The No. 2 Michigan men’s basketball team is headlined by its size. It starts three players 6-foot-9 or taller, all three of whom average over 10 points per game.
Yet Sunday, even against an undersized opponent in La Salle (4-9), the Wolverines’ guards stole the show from the top to the bottom of the lineup. Instead of playing through its big men inside, Michigan (11-0) did much of its damage from the backcourt en route to a breezy 102-50 win.
“Anytime you’re putting up that many points as unselfishly as we are, I think it’s a ton of fun for everybody, sharing the wealth,” graduate forward Will Tschetter said. “You have (junior point guard Elliot Cadeau) hitting threes, (sophomore guard L.J. Cason) hitting threes, crazy alley-oop dunks in transition. That’s always gonna be fun.”
Cadeau got the Wolverines started with a 3-pointer that was Michigan’s first bucket of the game. Scoring 13 points in the first 14 minutes, Cadeau was the main source of the Wolverines’ momentum in the first half. He helped Michigan push its lead out to 18 points midway through the first half, a lead that stayed around that large until halftime.
When Cadeau came out of the game, the backcourt suffered little drop-off. Cason chipped in two 3-pointers as well as a nifty spin move layup for eight first-half points. Freshman guard Trey McKenney was on fire early, ending the first half 3-for-3 from deep with 11 points.
“(McKenney)’s got a great base,” Wolverines coach Dusty May said. “He works on his game. It comes out of his hand clean, and he can shoot it off the dribble. So those things all kind of rolled into one, rolled out and made him a very efficient basketball player.”
Michigan’s guards also helped run its full-court press that forced 11 first-half turnovers from the Explorers. The Wolverines turned those 11 turnovers into 19 fast-break points. Offensively, the backcourt had combined for 35 of the team’s 54 total points by halftime.
In the second half, the Wolverines kept cruising. A 21-point halftime lead quickly grew to 30 and then 40. Their guards continued to produce on offense, and the big men helped round out a completely dominant performance. Junior center Aday Mara got into a rhythm as the game went on, finishing with 14 points on 5-for-5 shooting.
Cason added more scoring to his night in the second half, finishing with 13 points. And despite limited minutes as the game went on, Cadeau and the rest of the guards remained contributors on offense. With five minutes to go and a win more than secured, most of Michigan’s guards were already done for the night.
“I thought (Cadeau, Cason and McKenney) got out in transition, they made shots,” May said. “… Those three guys, they’re all three dynamic playmakers that can make shots, so that’s gonna present challenges for a lot of teams.”
Even when the rotation players’ days were done, though, the walk-on guards got in on the action too. Sophomore guard Howard Eisley Jr. had his moment in the final two minutes with a 3-pointer that got Crisler Center — and especially the Wolverines’ bench — as loud as it had been all game.
For Michigan, 30- and 40-point wins are somehow beginning to feel routine. Sunday’s win over La Salle makes eight straight wins by 18 or more points, and it’s the Wolverines’ fifth win by 40 or more points in 11 total games.
Beating the Explorers in dominant fashion isn’t a surprising result for Michigan, but the fact that it was its guards leading the way does make it rather unique amid the team’s recent run of success.
