The Michigan Wolverines Rotation Adjustment That Could Define March Madness

Before L.J. Cason got hurt, I thought Dusty May was doing a brilliant job of making Michigan's rotations. It quite often involved Cason playing instead of Burnett with the rest of the other starters, and playing alongside Elliot Cadeau to give him some minutes off the all. Everything seemed to flow really nicely together and they were beating most teams by double digits. Since then, they've missed having that extra ball handler, shot maker, and facilitator that they just no longer have at their disposal. Let's dive into the rotation tweak I think Dusty May should make to help them make a deep NCAA tournament run starting this week.

One of Yaxel Lendeborg or Elliott Cadeau need to be one the court at all times

Since Cason got hurt, it's been a slight uptick in minutes for Roddy Gayle Jr. and Trey McKenney as Michigan's 2/3 guards off the bench. Both bring different play styles to the floor and both can serve as secondary/tertiary ball handlers when needed. But I do not like how the offense looks when both Cadeau and Yaxel are on the bench at the same time. They just don't get the same offensive flow going and don't move the ball as well side to side.

This doesn't happen a lot, but when it does, Michigan's offense just gets too stagnant and becomes too easy to defend. They rely too heavily on Mara/Morez Johnson Jr. making something happen on the low block with this lineup and that can be effective at times but it's never really been Michigan's main offensive identity this year.

At this point in the season, every possession matters and I just don't think Michigan can allow itself to throw away any offensive possessions. In my opinion, that's effectively what happens when both Yaxel and Cadeau are catching a breather at the same time. They need to have one of them on the court at all times for this NCAA run in order to give the rest of the guys the opportunity to play as their best selves which is off the ball. Yaxel and Cadeau are both comfortable playing off the ball (as one of them always is when they're on the floor together), but whoever has to play with the ball in their hands when both those guys are on the bench just don't look comfortable running the offense without those guys on the floor.

All of this to say, that this deep into the season every offensive possession matters for this Michigan team and in order for the offensive to run as smoothly as possible, I beleive Dusty May needs to keep one of Yaxel Lendeborg and Elliott Cadeau on the court at all times. This helps keep the ball moving on offense and also allows the rest of the team to play where they're most comfortable and that's what Michigan will need for this NCAA Tournament run.