{"id":757911,"date":"2026-06-24T10:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757911\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T10:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:58:11","slug":"michigan-basketballs-championship-season-ends-with-historic-nba-draft-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757911\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan basketball\u2019s championship season ends with historic NBA draft milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANN ARBOR, Mich. \u2013 For the first time in 36 years, three University of Michigan<\/a> players were selected in the first round of the NBA draft, further cementing the Wolverines\u2019 place among college basketball\u2019s elite talent producers.<\/p>\n

Forwards Morez Johnson Jr.<\/a> and Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>, along with center Aday Mara<\/a>, were chosen among the first 12 picks Tuesday (June 23) night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. <\/p>\n

The selections made the Michigan Wolverines<\/a> one of only five programs in NBA draft history to produce at least three lottery picks in a single draft since the lottery expanded to 14 picks in 2004.<\/p>\n

Johnson was selected ninth overall by Dusty May<\/a> and the Dallas Mavericks, Lendeborg went 11th to the Golden State Warriors, and Mara was taken 12th by the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n

The trio helped Michigan capture its first NCAA men\u2019s basketball national championship in 37 years. <\/p>\n

They became the 81st, 82nd, and 83rd players in program history selected in the NBA draft.<\/p>\n

Elite company<\/p>\n

Michigan joined North Carolina (2005), Florida (2007), Kentucky (2015), and Duke (2019, 2025) as the only programs to place three or more players among the top 14 selections in a single draft. <\/p>\n

North Carolina and Kentucky remain the only schools to produce four lottery picks in one draft. <\/p>\n

Duke is the only program to accomplish the feat more than once.<\/p>\n

The Wolverines also matched a school record with three first-round selections in the same draft, equaling the 1990 class that included national champions Rumeal Robinson<\/a>, Loy Vaught<\/a>, and Terry Mills<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson brings toughness off transfer<\/p>\n

Johnson Jr. emerged as a key contributor after transferring from Illinois. <\/p>\n

The 6\u20199\u201d forward started all 40 games and averaged 13.1 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n

He recorded nine double-doubles and earned second-team All-Big Ten honors from the coaches while anchoring Michigan\u2019s defense.<\/p>\n

\u2192 Former Michigan basketball star Morez Johnson Jr. reacts to joining Dusty May in Dallas after NBA draft<\/a><\/p>\n

Lendeborg earns Big Ten\u2019s top honor<\/p>\n

Lendeborg, a transfer from UAB, led the Wolverines with 15.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, while adding 3.2 assists. <\/p>\n

He was named Big Ten Player of the Year, becoming Michigan\u2019s first recipient of the award since Nik Stauskas in 2014.<\/p>\n

Lendeborg scored in double figures 31 times and was a consensus All-American during his lone season in Ann Arbor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2192 Michigan basketball champ Yaxel Lendeborg joins Warriors, gets chance to learn from Curry, Draymond Green<\/a><\/p>\n

Mara sets program record in shot-blocking<\/p>\n

Mara, a transfer from UCLA, became one of the nation\u2019s top defensive players. <\/p>\n

The Spanish center averaged 12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.6 blocks per game while setting a Michigan single-season record with 103 blocked shots.<\/p>\n

He became the first Wolverine in nearly four decades to earn Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors.<\/p>\n

\u2192 From Michigan basketball champion to OKC contender: Aday Mara is ready to chase another ring<\/a><\/p>\n

Program history made<\/p>\n

The three lottery selections gave Michigan a program-record three lottery picks in a single draft. <\/p>\n

The Wolverines previously had multiple lottery picks in 1990 and 1994 but had never placed three players among the top 14 selections in a single draft.<\/p>\n

Michigan has now produced 35 first-round draft picks and 22 lottery selections in program history. <\/p>\n

Since 2011, the Wolverines have had 21 players selected in the NBA draft, the most among current Big Ten programs and tied for fourth nationally.<\/p>\n

The 2026 draft marked the 10th time Michigan has had three players selected in the same NBA draft and the first since 2014. <\/p>\n

It also extended the program\u2019s streak of producing NBA draft picks across seven consecutive decades, from the 1960s through the 2020s.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR, Mich. \u2013 For the first time in 36 years, three University of Michigan players were selected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[223994,49,48,270400,270402,6427,251493,459,270401,82,270403,25093,228140],"class_list":["post-757911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aday-mara","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dusty-may","tag-loy-vaught","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-morez-johnson-jr","tag-nba","tag-rumeal-robinson","tag-sports","tag-terry-mills","tag-university-of-michigan","tag-yaxel-lendeborg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}