Elliot Cadeau's 'Basketball IQ' Shines Through in Michigan's Final Four Win

Cadeau was brought to Michigan to shine in the bright lights.

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In Dusty May's first season at Michigan, he signed former Auburn guard Tre Donaldson to lead his offense. Donaldson was a scorer first and did a good enough job, helping guide the Wolverines to a Sweet 16 berth, but May needed a true facilitator to run his offense.

Once Elliot Cadeau decided to leave North Carolina after two seasons as its starting point guard, May pounced on the chance. Not only has Cadeau started every game and ran Michigan's offense smoothly, but he's also developed a reliable three-point shot under May.

Cadeau is shooting two more threes per game on average this season, and he's averaging a career high 37.9% from deep. His confidence has risen since transferring to Michigan, and on Saturday night, Cadeau shined on the biggest stage yet. He didn't shoot great, had some turnovers, but he ran the offense to perfection — especially with a limited Yaxel Lendeborg.

"Yeah, for sure. I think that just comes from the coaching. They have so much confidence in me," Cadeau said after the win. "I missed a lot of shots today. I had a lot of turnovers today, but I didn't hear one thing about that from the coaching staff.

"It just helps me stay calm. If I turn the ball over and I look over at Coach, they're calm. So that just helps me stay calm as well. And definitely I tried to be more aggressive when Yax came out, for sure."

Leads with energy and effort

For those who just look at stats, you'd think Cadeau didn't have a great game. He shot 5-of-17 from the field and had six turnovers. However, five or six of those attempts came from lob passes that weren't timed well between him and Aday Mara. Cadeau also shot some floaters that didn't go down, which either Mara and Morez Johnson came down with.

But with Lendeborg facing foul issues and hobbling around with two injuries, Cadeau stepped his game into another gear. He ran the floor, played with confidence, and found his teammates using no-look passes, which helped him land a double-double in Michigan's win over Arizona.

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"As a distributor, he's always been that. As far as his leadership, he's been really consistent with that as well. He leads more with his energy and effort," May said of Cadeau.

"And I thought he took what the game gave him in the first half. You mentioned his attempts. A couple of those were passes off the backboard. Krivas is so good in his drops, we didn't think we'd be able to throw traditional lobs. So we've spent about 5 to 10 minutes the last three days working on the lob off the backboard. So he didn't really have that many attempts.

"And then we told him if he got caught in between he and they forced him to shoot those -- we don't shoot a lot of floaters and middies -- but if he does have to shoot them, just make sure if you miss them you miss them long, because he's going to pull the big over and it's going to give Aday and Rez and those guys an opportunity to rebound on the backside.

"And then obviously he got it going in the second half and made several big, big shots and found his rhythm."

Basketball IQ off the charts

Cadeau has always been known as a good distributor. He averaged over six assists per game last season with North Carolina, which is a big reason May made a conscious decision to go land the talented guard.

Cadeau makes his teammates around him better, a lot to do with the unselfishness he plays with. The old-school point guard is a thing of the past. Point guards nowadays look to have the ball in their hands and shoot whenever possible — not Cadeau. Yeah, he will look to take open threes, but Cadeau doesn't force the issue; he finds the best available option on the court.

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"Yeah, the thing with Elliot and Yaxel and Morez and Aday and these guys, all the portal guys, when we've played on the biggest stages in the most important moments, their play has been elevated," said May.

"The assistant coaches, we were talking about it before the game, were like, man, Elliot's going to have a big game because of the way Arizona defends, but also just because of the stage. He's fearless. He's incredibly competitive.

"And his basketball IQ is off the charts. And so we felt very confident, when you have someone that can control the game like he does, and also push tempo, and then when he's not in foul trouble, he's a pest defensively, and he cancels ball screens. He gets you out of your offense. He's been awesome for us."