GRAND RAPIDS, MI – At a half-empty table in the corner of the banquet hall at Uccello’s Ristorante in downtown Grand Rapids, Durral Brooks bounced 1-year-old Liv Huyge on his lap, while his goddaughter shook a small, unopened box of candy like a rattle.

On a night in which he was the center of attention, Brooks was content to let everyone dine and mingle, as he entertained the one person in the room that didn’t know him as a star basketball player.

But when the time came, the Grand Rapids Catholic Central senior point guard took his seat at the front of the room and signed his national letter of intent to play basketball at the University of Michigan on the first day of the Division-I early signing period.

“It feels good,” Brooks said of sealing the verbal commitment he made in May. “It kind of felt like it had been solidified since I committed because I knew I was going to go there. There was no doubt about it. I was 100 percent committed, but it feels good to officially sign the paper.”

Joining Brooks in signing letters of intent were Catholic Central teammates Carter Meerman, who will play basketball at Ferris State, and Matthew Sokorai, a state champion golfer headed to Grand Valley State.

The original signing day plan, Catholic Central boys basketball head coach T.J. Meerman said, was to recognize only Brooks at the ceremony, but the senior, nicknamed “Phat Phat” or just “Phat,” insisted his classmates join him.

“Tonight, the whole thing very well could’ve been about Phat because he’s the No. 1 player (in Michigan) in the 2024 class, and he’s going to Michigan, but he wanted to have his two teammates at the table there with him,” Meerman said. “I think that speaks to his character.

“As a point guard, he wants other people to shine, other people to excel, and it’s the same reason he has Liv on his lap – he cares about other people. He didn’t want this night to be all about himself, and that means a lot to me, as a coach, to have a point guard with that mentality.”

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A three-star prospect ranked as the nation’s No. 13 point guard in the 2024 class by 247Sports, Brooks picked Michigan over Division-I offers from Michigan State, Butler, Dayton, Oakland, Southern Illinois, Toledo and Western Michigan based on the family atmosphere he felt with the Wolverines.

“It just felt like family,” he said. “When I went on my official (visit) there, they just treated my family so good and were so nice, and the environment around it just kind of felt like home.”

That Brooks’ good friend and 2021 Grand Rapids Christian grad Kobe Bufkin developed into a first-round NBA draft pick after two years in Ann Arbor also helped Michigan stand out.

“Since I was 3, me, my older brother and Kobe all played on a team called Boom until we went off to high school, and then my brother’s junior year and Kobe’s senior year, we did a final AAU tournament, the Gatorade Championships down in Indianapolis,” Brooks said. “Seeing Kobe go there and do what he did and now seeing where he’s at, that was something I can look forward to and see myself following in his footsteps.”

Lifelong Michigan fan, Brooks’ parents, Eric and Nicole, made frequent trips to Ann Arbor last year to watch Kobe Bufkin play, and they’re planning to make that two-hour commute a little more often next winter.

“If I can get time off work, I’m definitely going to be happy to be there,” he said. “It’s different when you’ve got your own son out there. There’s a whole different feeling, and we’ve been Michigan fans since Day 1.”

With a 6-foot-8 wingspan, the 6-foot-2 Brooks is capable of guarding all five positions at the high school level, and he plans to use his defense as a way toward early playing time at Michigan.

“He’s so unselfish, and he’s such a good defender, and I think a lot of times, high school players leave thinking, ‘If I score more, I’m going to play more in college right away,’ and I think it’s just the opposite,” Meerman said. “They have to learn how to defend at a high level, so I think his willingness to be not just an offensive guy, but also dig in on defense will help him see the floor earlier as a freshman.”

That’s not to discount Brooks’ ability to put the ball in the hoop.

Playing alongside current Wright State freshman guard Kaden Brown, Brooks averaged 20.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.5 blocks per game as a junior for a Catholic Central team that ended its season with an upset loss to Hudsonville Unity Christian in the district finals.

Brooks enters his senior season as one of the frontrunners for the state’s 2024 Mr. Basketball award, but, unsurprisingly, he said winning that trophy is “not really on my mind.”

“Obviously, it would be amazing to win, but I’m more focused on winning as a team, rather than my own personal stuff,” he said. “I don’t really think too much about individual goals. If they happen, they happen, but as a team, we want to win a state championship and do all that stuff. Hopefully, we can go undefeated, but our main goal is to win the whole thing.”