Like most players out of high school, Michigan shooting guard Eli Brooks wasn’t a great defender when he arrived at U-M. He’s since developed into one, however, and the Wolverines will need him at his best Tuesday night in a home game against Wisconsin.

There was question as to whether or not he’d play after losing a tooth going after a loose ball in last week’s win over Minnesota. Head coach Juwan Howard put an end to any speculation Monday.

“I can't comment on Eli's tooth and if they put it back in,” he said with a grin. “But let's put it like this — he'll be there tomorrow.”

His assignment: to slow Badgers guard D’Mitrik Trice. The fifth-year senior is averaging a career-best 14.8 points per game, shooting 42.1 percent from three-point range and dishing 3.7 assists. His 29 points against Michigan State a few weeks back had Spartans head coach Tom Izzo questioning why he didn’t recruit the brother of former Spartan Travis Trice.

He’s the one that makes the Badgers’ offense go, and Howard always talks about cutting off the head of the snake defensively. Trice is that guy.

“Trice is tough, man … I appreciate you reminding me that,” he said with a chuckle when asked about the 6-0 standout. “Now I’m not going to be able to sleep!

“He’s one of the elite guards in the country. He also has a lot of experience. A lot of the sets run through him. He does a very good job of shooting off ball screens, he can create his own shot … he’s a tough guard for anyone.”

U-M didn’t have Brooks to check him last year, and he went off for 28 points in an 81-74 victory in Ann Arbor.

“We missed his presence on floor. I think that was after what — he broke his nose?” Howard said. “But Eli is not going to be the only guy that’s going to be guarding him — you know, the team. He’s going to see a lot of different matchups.”

And the team has done a good job of stepping up and continuing to improve on that end. They’re up to No. 20 in KenPom.com’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric, one of the more accurate for measuring team defense, and Brooks is a big reason why. He’s been smothering against some of the league’s top players, most recently Minnesota’s Marcus Carr.

The rest have followed his lead. Freshman center Hunter Dickinson is directing traffic like a veteran, even though he’s played only 10 games to date. Sophomore Franz Wagner’s length has been devastating at times, and he doesn’t allow any offensive struggles to affect his defense, while point guard Mike Smith has been better than expected.

Senior transfer Chaundee Brown has been relentless on that end, as well, taking pride in wanting to guard the opponent’s best player.

“Our guys bought in from day one, day one being our first day of practice,” Howard said. “What I mentioned to the group, along with the staff, is that we have to give ourselves a chance to compete, night in and night out. We have to do a better job defensively. I did not like how our season ended and where our numbers ranked defensively last season.

“We put a point of emphasis on how can our habits improve? What can I do as a coach to prepare our guys better? What defensive schemes are going to give us the best chance to eliminate some of the teasy ones and some of the open threes, et cetera, et cetera?”

They’re still growing, he noted, and can get much better. And he has no doubt teams will be well prepared for them in the last 15 games.

“We can no longer go under the radar anymore, because we’re 10-0, one of the teams that’s undefeated,” he said. “We play in the Big Ten, are 5-0 in the Big Ten and everyone in the country — in college basketball — knows that the Big Ten is one of the toughest conferences. We play against one of the elite-level teams in the Big Ten (Wisconsin), wo we are no longer under the radar anymore.”

“Every game, every night … we embrace it. We embrace the competition, and we know that this league is for competitors only, so we embrace that as well. But we’re going to continue to keep finding ways on how we can get better.”

It’s early in the season, he noted, and the league is unforgiving. But the group is focused, and after a quarter of the season, it appears Howard has a contender.

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