Lucas: The Gift

By Adam Lucas

Elliot Cadeau is just like us.

After putting up 18 points and eight assists against American on Friday night, he was in the Tar Heel locker room scrolling through his phone. His Instagram consumption came to a stop, though, when he arrived at Maggie Hobson's photo on the @UNC_Basketball feed.

It's a picture of a Jalen Washington dunk. But both Cadeau and Washington are prominently featured in the shot—Washington is finishing the play with a roar, and right there with him at high altitude, leaping just out of pure celebration, is Cadeau.

"Got to give that one a like," Cadeau said.

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And there it is. That's the Tar Heel point guard. "Cadeau" in French translates to "gift" (hat tip to reader Owen), and Cadeau's gift is an almost obsessive desire to see his teammates succeed. As he looked at the picture, it made sense to ask him what he saw in that frame.

"This shows how much fun we play with," he said on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "We both had smiles on our faces after that play. It's me being able to watch my brother dunk and get the crowd turned up, and that's great fun."

"That's just him," Hubert Davis said. "He's always been that way, even in high school. He's always been somebody who celebrates the successes of others, and that's one of many qualities why I wanted him here. I saw it as soon as I saw him play."

And he saw it repeatedly in the second half on Friday night. There was the leap to celebrate at the same altitude as Washington. There was a three goggles salute to RJ Davis after the veteran swished a three-pointer. And there was a gorgeous pass that led Washington perfectly to the rim for a basket and a foul.

When Washington completed the play, he was under the rim and Cadeau was outside the three-point line. As soon as the whistle blew, though, Cadeau started skipping across the floor towards Washington. They met near the Carolina bench, and both were so jubilant it was hard to tell who had scored the points.

"I just think it's fun," Cadeau said of making those highlight reel assists. "I get a stat, they get a stat. I get an assist, they get two points. Two people are happy instead of one, and that's really fun."

He finished with 18 points and eight assists, and he was—again—Carolina's most impactful player in the game. He was instrumental in engineering the Tar Heels' 64-point second half and their 23-0 edge in fast break points, and he did it in some of the ways you might expect—pushing the pace to Hubert Davis' preferred breakneck tempo—but also some you wouldn't.

Carolina was not as efficient in the first half and was sputtering offensively. But Cadeau dominated the first 20 minutes with his defense, grabbing three steals (he finished with four) and turning them into immediate baskets. Film study had showed him that he might be able to pick the pocket of the American guards; he did it on the Eagles' very first possession and soared in for a two-handed dunk. It's worth remembering that the glitzy second half dunk by Washington was only possible because Cadeau ignited the play by diving on the floor on the defensive end to secure another steal.

"I've done a lot of work on my defense," Cadeau said. "Defense is mostly effort and energy. It's constant reps during practice going as hard as I can. I'm taking it more seriously, and I've been sitting down with Coach Sullivan and watching some film."

As he was talking, his ESPN notifications were going off on his phone. That's the kind of life he's living right now—as he's talking about his highlight reels, he's receiving notifications that ESPN has taken note of his highlight reels.

Sometimes, all that technology can be fun.

After mostly quietly watching as a freshman, he's grown into a more vocal player as a sophomore. He's speaking up more in practices and team huddles, and at the end of the first half when he looked to the bench, it was Cadeau instead of the head coach who made the first gesture for what play the Tar Heels might want to run on the final offensive possession.

Just how indispensable is he?

Cadeau was +38 on Friday night. He's +71 for the season, which means when he is on the bench, Carolina is being outscored by eight points through three games.

Put him on the court, and the Tar Heels are potent. Take him away, and their game completely changes. That's a little scary…but it's also the mark of a great point guard, which is what he's becoming.

And it's more than just the precision passes or the great chemistry he has with Washington on the pick and roll. He's showing some intangibles, too.

"I told the team after this game that there are two different kinds of leaders," Hubert Davis said. "There are transactional leaders and transformational leaders. A transactional leader brings will, want-to, attention to detail, enthusiasm and effort, but it is dependent on what they might get from it. It's about getting their shots or their playing time or their notoriety.

"A transformational leader brings that same will and want-to, that same attention to detail and enthusiasm and effort, but it's not dependent on what is happening to them. A transformational leader just genuinely does it without regard for himself. That's Elliot. It doesn't matter if he's scoring or even if he's playing. He's always cheering and celebrating the success of others."

Of course he is. That's the gift.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Elliot Cadeau

RJ Davis

Jalen Washington

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