How Elliot Cadeau unlocked his 3-point shot at Michigan

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INDIANAPOLIS — Elliot Cadeau will tell you he’s always been a great shooter, from middle school to high school, from Chapel Hill to Ann Arbor.

He’ll tell you he didn’t change anything mechanically in his 3-point shot since he transferred from North Carolina to Michigan. He’ll tell you his stats from beyond the arc this tournament — 7-for-15 from three over the last three games — are nothing new, simply business as usual for a shooter like himself.

But keep asking, keep listening, and Cadeau will offer some insight into what’s really changed.

“I don’t blame it on the coaching staff (at UNC), but I definitely wanted more freedom in that aspect of my game,” Cadeau said Friday. “I definitely had the green light to shoot anything my whole life. And it was definitely different when I got to college.”

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As a freshman, the point guard made 10 threes on 53 attempts. As a sophomore, Cadeau shot 29-for-86. But his numbers with the Tar Heels only tell part of the story.

At North Carolina, Cadeau was placed into more of a facilitator role, putting up 4.1 and 6.2 assists per game in his freshman and sophomore seasons. That meant his 3-point shooting — at least, in the context of the Tar Heels’ offense — became somewhat of an afterthought.

All of a sudden, Cadeau felt his shot, and the value of it, turn into something different. It wasn’t an integral part of the team he was playing for, it wasn’t a preferred outcome of UNC’s possessions.

“At UNC, it was kind of like a set of rules before I was able to shoot it,” Cadeau said.

That lack of freedom turned into a lack of confidence. And that lack of confidence turned into two suboptimal shooting seasons, which turned into some dubious narratives upon Cadeau’s transfer to Michigan.

Cadeau heard it all, and his teammates heard some of it, too. They also saw what he was doing to improve.

“One of his weaknesses was three-point shooting last year, so he really attacked that in the offseason,” senior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said, standing in the Wolverines’ locker room. “He was really successful over the summer, which (led to) his confidence during the course of the year.”

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