26, 2026
Offensively, Johnson is a play-finisher. He shot 62.5% and grabs a team-leading 2.5 offensive rebounds per game. The explosivity thrives around the rim and he’s one of those types where a 50-50 ball feels more like a 90-10 ball for him. Johnson will occasionally drive the ball and is getting better there but is best used in a limited capacity.
Those sure are a lot of similarities to Awaka and it will be a whole lot of fun watching those two match up. Like Awaka, Johnson’s presence can feel like overkill with how much Michigan already has in the frontcourt. Both really wear opponents out.
Wildcats freshman Koa Peat will at least start the game and likely on Johnson, but Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd should be quick to turn to mirroring Awaka on Johnson in a more basic double-big lineup when Michigan plays all three of its bigs together.
It’ll either prove to be a bad matchup for Peat or an excellent one. His outlier skill in this froncourt face-off as a shot creator is a dynamic no other big brings, but he will have to prove it’s worth keeping on the floor, especially if Michigan looks like the more imposing unit around the restricted area. His minutes might have to come more when Michigan doesn’t have Johnson at the 4.
Yaxel Lendeborg is the greatest luxury in college basketball
Lendeborg is the X-factor between these frontcourts and probably for the game as a whole. At 6-foot-9 and 240 pounds, he’s been playing as a wing a good amount of the year, which is just insane at the college level.
He easily could have picked a program where he would have averaged 20 and 10 en route to National Player of the Year, but he might win it anyway as a super glue guy that does everything for this team, which as it turns out has only bolstered his NBA stock.
To start, Lendeborg’s basketball story is awesome if you’re unfamiliar, and it includes a local tie!
Lendeborg only played two seasons of D1 basketball for UAB because he spent his first three years at Arizona Western in Yuma, a necessity after how quickly his basketball development fell behind.
When he was growing up, Lendeborg was unable to make even the middle school team. He then finally got the nod for his freshman team in high school, only to get cut midway through the season due to poor grades, per the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He later told ESPN this was because he was more interested in video games than basketball for most of his life. Lendeborg didn’t even get his academics in order with that readjustment of priorities until his senior year of high school when he only got to play in 11 total games (!).
That summer, an assistant out of the community college in southwest Arizona heard some buzz about Lendeborg at a small camp all the way across the country in New York. Lendeborg initially didn’t even want to go to that camp. He was afraid he’d embarrass himself.
Well, his parents forced him to and then Lendeborg showed out. That aforementioned assistant took the word of a close friend to convince his boss to offer Lendeborg Arizona Western’s one available scholarship remaining. And now here Lendeborg is, six years later, about to play in the Final Four as an All-American on Michigan and is set to be a first-round pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
Michigan is at its best when Lendeborg, the Big Ten Player of the Year, is doing everything on both ends.
The offense thrives when he’s in drive-and-kick mode, spurring the ball movement either as a screener, ball-handler or receiver of the ball on the weak side. Think of the way we talk about a “connector” in a professional offense. That’s Lendeborg.
Yaxel Lendeborg passing reel. Has 3.2 assists to 1.1 turnovers this season, can see over the top of the defense at 6-foot-9, excellent connective passer. pic.twitter.com/XTP3rP7J0I
— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) March 25, 2026
He only takes 9.5 shots a game, a testament to how content he is with playing that way. Nearly half of his attempts are from 3 (37.4 3P%), and just about the rest come when those drives end in finishes or when the ball finds him around the basket.
Lendeborg benefits from how much pressure Mara and Johnson provide as defenders, so he can just sort of slip in where the rest of the team defense needs him. He can take on some more impactful on-ball assignments, which he has often this year, or plug in with weak-side rim protection and ancillary rebounding. When the bigs rotate in and out, he can do what those guys do, too. It is a ridiculous luxury.
Arizona has to figure out how to make Lendeborg’s impact more ordinary. When Michigan’s rhythm is stifled and things get bogged down, that’s when Lendeborg’s off-ball role can have him feel removed from the game and it flows into him less. That’s when the Wolverines go from juggernaut to beatable. When it seems as if Lendeborg is impacting every possession, though, it’s curtains. That happened in the Elite Eight against Tennessee and the game was over at halftime.
Wildcats freshman wing Ivan Kharchenkov is Arizona’s equivalent glue guy and will likely match up with Lendeborg as well. Which player seamlessly affects the game more offensively as a pair that doesn’t have many plays ran for them and disrupts the opponent more as the on-ball defender often taking the most important cover could decide who advances to the big one.
Follow @KellanOlson
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