How Michigan Unlocked Elliot Cadeau, Skyrocketing Its Title Hopes

The ink was barely dry on the obituary of the 2024–25 Michigan basketball season when the Wolverines’ coaching staff hit the road to convince Elliot Cadeau to be their next point guard.

It had been a gutting late-night loss Friday night in the Sweet 16 to No. 1 overall seed Auburn, a game in which the Wolverines had led by nine in the second half before faltering down the stretch. But there was no time for mourning. Coach Dusty May wanted a pass-first point guard and loved the idea of Cadeau, a former elite recruit who had been a two-year starter at North Carolina. That weekend, the Michigan staff flew to visit with Cadeau and make their pitch; by Monday, he was locked in as the first piece of the puzzle for Michigan’s roster reload.

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The move was met with some skepticism. For as touted as Cadeau had been out of high school, his time in Chapel Hill, N.C., had been uneven. His confidence as a shooter had wavered after shooting 19% from distance as a freshman. Turnovers were a problem, too, as he averaged more than three per game in the 2024–25 season. There was plenty of finger-pointing over the Heels’ disappointing 14-loss campaign, and a lot of the ire went toward Cadeau.

Michigan saw something different, a player pigeonholed into a strange-fitting roster with the wrong personnel around him that didn’t accentuate his strengths. They saw a ball-screen savant forced to split time on and off the ball because of other high-usage guards, like RJ Davis and Ian Jackson, taking up touches. And when Cadeau did get to use his pick-and-roll savvy, he didn’t have a true vertical threat to throw lobs to.

“The things that worried everyone else didn’t necessarily worry us because we thought he would fit our system,” Michigan assistant Akeem Miskdeen says. “We knew that he would have shooting and lob threats [here] and a guy like Elliot, you need him to have that because that gives him space to use his quickness.”

In the days that followed, Michigan got Cadeau those lob threats: 7' 3" Aday Mara, one of the biggest targets in the sport who finished the year top five nationally in dunks and 6' 9" Morez Johnson Jr. transferred in from Illinois as another elite vertical weapon. The guard he’d be paired with in the backcourt, Nimari Burnett, was much more comfortable playing off the ball and spacing the floor. And the Wolverines’ biggest fish in the portal, Yaxel Lendeborg, was a combination of all of that, with major athleticism to play above the rim but also a three-point shot Michigan was confident would keep defenses honest. It was a roster built perfectly around a point guard like Cadeau, rather than one where he was a square peg in a round hole.

Michigan also didn’t fret about Cadeau’s shooting struggles in two years at North Carolina. Miskdeen says they studied film from Cadeau’s AAU days and saw a confident shooter, and his shooting mechanics were sound. The Wolverines diagnosed it as a confidence problem, not a lack of ability.

“When we watched the film, his stroke looked good,” Miskdeen says. “He just needed confidence. When we recruited him, we talked to him about, we’re going to let you shoot the ball. If you’re open, we want you to shoot the ball. If you’re open, we’re going to be upset if you’re open and you don’t take good shots.”

A change of scenery was just what Cadeau needed. The environment at Michigan also was the perfect proving ground to rebuild his confidence. Wolverines practices usually run at most 90 minutes, on the shorter side nationally, which gave him extra time before and after practice for extra shooting work to further build up his confidence. The result has been a career year from beyond the arc, making 61 threes (more than double his mark from a season ago) at 38%. If teams go under on screens or sag off, Cadeau has the directive and confidence to punish them from beyond the arc, even if he’s struggling as a shooter on a given night.

Michigan guard Elliot Cadeau dribbles against Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. during their Sweet 16 game. | Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“I feel like the past two years of my life I haven’t been wired like that, but thanks to my coaching staff, I’m now wired like that,” Cadeau said during the Big Ten tournament. “I was wired like that in high school. So them just giving me confidence, my teammates giving me confidence to just shoot it again even if I miss, they don’t care if I miss again.”

And all that unlocks the real magic of Cadeau’s game: his passing. After Michigan’s Elite Eight win over Tennessee, May called his point guard a “wizard” as a playmaker, a player with rare gifts of seeing the entire floor, picking out the right pass in the right moment, and knowing innately how to ensure he’s getting everyone on the floor involved. Put on the film of Michigan’s 21–0 game-swinging run in that game against the Vols, and you’ll see Cadeau orchestrating nearly the entire thing. He doesn’t always even get the assist in the stat sheet, but plenty of college teams track “hockey assists” for the pass that sets up the pass, and Cadeau would undoubtedly be among the nation’s leaders.

“He was turning down open shots, he was turning down layups to get everybody involved,” May said after the game. “And that really becomes contagious when you have someone that has shot the ball as well as he has this year. He doesn’t care if he shoots. He supports his teammates. There’s no way we’re in this situation if Elliot isn’t with us.”

May has also valued that Cadeau is an “absolute psycho competitor,” an edge he felt his group desperately needed. Cadeau is one of Michigan’s vocal leaders, the guy bringing huddles together during stoppages and keeping the train on the tracks when the Wolverines face adversity, the consummate point guard in every way.

“When we’re at our best, his voice is heard,” May said.

Of Michigan’s starting lineup, 60% could be first-round NBA draft picks in June. But if you ask Lendeborg, the team’s star and first-team All-American, who the Wolverines lean on and trust with the ball in their hands late in games, the answer is easy.

“Elliot,” Lendeborg says. “Every time.”

That’s a title that’s earned, not given. His teammates saw him struggle through late-game situations against Wake Forest and TCU in early November, then learn from those bumps and turn the corner. According to Miskdeen, Michigan also does more live five-on-five games in practice than most teams, often in the form of four-minute games to a target score that help simulate end-of-game scenarios. Cadeau has sharpened his game-closing skills in those settings, something his teammates have taken notice of and helped shape their confidence for moments like the ones they faced in the Big Ten tournament, when the Wolverines navigated late nail-biters against Ohio State and Wisconsin. There was no question late whose hands the ball would be in.

“He makes the right decision time and time again,” Burnett says. “Whether it’s a shot for himself or a shot for a teammate, he dictates the style and pace we play. He does that over the course of 40 minutes, so when it comes to the end of games, [we know] he will make the right decision.”

Michigan remains relatively untested in close games, at least for a team entering April. Just 10 of 38 games this season have been decided by single digits, and three of those came in three days at the Big Ten tournament. To win a title this weekend, they’ll need the guy who was their first priority when last season came to an end to be their closer.

“Everybody on the team is not the quickest,” Miskdeen says. “We’re taller, we’re stronger, but they may not necessarily be able to beat their man off the dribble. [Cadeau] has that advantage with his quickness. The guys are really confident in him.”

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