ANN ARBOR >> On a Michigan basketball team that’s full of new faces throughout the roster and coaching staff, Roddy Gayle Jr. is one of the few who has experienced the fervor of the Ohio State rivalry.

The junior guard been through the highs and lows of winning and losing, and everything else that comes with that. He understands what the game means to both fan bases. He’s lived it the past two seasons.

But when he takes the court at Value City Arena on Sunday in a matchup that he’s had circled for months, the cheers he used to receive will turn into boos, as he takes on his former squad for the first time since his offseason departure.

“I know that this was an opportunity for me to be able to go back to Columbus and be able to perform, especially how I felt like I was treated after I made a decision to (transfer),” Gayle said Friday.

“It gives me the opportunity to be able to prove myself, prove what Coach Dusty (May) had in store, prove what I think was the best decision for me.”

It’s one thing to leave one Big Ten team for another. It’s another thing to leave a program and join its fierce rival, which is far from a regular occurrence.

Gayle caught heavy flak from Ohio State fans after he announced he was transferring to Michigan last April. The brunt of the backlash he received came on social media, though Gayle admitted there were times he felt uneasy being out in public.

“I received a lot of hate for that. At end of the day, I get it. It’s fans being fans,” Gayle said.

“There were some instances, especially right after (entering) the transfer portal, around school if somebody seen me. I kind of feared the possibility of what people might do to me when I was out there. … I mean, that’s just kind of the landscape that we live in nowadays.”

None of the angry vitriol that was spewed came from Gayle’s former Ohio State teammates and coaches. Gayle said he still has a close bond with and keeps in touch with several Buckeyes, including Bruce Thornton, Devin Royal and Colby Baumann, who all lived in the same apartment complex at Ohio State.

Gayle added there hasn’t been any trash talk from his former teammates and guys he described as his best friends leading up to Sunday’s game. But there has been some banter with Thornton.

“We know this is probably one of the little chances we have playing against each other. We practiced (against) each other all the time the past two years,” said Gayle, who noted he knows Thornton’s game “like the back of my hand.”

“This is a huge opportunity for bragging rights.”

It’s also a chance for Gayle to build off one of his better recent performances — a 14-point, seven-rebound effort in Tuesday’s win over Purdue. That came in his second game coming off the bench, a lineup move that was first made in last weekend’s win at Indiana.

May explained that Gayle was having “trouble picking his spots.” If Gayle was being overly aggressive, he was taking away touches from Vlad Goldin in the post and Danny Wolf in pick-and-rolls.

May got the idea to have Gayle come off the bench after watching a Kevin Durant interview, where the Phoenix Suns star talked about how it was difficult for Bradley Beal to play alongside Devin Booker and himself. Beal didn’t know when he was going to get his shots or touches. That changed when he came off the bench.

May had conversations with Gayle before making the switch and putting Rubin Jones in as a starter. While Gayle said it felt “very different,” he doesn’t feel like his role or minutes have changed at all.

“I think that communication I had with Coach May was very important for me to just go out there and play my game,” Gayle said. “It was very informative for him to give me that kind of confidence like, ‘We’re bringing you off the bench, not because you’re not performing, but we want you to perform more.’”

One area that’s been a struggle for Gayle has been 3-point shooting. Michigan’s coaches felt he was a better perimeter shooter than his numbers indicated, and he shot 35.7% from deep (10-for-28) over the first nine games. In his 14 games since, he’s made just three 3-pointers on 9.7% shooting.

“I think my biggest problem is I think about the shot too much way before I even shoot it,” Gayle said. “To be honest with you, I don’t know how the shot isn’t going in. It feels good. It looks good.

“I can’t take too much time trying to think about things I should have did or could have did, but try to use my strengths as much as possible — getting to the rim, getting fouled and making plays for my teammates.”

While some players may view being removed from the starting lineup as a demotion, assistant coach Justin Joyner said Gayle has been “super mature” in the way he’s handled it.

Gayle hasn’t sulked or soured. He hasn’t stopped being a leader on the court and a sounding board for the younger Wolverines. And he hasn’t let his shooting slump stop him from finding other ways to impact the game.

“I think now these young men in college athletics face a ton of pressure, whether it’s social media pressure, whether it’s pressure from the outside, agents, whatever it may be,” Joyner said. “I think his ability to compartmentalize what’s important, how he can move forward and help this team win and be the best version of himself, a lot of that’s going to do with how he approaches everything.

“There’s an added element going into Ohio State, but I think he’s a guy that is really playing good ball for us.”

Gayle wants nothing more than to show that in his old stomping ground against a group of Buckeyes that he’s more than familiar with.

“At the end of the day, we’re competitors and we play the sport that we love,” Gayle said. “We just happen to be on two different sides.”