Elliot Cadeau Almost Didn't Make It to the Final Four Game Thanks to a Delayed Allergic Reaction

Elliot Cadeau almost didn't make it to the Final Four. Now he's going to the national championship.

Michigan's junior point guard was wheeled out of the Wolverines' practice facility and loaded into an ambulance earlier this week after suffering an allergic reaction to a piece of salmon he didn't realize was coated with cashews.

"I feel like it wasn't as dramatic as it seemed," Cadeau said. "I never felt nervous about it."

Maybe not. But his teammates were. As the rest of the Wolverines boarded a Wednesday flight to Indianapolis, Cadeau stayed back under medical supervision before taking a four-hour car ride to Indianapolis with a Michigan staffer on Thursday morning.

He arrived a day late and ultimately left a champion.

On Saturday night, Cadeau put up 13 points, 10 assists and three three-pointers as Michigan blew out Arizona 91-73 to advance to Monday's national title game against UConn. The double-double was a fitting exclamation point on a week that could have derailed a lesser competitor — and a fitting reminder of exactly what kind of player Dusty May brought in from the transfer portal last spring.

"EC is just the ultimate competitor, the ultimate unselfish point guard," Michigan forward Will Tschetter said.

May goes further, calling Cadeau a "psycho competitor" — someone for whom winning is the one thing that matters above everything else. That mentality, combined with his pass-first instincts, made him a priority target for Michigan when the Wolverines went looking for a point guard in the transfer portal last offseason.

It's paid off. Cadeau is shooting a career-best 37.7% from three-point range and leads the team in assists at 5.8 per game. In the NCAA tournament, he's been the engine that keeps Michigan's offense humming, even when the Wolverines' trio of frontcourt giants is drawing all the attention.

"The assist numbers may not show it, but I believe he's the best passer in the country," fellow starter Nimari Burnett said. "Just the IQ, him seeing the game before it happens a lot of the time, it's been a joy to play with him."

Cadeau's path to this moment was never straightforward. A former five-star recruit at North Carolina, he battled through two inconsistent seasons with the Tar Heels before finding his footing in Ann Arbor. The cashew incident was just the latest obstacle in a career built on getting back up.

He gets one more shot Monday night. Michigan vs. UConn are heading to the National Championship, 8:50 PM ET on TBS.