‘He’s a savant’: How Elliot Cadeau leads Michigan’s free-flowing offense

Michigan is back in Chicago in the same locker room where it spent the Big Ten Tournament two weeks back — only in different seats. The Wolverines are trying to change the vibe from the loss to Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament title game and punch their ticket to the Final Four with a pair of wins at the United Center.

Alabama’s threes, Michigan’s bigs, analytics-focused offenses, and tempo will draw plenty of headlines in the leadup, but the most important player on the floor might be the smallest one: Michigan point guard Elliot Cadeau.

Roughly a year after Cadeau made the decision to commit to Michigan and revive his career, he’ll have the chance to demonstrate his growth against a team that he lost to earlier in his career. Except Cadeau isn’t the same player he used to be.

More on Michigan-Alabama:

• First Look: Alabama Crimson Tide
• Notebook: May’s history with Oats, Alabama’s 3-point shooting, and the rebounding battle ahead
• Podcast: Official Michigan-Alabama Preview
• Film Room: Inside Alabama’s transition and ball screen attack

His game never fully clicked at North Carolina, and now he’s found himself while running one of the sport’s best offenses. It’s not much of a secret that Michigan’s offense is free-flowing. It’s modern positionless basketball that focuses more on pace and playing off teammates than running plays.

May attributes Michigan’s roster “solving problems and putting the puzzle pieces together the right way and really respecting each other, appreciating each other’s talents” as the key to his team’s offense, not the plays they run.

“He has certain sets, but the sets aren’t necessarily for shots,” Yaxel Lendeborg explained.

“I think the kind of things we run and the kind of way we play is super free. It translates to the next level as best as you can possibly do it,” Roddy Gayle Jr. said of the offense. “Honestly, whenever we mess up plays, (May) likes it. He’d rather our offense be chaotic. But we also are trying to play for each other as far as not really trying to play selfish basketball or kind of by ourselves. He’d rather us play for each other and run actions for each other.”

That chaos often needs a conductor, and that’s Elliot Cadeau.