Michigan men’s basketball left Las Vegas in no doubt about its early-season identity. On Wednesday, the Wolverines turned the Players Era men’s championship into a national statement, demolishing Gonzaga 101-61 to remain unbeaten at 7-0.

After the win, their senior forward Yaxel Lendeborg referenced a prior media conversation after Auburn win, where he confidently ranked Michigan’s interior group ahead of every frontcourt in college basketball. While backing it up in the form of utter dominance, his answer was firm, emotional and delivered with a tone of proof rather than bravado.

“I stand on my words that I said yesterday,” said Lendeborg after the game. “Tonight was the first night that we proved that. We're going to continue to prove it for rest of the season. I 100 % believe that everybody on this team, especially our front court, and nobody's going be able to compete with us.”

The 40-point win came on the heels of earlier romps in the same event, a 40-point dismissal of San Diego State and a 30-point surge past Auburn, pushing Michigan into the $1 million title game riding a five-game streak of multi-score blowouts.

The biggest engine behind the three-day heater was their star Lendeborg, whose 20-point, 11-rebound double-double paced the championship.

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He wasn’t done, and in a separate postgame remark, delivered to frame the performance’s impact beyond the win column, Lendeborg pushed Michigan into true contender dialogue.

“Today was about putting the world on notice that we’re the best team in the nation,” said Lendeborg, via Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

Michigan’s win total at the event came by a combined 110-point margin, handing Mark Few the most lopsided defeat of his 902-game career at Gonzaga. Lendeborg was named tournament MVP, and Michigan quietly introduced itself as a genuine national championship threat in a field featuring 18 major programs.

The Wolverines return home to host Rutgers on Dec. 6, while Gonzaga heads back out to face Kentucky on Dec. 5. If the tournament fire translates into the season grind, this week in Vegas may be remembered as the launch point of a special winter for Ann Arbor.