All through playing college basketball and the NBA and a stint in coaching, Gary Grant flew everywhere he went.

So this time, with his first Michigan basketball home game since his playing days ended in the mid-1980s looming Saturday against Wisconsin, he'll do something else. Gary Grant will drive.

It might not sound like a big deal until you realize Grant - Michigan’s all-time leader in assists (731) and steals (300) - lives in Southern California.

“I just don’t want to fly right now,” Grant said before his trip last week. “I’ve been up in the air so many times and flown so many times that I just wanted to drive.

“We’ll do it like a road trip, something like that. Do it like a small road trip.”

Grant and a friend planned to leave Monday and arrive in Ann Arbor on Friday, a day before Michigan plans to honor the 1984-85 Wolverines, who won the Big Ten title. The team will be recognized Saturday when Michigan (11-11, 4-6 Big Ten) faces Wisconsin (17-5, 7-3) at 4 p.m. (CBS).

Grant left Michigan in 1988 and the Canton, Ohio, native was drafted by the Seattle Supersonics in the first round of the 1988 NBA Draft but ended up traded to the Los Angeles Clippers before the season started.

He spent his first seven years in the league as a Clipper before floating to the New York Knicks and Miami Heat before finishing his career with four years in Portland.

All of the travel left Grant unable to return to his alma mater during the season - until now.

He’d returned to speak at basketball banquets under former coaches Brian Ellerbe and Tommy Amaker, but never for this. He said when he walks into Crisler Arena before Saturday’s game, he might even get “chills.”

“Yep because playing for the University of Michigan and playing at Crisler Arena, as soon as I hear ‘Duh, duh-duh, duh-duh-duh-duh,’ I know I’m going to go crazy,” Grant said. “But that’s just part of just trying to see what happens. Getting back is a big thing, you know.”

It’s also something he wants to start to do more often. Now that he’s retired and his days and nights consist of working with children to improve their basketball game, his time isn’t as spread out with road trips and scouting reports.

This will allow him to make a yearly trip out to Ann Arbor - although he’s already said future trips will involve flights.

While he hasn’t been back, he watches Michigan basketball on television and he sees a team that struggles to close out games.

“A couple times it’s a matter of they had the game won and it’s a matter of sustaining it at times,” Grant said. “They have different times where they’ve been up by 10 points and gave the lead up or they take quick shots. But more than that, I think they’ve been playing pretty good. Just a matter of some of the younger guys step up and hit some key shots at times and it not just being Manny (Harris).”

Grant said both Harris and senior forward DeShawn Sims have pro potential. He should know. Beyond his years as a player in the NBA, he was also an assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers and owned the SoCal Legends, a team in the minor league American Basketball Association.

“They’ll be fine in the pros. Sims, once his footwork is good around the basket and he hits that 8, 9-foot jump shot, he’ll be fine, something like a Loy Vaught. Just stepping out, hitting that side shot,” Grant said. “Manny, he’s just aggressive, he’s not shy to take shots and wants the ball in the crucial.

“It’s just a matter of him making sure he takes good shots and keeping the team confident to play with him, just confident to play with him. He does his thing well and both of those guys should be able to make it to the pros, for sure.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.