‘A wizard in the portal’: Elliot Cadeau guides Michigan to a National Championship

INDIANAPOLIS — Dusty May needed a point guard.

Before Michigan’s season began, before all the summer workouts, before Michigan landed Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. and managed to secure Yaxel Lendeborg, the Wolverines’ head coach needed someone to run it all. ‘It’ hadn’t even came together yet — at least, officially — but May had a vision.

That vision needed a pass-first guard to run the show. Like many other basketball coaches in the country, May had followed Elliot Cadeau’s high school career and had caught some of his games at North Carolina.

As is his philosophy, May focused on the upside. The passing, the vision, the play-making. He knew Cadeau’s shrewdness could unlock what he wanted Michigan to be. But first, he had to make a call.

“I coached Sean May years ago in AAU basketball, so I called Sean, and he gave me all the intel and everything on the background,” May said postgame. “And I just said, ‘Let me ask you one question: Would 17-, 18-year-old Sean May, who was a McDonald’s All-American, NBA player, would he want to play with Elliot Cadeau?’ And he said ‘[Expletive] yeah! Absolutely, let’s go,’ and I said, ‘That’s all I need to know,’ because Sean is one of the smartest, best players I’ve ever been around.”

Cadeau arrived in Ann Arbor over the summer and immediately understood May’s vision.

“I just saw so much talent around me since day one,” Cadeau said. “Just like a unique set of talent, like three bigs at the same time, switching ‘1’ through ‘4’. I just seen a unique type of basketball that we was playing, and I knew it would be a mismatch nightmare for every single team that we played.”

The rest, capped off by Cadeau’s 19-point, game-leading performance Monday night, is history.

Cadeau’s performance in the National Championship game wasn’t the high-assist outing he’d turned in games prior, nor was it another heater from three. But it was, in a way, exactly what Michigan needed.

“He’s a savant,” May said. “He’s brilliant. He’s made us better coaches, and hopefully we’ve helped him become a better player.”