Kentucky's Payroll is $22M. They offered Yaxel Lendeborg up to $9M before he chose Michigan (paying him betw $2.5M & $3M)
- Thread starter Franisdaman
- Start date
Damn, that’s more than the Iowa football team
I wonder what the comparable number is for Iowa?
The playing field gets more uneven by the day.
It will be like a g- league team taking on the Thunder if Iowa plays Kentucky.
System still broke.
The playing field gets more uneven by the day.
It will be like a g- league team taking on the Thunder if Iowa plays Kentucky.
System still broke.
It always was. It's just public now
Schools generally have around $20.5M to spend on their athletes (via revenue sharing). CBS Sports' Matt Norlander reported that Kentucky would dedicate 45% of their revenue sharing budget toward men’s basketball.
How Kentucky is paying their MBB players:
.....9.2M: from school rev sharing (.45 x $20.5)
12.8M: from "NIL" (collectives, boosters, etc)
.........................................
22.0M Total Payroll
=============
How Kentucky is paying their MBB players:
.....9.2M: from school rev sharing (.45 x $20.5)
12.8M: from "NIL" (collectives, boosters, etc)
.........................................
22.0M Total Payroll
=============
There's some major buyer's remorse for preseason #9 Kentucky.
Kentucky is currently 7-4. Their 7 wins were against currently UNRANKED Indiana and 6 cupcakes.
Their 4 losses:
88-96 vs current #11 Louisville
66-83 vs current #9 Michigan State
64-67 vs current #12 North Carolina (Kentucky was 8.5-point favorites)
59-94 vs current #7 Gonzaga (3rd-worst Kentucky loss of the shot clock era)
--> The 94-59 embarrassment extended Head Coach Mark Pope’s streak of 6 straight losses against top-25 competition, the program’s longest since January 2009.
Some excerpts from the story that follows:
Is it possible to truly build camaraderie in a locker room when the foundation is a pile of cash, the roster constructed on the model of bidding wars won and lost?
The $22 million has been thrown back in this team’s face every step of the way....Even with blank checks handed out as the New York Yankees of college basketball, you bought the wrong guys.
That’s what happens when you assemble a roster of portal mercenaries, a soulless, individual-focused group that doesn’t obsess over wins and losses. This isn’t Kentucky basketball. And the buyer’s remorse is real.
Kentucky is currently 7-4. Their 7 wins were against currently UNRANKED Indiana and 6 cupcakes.
Their 4 losses:
88-96 vs current #11 Louisville
66-83 vs current #9 Michigan State
64-67 vs current #12 North Carolina (Kentucky was 8.5-point favorites)
59-94 vs current #7 Gonzaga (3rd-worst Kentucky loss of the shot clock era)
--> The 94-59 embarrassment extended Head Coach Mark Pope’s streak of 6 straight losses against top-25 competition, the program’s longest since January 2009.
Some excerpts from the story that follows:
Is it possible to truly build camaraderie in a locker room when the foundation is a pile of cash, the roster constructed on the model of bidding wars won and lost?
The $22 million has been thrown back in this team’s face every step of the way....Even with blank checks handed out as the New York Yankees of college basketball, you bought the wrong guys.
That’s what happens when you assemble a roster of portal mercenaries, a soulless, individual-focused group that doesn’t obsess over wins and losses. This isn’t Kentucky basketball. And the buyer’s remorse is real.
we are seeing players real value and it's no where near what some are paying. No one watches the G league. Meaning no one is watching because of elite athleticism. They are watching their favorite school and being held hostage by social pressure more than market pressure.
Pay kids when they've earned it. All american/all big 10 at least have some reason for paying them.
Pay kids when they've earned it. All american/all big 10 at least have some reason for paying them.
You don't always get what you pay for. LOL
Just because you have money doesn't mean you have a brain . . . or a soul. The evidence of that is everywhere.
And it has been written, "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil." Poor, sad Kentucky . . .
Still need some guys who can play, obviously, but I think I'd take my chances with 5 good players who are gelled as a unit and are giving it their all against 5 "elite" players who are only there for the paycheck.
This!! Schools that have limitless cash, need to realize they still need a coach that will find "his guys". Not a coach that just goes down the list of blue chip players and takes all the top ones.
Last edited:
No they don't. Not the x's and o's, its the Jimmies and Joes.
Pretty confident that McCollum would have that team playing better than they currently are. Probably would be a slightly different roster under him too. But even with that exact roster, they are winning more under him.
Take that sh*t to the bank!
Like almost everyone in life, college athletes need motivation to do the things necessary to improve yourself and win games. One of those motivations is likely to play in the NBA and make big money. To set yourself up for life, to help your family, etc. To be rich - or to be not poor.
Well, if at the end of your college career your gonna have $5-$10 million (before taxes) in the bank, some athletes might skip some of those 6 am workouts and go clubbing the night before.
Imagine having that much money at 18. Kudos to the athletes that keep their head on straight.
Well, if at the end of your college career your gonna have $5-$10 million (before taxes) in the bank, some athletes might skip some of those 6 am workouts and go clubbing the night before.
Imagine having that much money at 18. Kudos to the athletes that keep their head on straight.
I believe our coach can punch well above his weight in wins
Check out this Kentucky (14-7, 5-3) out of bounds play when they were down 26 at Vanderbilt (18-3, 5-3).
www.espn.com
Vanderbilt 80-55 Kentucky (Jan 27, 2026) Box Score - ESPN
Box score for the Vanderbilt Commodores vs. Kentucky Wildcats NCAAM game from January 27, 2026 on ESPN. Includes all points, rebounds and steals stats.
www.espn.com
Last edited:
Every Kentucky player: "I got my bag, imma head out."
Yaxel Lendeborg tells AP Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose Michigan
By LARRY LAGE
March 16, 2026
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Yaxel Lendeborg has made more money than he ever dreamed was possible entering March Madness, allowing him to pay his mother’s bills and buy her a new ride.
Lendeborg, though, could be even richer.
Michigan’s 6-foot-9, 240-pound point forward was the top prospect in the transfer portal last year and Kentucky was prepared to make him the highest-paid player in college basketball.
“They started the number with $7 (million) to $9 (million),” Lendeborg said in an interview with The Associated Press. “They were pretty much going off on the route like we’ll pay him anything to get here.”
Instead, he chose to play for Dusty May and the Wolverines even though the former UAB star said he would have earned about three times more money if he suited up for Mark Pope and the Wildcats.
“I was raised without it and I went my whole life without it,” Lendeborg said. “Anything was going to make me super, super happy at the time.
“I was thinking long term. What if I mess up my career because I chased the money instead of a future? Another big reason why I went with Dusty was he didn’t talk about money at all. It was all about making me better and helping me achieve my goals.”
It has certainly worked out so far for him — and Michigan.
He was named the Big Ten Player of the Year as the top player for the one-seeded Wolverines, who will open the NCAA Tournament on Thursday and have a shot to end it with the school’s second national championship and first since 1989.
The 23-year-old Lendeborg seems to be an example of what’s potentially positive about the transfer portal, which created a path for him to level up after stops at a mid-major program in Alabama and a junior college in Arizona.
While anyone who has paid attention to college basketball this season has seen him shine, they may not know his unlikely journey.
Or the heartache that motivates him every day.
Lendeborg was born in Puerto Rico, moved to the Dominican Republic and then Ohio before spending the second half of his childhood in New Jersey.
Baseball was his favorite sport growing up, but he was more interested in video games than school until his mother’s heart-to-heart talk changed the trajectory of his life.
Yissel Raposo told him that he was going to take 10 community college classes in one year to graduate from high school. He followed her instructions and rallied enough academically during his senior year to play organized basketball for the time over the final 11 games of the season.
His mother then successfully lobbied to land him a spot at Arizona Western. And after three years at the junior college, including a COVID-shortened season, he transferred to UAB and flourished.
Lendeborg joined Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird last year as the two Division I basketball players to have 600 points, 400 rebounds and 150 assists in a season.
Leading a talented squad with an influx of transfers, his statistics were not as spectacular this season. He averages a team-high 14.6 points and is second on the team with seven rebounds and three-plus assists per game.
“If he’s on the court, he’s giving you leverage,” May said.
After Lendeborg scored a total of 53 points in two wins over rival Michigan State, coach Tom Izzo said Lendeborg lived up to his billing.
“He handled it, he passed it, he shot it,” Izzo said.
Off the court, Lendeborg also has been influential and impactful on an unselfish team. In warmups, he often wears his teammates’ jerseys to show them some love.
“The thing that’s been most impressive about Yaxel is how great of a teammate he is, and how much he’s embraced our culture and the way things are done here,” May said.
Even though Lendeborg can afford to fly his mother to every game, she has been able to attend just a handful because she was diagnosed with appendix cancer just before the season started.
“She’s doing great,” he said. “She has three more sets of chemo left, and then she’s going to be done with that treatment.”
Lendeborg will never forget, or take for granted, his mother’s tough love that turned his life around.
“A lot of times when I think about it, I do get emotional,” he said softly, sitting in a Crisler Center seat under Michigan’s 1989 national championship banner. “I’ve always felt like I didn’t belong, especially in the spotlight. It’s been a dream.”
It is, however, a reality his mother envisioned.
“Yaxel never believed in himself growing up,” she said Monday in a telephone interview. “I always talked to him in a positive way, telling him he was talented and he could make it in basketball.
“I feel so happy and proud that now he knows he is good, too.”
Yaxel Lendeborg tells AP Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose Michigan
Yaxel Lendeborg says Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose to play at Michigan for about one-third of the compensation.
apnews.com
Glad this kid got a bag so that he could afford to help his mother fight cancer. I'm no fan of the wild west NIL era we live in, but at least this money was needed for something important.Yaxel Lendeborg tells AP Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose Michigan
By LARRY LAGE
March 16, 2026
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Yaxel Lendeborg has made more money than he ever dreamed was possible entering March Madness, allowing him to pay his mother’s bills and buy her a new ride.
Lendeborg, though, could be even richer.
Michigan’s 6-foot-9, 240-pound point forward was the top prospect in the transfer portal last year and Kentucky was prepared to make him the highest-paid player in college basketball.
“They started the number with $7 (million) to $9 (million),” Lendeborg said in an interview with The Associated Press. “They were pretty much going off on the route like we’ll pay him anything to get here.”
Instead, he chose to play for Dusty May and the Wolverines even though the former UAB star said he would have earned about three times more money if he suited up for Mark Pope and the Wildcats.
“I was raised without it and I went my whole life without it,” Lendeborg said. “Anything was going to make me super, super happy at the time.
“I was thinking long term. What if I mess up my career because I chased the money instead of a future? Another big reason why I went with Dusty was he didn’t talk about money at all. It was all about making me better and helping me achieve my goals.”
It has certainly worked out so far for him — and Michigan.
He was named the Big Ten Player of the Year as the top player for the one-seeded Wolverines, who will open the NCAA Tournament on Thursday and have a shot to end it with the school’s second national championship and first since 1989.
The 23-year-old Lendeborg seems to be an example of what’s potentially positive about the transfer portal, which created a path for him to level up after stops at a mid-major program in Alabama and a junior college in Arizona.
While anyone who has paid attention to college basketball this season has seen him shine, they may not know his unlikely journey.
Or the heartache that motivates him every day.
Lendeborg was born in Puerto Rico, moved to the Dominican Republic and then Ohio before spending the second half of his childhood in New Jersey.
Baseball was his favorite sport growing up, but he was more interested in video games than school until his mother’s heart-to-heart talk changed the trajectory of his life.
Yissel Raposo told him that he was going to take 10 community college classes in one year to graduate from high school. He followed her instructions and rallied enough academically during his senior year to play organized basketball for the time over the final 11 games of the season.
His mother then successfully lobbied to land him a spot at Arizona Western. And after three years at the junior college, including a COVID-shortened season, he transferred to UAB and flourished.
Lendeborg joined Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird last year as the two Division I basketball players to have 600 points, 400 rebounds and 150 assists in a season.
Leading a talented squad with an influx of transfers, his statistics were not as spectacular this season. He averages a team-high 14.6 points and is second on the team with seven rebounds and three-plus assists per game.
“If he’s on the court, he’s giving you leverage,” May said.
After Lendeborg scored a total of 53 points in two wins over rival Michigan State, coach Tom Izzo said Lendeborg lived up to his billing.
“He handled it, he passed it, he shot it,” Izzo said.
Off the court, Lendeborg also has been influential and impactful on an unselfish team. In warmups, he often wears his teammates’ jerseys to show them some love.
“The thing that’s been most impressive about Yaxel is how great of a teammate he is, and how much he’s embraced our culture and the way things are done here,” May said.
Even though Lendeborg can afford to fly his mother to every game, she has been able to attend just a handful because she was diagnosed with appendix cancer just before the season started.
“She’s doing great,” he said. “She has three more sets of chemo left, and then she’s going to be done with that treatment.”
Lendeborg will never forget, or take for granted, his mother’s tough love that turned his life around.
“A lot of times when I think about it, I do get emotional,” he said softly, sitting in a Crisler Center seat under Michigan’s 1989 national championship banner. “I’ve always felt like I didn’t belong, especially in the spotlight. It’s been a dream.”
It is, however, a reality his mother envisioned.
“Yaxel never believed in himself growing up,” she said Monday in a telephone interview. “I always talked to him in a positive way, telling him he was talented and he could make it in basketball.
“I feel so happy and proud that now he knows he is good, too.”
Yaxel Lendeborg tells AP Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose Michigan
Yaxel Lendeborg says Kentucky offered him $7 million to $9 million before he chose to play at Michigan for about one-third of the compensation.
It just sucks because Kentucky is very clearly operating under "pay for play" and was prepared to outbid every school.