During a cool May day, with the evening sun hanging in the sky, Kelvin Grady rolled over in his bed and shut his eyes again.

Any college kid knows what it’s like to not want to get up and face the day ahead — a boring lecture, a pointless pop quiz, a hangover from a long night at Rick’s, whatever the case may be.

But technically, Grady wasn’t a college kid anymore. After the Michigan basketball team’s surprising run to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the sophomore point guard left the team, decided not to enroll in any spring-term classes, went back home to Grand Rapids and tried to figure out what he was going to do for the rest of his life.

He settled on a night-shift job at an Amway factory in Ada, capping bottles of lotion from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day. He’d get up — reluctantly and with some occasional help from his father — go to work, come home, go to sleep and do it all over again.

“It was a humbling experience,” he said. “To go from college, playing sports, getting a rent check, going to class, hanging out with your friends to reality. I was out of school and I was working, working in a factory.”

Grady worked on the factory line for about a month, and every day, he questioned his decision to leave basketball. But then another opportunity came calling. It wasn’t too far from the old one — after all, Crisler Arena and Michigan Stadium are neighbors.

About two weeks after the Michigan football team started its summer workouts, Grady received a call from his brother, Kevin, a senior fullback for the Wolverines. The two had played football together at East Grand Rapids, and Kevin tried to convince his brother to join the team.

“He was like, ‘You got the tools,” Grady said. “ ‘If you want to come, come in. But if you do, you need to be all in. You can’t come out here just to come out here. This is something serious. This is Michigan football. This is something that you have to really want to do.’ ”

Grady met with Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez and brought some tapes from his playing days at East Grand Rapids High School. Grady hadn’t played football since his senior year, but Rodriguez was open to the speedster’s proposition.

The redshirt sophomore joined the team shortly thereafter.

The coaching staff found a spot for Grady at slot receiver, and he has immediately excelled. Although Grady readily admits that basketball is his first love, he says he’s better at football.

And it has showed. Grady quickly climbed the depth chart in one of the Wolverines’ most talent-rich positions, finding his place as the No. 2 slot receiver. Other slot receivers include 2009 leading receiver Martavious Odoms, Roy Roundtree and Terrance Robinson, all of whom had time to study and become comfortable with the system last season.

With only a few weeks worth of practice time, he played in Michigan’s season-opening win over Western Michigan. So far, Grady has caught five balls for 30 yards.

But he’s been able to provide the Wolverines with a lot more than just on-field production.

“There’s a lot of people out here that have jobs and bust their butt every day for every dollar that they get,” Grady said. “So now I can respect that aspect of it, and then, here I am again.

“Through my struggles, I am a stronger person, and I feel like I can put that on my teammates and encourage them to work hard and realize what they got and to take advantage of everything they got. You never know when it could be gone.”

Of course, Michigan strength and conditioning coach Mike Barwis’s workouts are hard, and Grady may not want to take that nagging midterm.

But you’ll never see him complain.

After his experience at the factory, he’ll never take his opportunities for granted.

“Whenever I look down or I get tired, I’m easily encouraged now,” Grady said. “Just to work and fight through it, because I’ve been to the bottom of the bottom and now I’m back. I’m a Michigan Man, and this is where I’m supposed to be.”