Dusty May: 'Concern' if Elliot Cadeau goes down, but Michigan has 'a lot of options' at backup point guard

It’s as close to a lock as it can be that Michigan Wolverines basketball will start North Carolina transfer Elliot Cadeau at point guard next season, but there’s not one true backup on the roster. That’s where head coach Dusty May and Co. will have to get creative, but they’re confident in the pieces they can move around.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound Cadeau committed to Michigan in March, before last year’s starting point guard, Tre Donaldson, transferred to Miami. The Wolverines also saw two depth options at the position, Justin Pippen (California) and Phat Phat Brooks (Central Michigan) transfer out.

It’s the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Cadeau’s show to run, and he’ll help Michigan play with pace and create great shots as an elite passer. Cadeau recorded 6.2 assists per game last season, adding 9.4 points and 2.9 boards on average.

May knows what he’s getting, having had a lot of familiarity with those around Cadeau.

“Everyone that we’ve signed out of the portal, I think 100 percent of the people we’ve signed out of the portal, we’ve had some personal relationship with them or some personal connection, and we had seen them play, seen them grow up, whatever the case,” the Michigan coach said on the ‘Defend The Block’ podcast with host Brian Boesch.

“With Elliot, we had actually scrimmaged North Carolina the year before last when we were at FAU. North Carolina came down and scrimmaged at our place. And coincidentally, I coached Sean May, a North Carolina legend, as a player, and he’s a very, very good basketball coach who’s on their staff now. So, we had a lot of, I guess, back-channeled information.

“We just felt like he fit, because we still didn’t play at the tempo that we wanted to last year, and we just thought the more talented we get, the more weapons we have on our roster, that it makes it even more integral to have a point guard who’s trying to set those guys up. So, we felt like, from a chemistry perspective, having a true pass-first point guard would allow us to keep everyone happy — and that’s what Elliot does.

“He loves passing the ball, he loves creating offense and we think he’ll be able to generate a lot of good offense early in the clock because of his speed. We gotta get him rebounding the ball even better, but he just gives us another dimension, and he can only add to what these other guys do well.”

Besides Cadeau, sophomore L.J. Cason is the closest thing to a true point guard that Michigan has on the roster, but even he’s more of a combo guard. He’ll initiate the offense at times, as will senior Roddy Gayle Jr., who brought the ball up a lot late last season. Graduate guard Nimari Burnett was an emergency point guard in 2023-24, before May got to Michigan (and those situations cropped up), too.

May would prefer to have more true point guards, but he acknowledges that the landscape has changed.

“There’s always a concern, if Elliot goes down,” the Michigan coach admitted. “You want three point guards on your roster at all times, but the game has changed so much that there aren’t a lot of true point guards left. I’m sure this began with [former NBA star Allen] Iverson and it’s carried on with [Golden State Warriors guard Steph] Curry and all these other guys, in the NBA the point guard position is so subjective, where you turn on a game and [Boston Celtics forward] Jayson Tatum may be initiating the offense.

“We do think Roddy Gayle showed us glimpses of real steady playmaking and decision-making late in the season, and we’re gonna get him involved more. His passing, when you go back and you look at [center] Vlad[islav Goldin‘s] baskets that weren’t assisted by [forward/center] Danny[Wolf] or Tre, a lot of them came from Roddy Gayle’s post passing, knowing where to look type of thing.

“We think he’ll be able to help us as a primary playmaker, and then L.J. Cason, obviously, is a guy that we want him to be him. He definitely created a lot of offense for us in the NCAA Tournament and looked more like himself later in the year as he struggled a little bit in the middle of the year for a variety of reasons.

“And then obviously [graduate forward] Yaxel [Lendeborg]and these guys, when they have bigger guys on them, they can be initiators of offense.

“I don’t want to be remiss to mention Nimari Burnett. He’s played point guard here at Michigan the year before we got here, so he’ll have — as he gets used to his teammates — a playmaking role and is someone who can alleviate pressure with his ability. 

“We got a lot of options. [Michigan freshman guard] Trey McKenney is another guy who’s played the guard spot at a high level.”

Michigan has buttons it can push, making the backup point guard spot less of a concern than it may look to be on paper.

“We never feel great about anything, because you always want more, but we do feel like we have a lot of options,” May said.