Dusty May shares why Michigan basketball went after Elliott Cadeau, why there is 'concern' if he has to miss time

Cadeau, who averaged 9.4 points and 6.2 assists last season for North Carolina, is the only real PG Michigan has on its roster entering the 2025-26 season with Donaldson leaving for Miami. May shared there could be concern if Cadeau would have to miss some time, but he mentioned several players who could step up behind Cadeau if that were to happen. Guys like Roddy Gayle Jr., Nimari Burnett, LJ Cason, and Trey McKenney all have that playmaking ability.

“Yeah, there's always concern," May said of what's behind Cadeau. "If Elliott goes down, you want three true 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.

"It seems, and I'm sure this began with Iverson. And it's carried on to Curry and all these other guys. And with the NBA, the point guard position is so subjective, where you turn on a game and Jason Tatum may be initiating their offense.

"So we do think Roddy Gayle showed us glimpses of real steady playmaking and decision making late in the season. And we're going to get him involved more. His passing, when you go back and you look at Vlad's baskets that weren't assisted by Danny or Tre, a lot of them came from Roddy Gayle's post-passing, knowing where to look type of thing.

“So we think he'll be able to help us as a primary playmaker and an LJ Cason and obviously as a guy that we want him to be him. And 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 during the middle of the year for a variety of reasons. So and then obviously Yaxel [Lendeborg] and these guys, we think when they have bigger guys on them, they can be initiators of offense.

"So we do feel like we have, and I don't want to be remiss to mention Nimari Burnett. I mean, he's played point guard here at Michigan the year before we got here. And so he'll have -- as he gets used to his teammates, he'll have a playmaking role in someone that can definitely alleviate pressure with his ability.

"So we've got a lot of options. And then Trey McKenney obviously is another guy that's played the guard spot at a high level. So yeah, we never feel great about anything because you always want more.”

May on Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara

Cadeau and Yaxel Lendeborg were two of the four transfers Michigan basketball had landed. But the Wolverines didn't land the top-ranked transfer class without Illinois' big Morez Johnson Jr., and UCLA 7-footer Aday Mara. With both of them playing in the Big Ten Conference, May said it didn't take long for the Wolverines to know they wanted both of those guys.

“Yeah, that's the beauty of the portal. You have to make quick, decisive decisions. And by playing these teams and watching as much ball as we do, it doesn't take us long to decide who we want once they go into the portal.

"And Morez was in an extremely expedited recruiting process where he knew what he was looking for. I think we fit a lot of the criteria of who he is and what he was, you know, and he had a good experience at Illinois. He played well.

"He was in the rotation. So sometimes these guys are just looking for a change. But we were extremely excited about both of those guys because we were familiar with them.

“And then when you watch Aday play the last half of the year, he really took his game to another level and had some really, really bright moments. And, you know, his learning curve, his developmental curve, him going into his third year of college where he's added weight, you know, he's well coached. Both of those guys have played, they played for really good coaches.

"So they have a really solid foundation of how to play winning basketball at a high level. And now we've got to get them acclimated into our system. And obviously each year you're in college basketball, your role's probably going to grow. So we're going to lean on both of those guys to play big roles on both sides of the basketball.”