Analyst projects expectations for UNC basketball freshman

Here are the expectations one analyst has for five-star UNC basketball freshman Elliot Cadeau in his first season.

As the North Carolina Tar Heels prepare for the 2023-24 season opener on Monday night against Radford, one player that is gaining some national attention is freshman Elliot Cadeau.

The five-star guard opted to reclassify from the 2024 class into 2023 to join the Tar Heels right away. And he should make an immediate impact for Hubert Davis’ team.

So far, the news surrounding Cadeau has been positive out of UNC’s camp during practices and even the exhibition game they played. But what should we expect from Cadeau right away?

Eric Bossi of 247Sports wrote on expectations for five-star freshmen this season including Cadeau. Here is what he wrote on the talented guard:

What to expect: Originally a member of the class of 2024, Elliot Cadeau reclassified to the class of 2023. If you’ve followed us much, you know that reclassifications make us nervous because no matter how talented you are, skipping a year is hard. Even more so for a guy who is going to be relied upon to be a high-level decision maker. In this case, we are actually pretty confident that Cadeau is built to handle the jump.

He is strong, sturdy, super explosive with his first step and he’s got sublime feel for finding open teammates. He is going to benefit from joining a program that has some experienced guards – perhaps most notably RJ Davis – so that he can be eased in and given some time to adjust to college. That being said, we fully believe Cadeau is going to be playing major minutes before too long and that Hubert Davis and his squad will have the capability of playing at a different speed when he leads the charge. Don’t be surprised if he leads all freshmen in assists.

That’s high praise for the freshman guard and if Cadeau can live up to these expectations, it should be a big year in Chapel Hill.

We will get our first look at Cadeau and the Tar Heels on Monday night against Radford.

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