Â
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Shortly after taking a window seat near the front of the team bus, Wisconsin freshman D'Mitrik Trice took a quick look around — like any good point guard sizing up the floor — and realized that he was wearing his practice sweats over his uniform, a wardrobe malfunction.
"Wait," he cautioned himself, "should we be wearing something else?"
Without drawing any attention, he got off the bus, grabbed his travel bag from the underneath baggage compartment, pulled out his game sweats and returned to his seat, where he nimbly changed into them and waited for the rest of his teammates to get on board for the ride to the arena.
The Badgers were about to face Creighton at CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
"It was my first road game," Trice recalled, "and I was a little nervous."
It was a freshman moment for someone who has rarely played like one.
"I definitely feel like a freshman," countered Trice, who has been the target of good-natured ribbing from the upperclassmen, a rite of passage. "If they're messing around and joking with me, off the court or on the court, I always tell the guys, 'I'm only a freshman once, so I'm enjoying it.'"
Timing is everything. As he was getting the words out of his mouth after Monday's practice, senior Nigel Hayes playfully yelled at Trice from the distance about failing to execute a defensive switch during last Saturday's game, a 90-70 win over Oklahoma at the Kohl Center.
Hayes was right about the switch, he agreed.
"In that (game) situation, he told me what I had to do and I respect his opinion," said Trice, who has appreciated Hayes' guidance during his transition to college basketball. "He has always been there to help. He'll always ask me randomly if I need anything or how he can help."
Coming off a near triple-double against Syracuse last Tuesday night, Hayes had 28 points, 6 assists and 0 turnovers against Oklahoma and was named the Big Ten Player of the Week. Trice, meanwhile, had a season-high 16 points on Saturday. He was 4-of-4 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Funny thing is, Trice entered the week leading the Big Ten in 3-point shooting but his perimeter shooting wasn't necessarily something that stood out during the recruiting process.
"I really didn't look at him with offense in mind — that it was what we needed from him," said UW coach Greg Gard. "I wanted an insurance policy, someone to solidify the backcourt and give us a sound decision-maker. Anything that was going to come on top of that was going to be a bonus.
"We recruited him to make good decisions and facilitate and then have the other parts grow."
Trice is sprouting. He's averaging 16 minutes per game, more than anyone else off the bench. Of course, he's got another great mentor in senior point guard Bronson Koenig, who has taken him under his wing and schooled him on what he needs to know and how to get better.
"I've learned a lot from him," Trice said. "He always has my back."
Such input and support from Hayes and Koenig has seemingly accelerated his growth.
"His confidence level is high right now," said associate head coach Lamont Paris. "From a basketball standpoint, he's making shots. But he has continued to make the simplest play — normally — and that's what we saw in him (as a prospect) and that's what he has done since the day he got here.
"He has played at a reasonable pace. The game has not sped up for him because he's under the lights in front of 18,000 people or because he has a really good player guarding him. He plays at the same speed and he does the things that makes him … (pause) … him."
Trice's high school basketball coach is not surprised by any of this. Nor is his father. They are one in the same. Travis Trice Sr., a former college point guard at Purdue and Butler, coached his son at Wayne High School in Huber Heights, Ohio. They were a winning combination, too.
In late March of 2015, Trice scored 19 points to help lead Huber Heights Wayne to a 65-57 win over Westerville South in the Division I state championship game at Ohio State's Value City Arena. South coach Ed Calo said afterwards of Wayne's quarterback, "He (Trice) controlled the tempo of the game."
Four months earlier, Trice was, in fact, quarterbacking Wayne at the Horseshoe in Columbus. But his Huber Heights football team came up short, 31-21, to Lakewood St. Edward in the state finals. It was a tough loss to get over since he didn't lose often. As a two-year starter, Trice was 25-3.
When speaking of Trice's leadership skills, Gard has frequently maintained that if he could lead 10 players in a football huddle, he should be even more at ease leading four on the basketball floor. And that has come to fruition during his first nine games manning the point for the Badgers.
Once again, Travis Trice Sr. has not been surprised.
"The one thing that is great about D'Mitrik," said the elder Trice, "is that he's one of the most even-keeled guys I think you'll ever be around. It's a great quality for a point guard. He's steady. He'll show a little emotion here and there. But he's always thinking — always thinking the game."
Trice referenced his son's ability to win over the locker room, regardless of the sport.
"If you asked his teammates, they would know exactly what I'm talking about," he said. "That's my son and I'm a little biased. But he's pretty special. He really cares about what goes on with other people. He's a genuine person and it kind of shows by the way he plays.
"He's truly an extension of the coach on the court. He knows that he has a team (in Wisconsin) that he doesn't have to go in and do anything incredible. He just knows that he has to go in and fit in. That's why he has had so much early success — just seeing where he can make that team better."
Intangibles aside, it's hard to ignore that Trice is shooting 54 percent from the field (20-of-37), 65 percent from beyond the arc (13-of-20) and 89 percent from the free throw line (8-of-9). As previously mentioned, it has been the bonus area for Gard, especially the 3-point shooting.
"To be honest, it doesn't surprise me at all," Trice Sr. again insisted. "I read one of the articles that said something about his unexpected success. I sent that article to the other people in our family — aunts, uncles, grandparents — we all have a group message. What I put on that was, 'I expected it.'
"He's a team first guy and he's a facilitator first. But he's got a very tight handle. I think the best part of his game is his mid-range. Right now, he's really stroking the 3. A lot of that had to do with the fact that he has gotten all the football out of his system."
Because Huber Heights Wayne was so successful on the gridiron, Trice's season would extend into December and it would take a few months for him to get his legs back for basketball. Playing both sports took a physical toll. "He graduated from high school weighing 158 pounds," his dad noted.
It was a reason why recruiters questioned his size resulting in Trice spending a year at IMG Academy in Florida. "What essentially happened was that he got a chance to concentrate on basketball and his body," Trice Sr. said. "He put on 20 pounds and it made all the difference in the world."
One of his son's role models is Houston Texans wide receiver Braxton Miller, a former Wayne High School and Ohio State quarterback and two-time Big Ten MVP. Miller, a long-time friend of the Trice family, has been a strong, positive influence on D'Mitrik.
"That's his big brother," Trice Sr. said. "Braxton calls him, 'Little Bro.' Braxton got a chance to see some of the Syracuse game and he and I were texting, and he shot me a message that he was 'Proud of his Little Bro.' He's always giving him advice and communicating with him."
Miller grew up with D'Mitrik's older brother, Travis Trice, the former Michigan State guard. The Spartans were 112-38 during Trice's career, the second-most wins for a recruiting class in school history. As a senior, he was named MVP after leading the team in scoring (15.3) and assists (5.1).
The last two summers, Travis and D'Mitrik Trice have made each other better.
"It's a battle, it's a lot of one-on-one," Trice Sr. said. "The thing that I love when they're doing their workouts, everything is competitive. They don't let the other one have anything easy. This summer, while they were here, we had some of the best open gyms that you could imagine."
Isaiah Trice, the youngest of Travis and Julie Price's three boys, also took part in the workouts and scrimmaging, along with D'Mitrik's teammate from IMG, Aleem Ford, now also a freshman teammate with the Badgers. "Some great games and great competition," Trice Sr. cooed.
D'Mitrik Trice acknowledged that the competitive level has always been "super high" with Travis Trice, who's now playing in Australia. "A lot of the moves that he has learned throughout the years, he has passed down to me," D'Mitrik said. "He has just given me tips to focus on going into this year."
Stay humble. Stay the course. Those were two tips from Travis Trice, who always had people skeptical of his size, strength and speed. As such, he encouraged D'Mitrik, "To go out there with the mindset that nobody can guard you. You've always been doubted your whole life, so prove your worth."
D'Mitrik Trice hasn't wasted any time in doing that.
"He's got a knack," said Paris, marveling at Trice's consistency in almost always making his first shot of the game. "Will that continue? You hope it does. Overall, the odds would say no. But that's not what makes him a valuable asset to us. That just adds to it. He makes basketball plays."
From the perspective of a former college basketball guard and successful high school basketball coach, Travis Trice Sr. has expressed his thoughts on his middle son. But what about his viewpoint as a father? What does he admire the most about him?
"First and foremost," he said, "how he respects his faith. D'Mitrik is a Christian man, a God-fearing man … he's sincere in everything that he says and does. I think that makes him special. He's not someone who's influenced by the crowd. He's his own guy."
And that has allowed D'Mitrik Trice, in Paris' words, to do the things that make him … him.
