WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Michigan basketball team has tried to replicate the faster guards in the Big Ten Conference in practice.

One solution might arrive this week in former Michigan point-guard-turned-football-slot-receiver Kelvin Grady, who may rejoin the basketball team as early as this week.

“He contacted us and asked if he could help us out,” Michigan coach John Beilein said after Saturday's 69-59 loss to Purdue. “We’re having trouble in scout teams guarding the quickness. Kelvin volunteered to help us as a scout team guy, that’s probably all it will be. If he does end up going in, we’ll deal with it when it gets there.”

Grady, a junior with two years of eligibility remaining, started 33 games in his first two years at Michigan on the basketball team and averaged 4.9 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists.

But last off-season, he left the team and returned to Grand Rapids for a brief sabbatical where he worked in a factory before deciding to go out for football.

Football will remain Grady’s priority at Michigan, but he might now be double-dipping - even if just in practice.

“He knows our system and he asked us to do it and we talked with him,” Beilein said. “We love Kelvin and said you know what, we could use that. It’s tough guarding Trevon Hughes and Kalin Lucas, we don’t have it. I love Josh Bartelstein, he’s not as quick as Kalin Lucas.

“We’re trying to duplicate that in practice.”

Beilein said he is working on figuring out juggling the hours between football and basketball, but that he spoke with Grady “the other day” and will talk with him again Monday.

The third-year Michigan coach said he didn’t know if this would be a return for just the remainder of the season or longer.

But if Grady were to remain with the team, it's unlikely Beilein would use him in a game this year because it would burn a year of eligibility.

“We have to get careful if we get to that point,” Beilein said. “If it comes where we have an injury or there’s something that goes on that we need him and the injury would be the biggest thing.”

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.