YUMA, Ariz. - As the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team cut down the nets in the United Center in Chicago on Sunday afternoon, celebrating their Midwest Region championship and their first trip to the Final Four since 2018, it also marked a historic moment for Arizona Western College. 

As Arizona Western men's basketball coach watched former Matador Yaxel Lendeborg during the celebration, he wondered, is Yaxel Lendeborg the first Arizona Western player to ever reach the NCAA men's basketball Final Four?

"It's pretty wild to think of it," Arizona Western men's basketball head coach Kyle Isaacs said. "To have a kid playing in the Final Four who was just here three seasons ago. Going back through the history of Arizona Western, I don't think that we ever had a student-athlete come out of our here and then have an opportunity to play in the Final Four. It's a real surreal moment for sure."

Isaacs needed to make sure so he scoured the records books and reached out to past coaches who roamed the sidelines for Arizona Western.

"The only name that came up was Al Green," Isaacs said. 

Al Green played for Arizona Western from 1996 to 1998 under Jim Amick and Kelly Green. After Arizona Western, Green went to the University of Arizona from 1998 to 2000. However, the Arizona Wildcats won the NCAA national championship in 1997, a year before Green arrived. The Wildcats then returned to the Final Four in 2001, a year after Green left. Green's near misses opened the door for Lendeborg to make program history, becoming the first Arizona Western men's basketball player to ever reach and participate in the NCAA men's basketball Final Four. 

"It's pretty wild being in Yuma, Arizona, and now he's playing the University of Arizona, who is only three hours east of here," Isaacs said. "In the Final Four, in Indianapolis."

Isaacs adds that Arizona was interested in Yaxel following his sophomore year at Arizona Western which makes Yaxel playing for Michigan and now playing Arizona all the more wild to comprehend. Isaacs also shared some other unique similarities and the connecting of the dots surrounding this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament. 

"Charles Harral who was the head coach here before me, was a student manager for head coach Bob Knight at Texas Tech," Isaacs said. "I was a student manager for Coach Knight at Texas Tech and Dusty May, the Michigan head coach was a student manager for Coach Knight at the University of Indiana. Three of us all tied together. I mean, that is super unique in itself as well."  

Besides the coaching ties, and Yaxel Lendeborg playing for Michigan, another former ACCAC player, Oscar Cluff, who played JUCO at Cochise College, now plays for Purdue and lost to Arizona in the Elite 8, falling a game short of the Final Four with again, another tie to the University of Arizona. 

"Yaxel and Oscar played each other down here," Isaacs recalled. "We beat Cochise for the Region title at their place and won in Yaxel's sophomore year. Cochise had won 22 straight games and we changed some things up going into that game. Yaxel would always get in foul trouble when he played Cluff. So, in the playoffs we put Yaxel and the five position on offense then changed him to the four on defense. It was a way we could keep Yaxel on the court the whole time so he wouldn't get in foul trouble."

The former ACCAC players have made their mark in this year's NCAA tournament filled with madness and magic. Lendeborg next will strive to further his mark in Arizona Western College history by being the first to reach a national championship game and then, becoming an NCAA men's basketball champion. 

"It's kind of unique how it all works out," Isaacs said. "The stars kind of aligned, it's pretty wild to think of it. We tell our player, it can happen."

Yaxel Lendeborg and Michigan will face Arizona this Saturday, April 4th, in Indianapolis, Indiana in the NCAA Final Four with the winner advancing to the National Championship game on Monday, April 6th.