The American Athletic Conference announced its all-conference teams and regular-season awards today and UAB’s Yaxel Lendeborg was among those honored.
Lendeborg earned first-team All-AAC honors and was named AAC Defensive Player of the Year after helping lead the Blazers to a 20-11 regular-season record and a double-bye in the AAC tournament.
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Lendeborg is averaging 13.7 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in only his first season on the Division I level. He has produced 16 double-doubles this season and is one shy of tying Elijah Milsaps’s single-season record of 17 set in the 2009-2010 season.
The Pennsauken, New Jersey native is one of 15 players nationwide to average a double-double this season and joins Cameron Moore (2008-2012) as the only UAB player to average a double-double in a single season.
Moore was named CUSA Defensive Player of the Year for his efforts on the Southside and Lendeborg is the first league Defensive Player of the Year selection for UAB since William Lee took home the CUSA award in the 2016-2017 season.
Lendeborg is also within earshot of another UAB single-season record.
The 6-foot-9 forward has 322 rebounds and is eight boards away from breaking the single-season record of 329 set last season by Trey Jemison. In UAB’s win over a then-ranked Florida Atlantic team, Lendeborg brought down 21 rebounds for the second most in program history and third most in AAC history.
The Blazers will face either 4-seed Memphis or the winner of the Wichita State-Rice game in the AAC Tournament quarterfinals, Friday, March 15, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. CT on ESPN2.