Spike Albrecht
Michael Joseph "Spike" Albrecht is a former college basketball player who completed his collegiate eligibility as a redshirt fifth year graduate transfer student for the 2016–17 Purdue Boilermakers team. Albrecht played high school basketball in his hometown of Crown Point, Indiana. He played his
undergraduate college career for the Michigan Wolverines. He is most well known for his 17-point first half performance off the bench for the 2012–13 Wolverines in the championship game of the 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. He won Big Ten Conference regular season championships with the 2013–14 Wolverines and 2016–17 Boilermakers.
Early life
At age five, Michael Albrecht, son of Tammy and Charles "Chuck" Albrecht, received his first baseball spikes and refused to take them off, earning his now famous nickname. Chuck now runs a summer basketball camp at which Spike assists. Albrecht attended Taft Middle School in Crown Point before attending Crown Point High School where he averaged 21 points, five assists, three steals and four rebounds as a senior in 2011. Albrecht committed to Michigan on April 6, 2012. Albrecht led Northfield Mount Hermon School to the 2012 New England Preparatory School Athletic Council Class AAA Boys' Basketball Tournament, defeating future Michigan teammate Mitch McGary's Brewster Academy in the semifinals. Albrecht was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Albrecht was a former Amateur Athletic Union teammate of McGary and future Michigan teammate Glenn Robinson III. Albrecht's father was college teammates with Zack Novak's father; a generation later, when Spike Albrecht was an incoming freshman, Zack Novak was Michigan's captain during the 2011-12 season.College career
The 2011–12 Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team had been co-champions of 2011–12 Big Ten Conference, but lost both of its co-captains, Zack Novak and Stu Douglass, to graduation and three players as transfers. The team was returning a nucleus of All-Big Ten players Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway, Jr.In Albrecht's role with the 2012–13 Wolverines team, he never scored more than 7 points in a game before the NCAA Tournament. In the regional finals on March 31 against Florida, Michigan built a 13–0 lead and never led by less than 10 the rest of the game. Several players had career-highs in the game, including Albrecht who had 7 points and 3 steals. The national championship rounds were held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. In the April 6 national semifinal against Syracuse, Michigan emerged with its thirty-first victory, the most since the 1992–93 team went 31–5. The bench contributed 22 points, including 6 from Albrecht, who raised his NCAA tournament total to 5-for-5 on three-point shots.
Michigan advanced to the April 8, 2013 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament championship game where the team lost to Midwest number one seed Louisville by an 82-76 margin despite 17 points, including 4-for-5 three-point shooting, from Albrecht in the game. Albrecht scored 17 first-half points on 4-for-4 three-point shooting. Albrecht made the seven-man All-Tournament team along with teammates McGary and Trey Burke. When The New York Times Sports page did a year in review, Albrecht's picture appeared with a feature story about his 17-point performance. NBC Sports journalist Rob Dauster described the performance as "arguably the most memorable half of basketball you'll ever see". By the end of the first half of the game, Albrecht had tied Sam Cassell by making his first 9 three-point shots in his NCAA tournament games that season, and USA Today described Albrecht's place in history as "amongst the most unexpected NCAA heroes in history". Following the championship game, Albrecht gained notoriety for tweeting with reigning Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model and Michigan fan Kate Upton. He thanked her for her attendance at the Georgia Dome.
Albrecht established a career high with 6 assists as Michigan defeated Houston Baptist by 54 points on December 7, 2013. On January 22, 2014, against Iowa, Albrecht made his first career start, posting new career highs of 7 assists and 4 steals, tying a career high with 3 rebounds and helping Michigan defeated consecutive ranked opponents for the first time since the 1996–97 team. Albrecht started in place of Derrick Walton who had the flu. During the Michigan–Michigan State rivalry game on January 25 against the 2013–14 Spartans at the Breslin Center, the Michigan State fans heckled Albrecht when he shot free throws with Justin Bieber chants. Michigan clinched its first outright Big Ten Conference championship since 1985–86. The 2013–14 team advanced to the elite eight round of the 2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament before being eliminated by Kentucky.
Albrecht was named co-captain of the 2014–15 team along with Caris LeVert. On November 29, he contributed a career-high 7 assists against Nicholls State. Then on December 2, Albrecht posted a new career high with 9 assists and broke a 63-63 deadlock with a 31 seconds remaining to lead Michigan to a 68-65 victory over Syracuse. On December 6 in an upset loss against NJIT Highlanders, Albrecht raised his streak of assists without a turnover to 19, but Albrecth had 4 turnovers on December 9 against the EMU Eagles. On January 3, 2015 against Purdue, Albrecht tied his career high with 17 points. On February 1 Albrecht tallied a career-high 18-points in the rivalry game against Michigan State. The March 3 double-overtime loss against Northwestern marked Albrecht's 8th consecutive double-digit scoring game as he picked up the scoring slack in the absence of Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton, who missed their 11th and 9th consecutive games. On March 7 against Rutgers, the streak ended, but Albrecht posted a career-high 9 assists. In April 2015, Albrecht had offseason surgery on his right hip to correct for a genetic condition that may also necessitate left hip surgery. On December 2, Albrecht was named an Allstate Good Works Team nominee.
On December 11, 2015, Albrecht announced he would sit out the rest of the season for the 2015–16 Wolverines team due to injuries. He will concentrate on his continued recovery and the rehabilitation process following bilateral hip surgery this past summer. During his career at Michigan, Albrecht played in 115 career games, and was named Michigan's co-MVP during the 2014–15 season, after starting 18 of 31 games and posting a career-best 7.5 points per game, while battling hip problems. On March 29, Albrecht announced that he would use the graduate transfer option to play a fifth year at another school. On April 1, head coach John Beilein decided not to restrict Albrecht or teammate Ricky Doyle from transferring to schools within the Big Ten if they desired to do so. By April 18, Albrecht was considering interest from home state Big Ten programs Purdue and Indiana as well as Wichita State, Texas A&M, Syracuse, USC, and Milwaukee.
It was announced on May 3, 2016, that Albrecht would play his final year of collegiate basketball at Purdue University. With their win over Indiana on February 28, 2017, Purdue clinched at least a share of the Big Ten regular season championship. With Wisconsin's loss on March 2, Purdue clinched an outright championship, their 23rd championship, the most in Big Ten history.