Michigan is one win from a national championship, and Elliot Cadeau knows exactly what that would mean. After the Wolverines beat Arizona by 18 points in the national semifinal Saturday, Cadeau said Sunday that the stakes reach far beyond one team’s locker room.
“We all know what it would mean to all of us and to the university,” Cadeau said. “It’s been so long. I’ll be in the history books at Michigan.”
Michigan will play Connecticut on Monday night with a 36-3 record, carrying the sort of momentum that has made this run look inevitable and startling at the same time. The Wolverines have won five NCAA tournament games by an average of 21.6 points, became the first team to score 90 points in five consecutive games in the same NCAA tournament, and have six players averaging in double figures during March Madness. Sixty-six percent of their field goals have come with assists.
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That profile is the product of a roster built around the transfer portal. Cadeau came from North Carolina, Yaxel Lendeborg arrived from UAB, Aday Mara from UCLA, and Morez Johnson Jr. from Illinois. Nimari Burnett and Roddy Gayle Jr. had already come to Ann Arbor from Alabama and Ohio State, and the group has quickly turned into one of the most balanced and efficient teams in the country.
Lendeborg said the chemistry has been obvious inside the team, and he tied that together with the way Michigan plays. “We all love each other,” he said. “And that plays a big part in games like Monday night.” Cadeau made the same point from a different angle, saying Michigan’s offense works because the ball keeps moving and the transfers bought into the same style. “I think they did a really good job of putting five or four transfers, or five players on the court at all times that are really good at passing the ball,” he said. “And I think they knew that when they were recruiting all of us.”
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Dusty May has spent the tournament warning that talent alone will not deliver a title. “We have a team that we think is elite,” he said. “But we also know that once the ball is tipped, that means nothing. You still have to do all the things that got you to this point, and you have to weather storms. You have to handle success.”
The 18-point rout of Arizona tied for the largest margin in a game between two No. 1 seeds since seeding began in 1979, and it pushed Michigan to the doorstep of a prize that has defined the program for decades. The school’s only previous championship came in 1989, when it beat Seton Hall by one point in overtime. Michigan has been to the title game seven times and lost five others to powers coached by John Wooden, Bob Knight, Mike Krzyzewski, Dean Smith, Rick Pitino and Jay Wright. A second title would mean more than ending a 37-year wait. It would be the longest gap any program has ever taken between its first and second national championships.
That is the pressure waiting in Monday night’s game, and it is also the opportunity. Michigan has already shown it can overwhelm elite opponents, but the final step is the hardest one. If the Wolverines finish the job, Cadeau will be right: they will be in the history books at Michigan.
