CHICAGO (AP) — Yaxel Lendeborg yelled and pumped his right arm in celebration before he was mobbed by the rest of his Michigan teammates.
The 6-foot-9 forward turned a halftime message from coach Dusty May into one of his best moments in a huge season.
Lendeborg made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining, sending No. 3 Michigan to a 68-65 victory over No. 23 Wisconsin in Saturday's first semifinal at the Big Ten Tournament. He scored nine of his 12 points in the second half.
The game was tied at 62 when Lendeborg grabbed an offensive rebound and passed to Elliot Cadeau for a 3 with 45 seconds left. But Nick Boyd responded with a tying 3 for Wisconsin.
With the United Center crowd standing in anticipation, Michigan tried to find Lendeborg inside on its last possession. But the Big Ten player of the year ended up making his way back outside before getting a pass from Cadeau and drilling the winning 3, leading to his emphatic celebration.
“The play call was for me to get the ball down low in the post,” Lendeborg said. “I didn’t do a good job sealing. (Cadeau) had a driving angle. I tried to clear it out for him, and he kept his composure. Didn’t force up a bad shot, made the one more to the open guy, and I happened to be there to make the shot.”
Lendeborg played for UAB for two seasons before transferring to Michigan. He powered the Wolverines to the program's first regular-season Big Ten championship since 2021, averaging 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.
But he was pretty quiet during Friday’s quarterfinal victory over Ohio State, finishing with six points and six assists. Then he managed just three points in the first half against Wisconsin on a tying 3 with 11 seconds left.
“This has been the best year of my life honestly. I’ve had so much fun,” Lendeborg said. "I’ve had a lot of learning points as well. There’s been times where I had a really bad game that I couldn’t really get out of my head. Today, for example, I was really down on myself first half because I felt like I was letting my team down.
“Coach was really letting me know he has my back regardless. He wants me to be more aggressive. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
Asked about his halftime conversation with Lendeborg, May said he talked to his staff before delivering the message in his own words.
“The gist was that, look, we’re big boys here. We can live with whatever the results are, but we’re not going out like that,” May said. “We’re going to be aggressive. ... We’re going to let it rip, being us.”
Lendeborg started to assert himself right after the break. He converted a layup to give Michigan a 37-31 lead with 15:56 left. He jammed one home for a 52-39 advantage with 10:19 remaining.
Lendeborg was 4 for 4 from the field in the second half. He also had three assists, two rebounds and a steal down the stretch.
“He’s a complete player at 6-9,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “So you’ve got a guy that can put the ball on the floor. They can try to post him. He can shoot the 3. ... The skill set is one thing, but when you combine that with his size, it obviously makes it a very unique matchup.”
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Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg dunks during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wisconsin in the semifinals of the Big 10 Conference tournament, Saturday, March 14, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have so far remained on the sidelines as the Iran war widens across the Middle East, raising questions about why — and when the battle-hardened group might join the fight.
Iran has retaliated against the United States and Israel with missiles and drones, targeting American military bases and other locations in Gulf Arab countries, disrupting trade routes, choking fuel supplies and threatening regional air traffic.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, suggested on Thursday in his first written statement since succeeding his father, who was killed in the war's opening salvo, that Iran may open up new fronts in the conflict — a sign, analysts say, the Houthis may get involved soon.
Until now, the Houthis have been reluctant to fight, fearing assassinations of their leaders, internal divisions in Yemen and uncertainties over weapons supplies, the experts said.
But that may change as Iran seeks to increase pressure on global oil supply routes through potential attacks by the Houthis, who have had previous success targeting oil facilities in the region, the analysts said.
Iran has asserted its influence across the Middle East through its proxy forces in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen's Houthis.
Some of its closest allies have already joined the conflict, with Hezbollah resuming strikes on Israel within two days of the attack on Iran — and just 15 months after the last Israel-Hezbollah war ended in a November 2024 ceasefire. Militias linked to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have claimed drone strikes on U.S. bases in Irbil.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have only held protests and issued declarations condemning the Iran war, in contrast to the waves of missile and drone attacks they launched on Israel and shipping in the Red Sea after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
Here’s a look at the Houthis’ military capabilities and where they stand in the conflict.
Armed by Iran, the Houthis seized most of Yemen’s north and its capital, Sanaa, in 2014, pushing the country’s internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s government entered the conflict the following year, and the Houthis have since fought a long-running but largely stalemated civil war in Yemen.
While the Houthis share some political and religious ties with Iran, they follow a different doctrine of Shiite Islam and are independent of Iran’s supreme leader, unlike the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and several Iran-backed Iraqi militias.
Still, they are key to Iran’s regional influence and the current war is unlikely to weaken that, according to Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank.
“From Tehran’s perspective, the Houthis have proven themselves to be a capable and effective front, able to generate real pressure,” Nagi said.
He said the Houthi leaders' decision to distance themselves from the conflict is a calculated choice that has been fully coordinated with the Iranians.
Two Houthi members of the group's media and political offices told The Associated Press that the rebels' weapons stockpile is running low after its attacks during the Israel-Hamas war. The Iran war has further impeded the flow of weapons, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talj to the media.
Still, the group has a large stockpile of drones, said another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the weapons issue, about which he is well-informed.
Nagi said the Houthis appear to be building up their forces by recruiting more fighters, relying on local weapons production and sending reinforcements to Yemen’s western coastline on the Red Sea, signaling they are preparing for escalation.
“The decision is not about unwillingness to intervene, but about timing," Nagi said. "Iran’s broader strategy seems to be to avoid throwing all its cards on the table at once, instead using its partners and capabilities gradually as the confrontation evolves.”
The Houthis are likely to step in if the conflict widens, Nagi added, or if they perceive an existential threat to Iran, such as significant deterioration in military capabilities.
Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi has repeatedly emphasized the group is ready to intervene, claiming their “hands are on the trigger,” though its unclear what that involvement would entail.
″Houthis, of course, are always ready for any war,” said Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London. “Some weaponry moved in different areas inside Yemen recently ... but it’s still not clear whether it's for a military escalation.”
If the Houthis enter the war, they will most likely resume attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, while also striking Israel, Nagi said. They could also join Iran's attacks on Gulf countries, targeting U.S. military assets and interests.
Attacks on vessels during the Israel-Hamas war upended shipping in the Red Sea, through which about $1 trillion worth of goods passed each year before the war. The rebels also fired drones at Israel.
Should the Houthis join the Iran war, their primary targets would likely be oil tankers, the analysts said, since shipping offers the most immediate pressure point and attacking it would signal escalation while impacting energy supply chains.
Attacks on oil installations could also be considered. The Houthis have previously struck oil facilities in Saudi Arabia during their long-running conflict against the Saudi-led coalition.
Meanwhile, U.S. military sites in the region might also become targets, Nagi said.
Abdel-Bari Taher, a political analyst and former head of the press syndicate in Yemen, said any decision to join the war is impacted by the internal situation in Yemen, including recent deadly clashes in south Yemen, public opposition in Sanaa to joining the war and heightened caution among Houthi leaders after high-profile assassinations.
The two Houthi officials from the group's media and political offices said the U.S. has sent warnings via Omani mediators against participating in the war. They said Houthi political and security leaders have also been alerted that their cellphones are under surveillance by the U.S. and Israel. Fearing potential Israeli assassinations, Houthi leaders have been instructed not to appear in public, the officials said.
″Despite these constraints and the complex domestic and regional dynamics, Houthi involvement in the conflict remains a possibility,” Taher said.
Al-Muslimi, the Chatham House analyst, said the Houthis don’t have the military capabilities or an internal Yemeni interest that would force them to join the war, and the group seems committed to a ceasefire with the U.S. that was brokered by Oman last year.
“They hope to fight, especially with Israel, but they can’t be the ones to fire the first shot,” al-Muslimi said.
He said the Houthis would likely need a local Yemeni cause to join the fighting — a reason that would strengthen support among their local base.
Notes al-Muslimi: The Houthis “are a local group that Iran uses and supports, but didn't create.”
Associated Press journalist Ahmed al-Haj in Aden, Yemen, contributed to this report.
Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, Iranian Ambassador to Egypt, prays in front of a a makeshift memorial for Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a major attack by Israel and the United States, at the Iranian embassy in Cairo, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Houthi supporters hold posters of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an attack by Israel and the U.S., next to a giant Iranian flag as they protest the war on Iran, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)
