Friday, November 13, 2015 // Tip Off
7B

“I don’t want the coaches to be 

pissed at me or people to think 
that I don’t care that we just lost 
the national championship,” Spike 
remembered thinking. “Because 
obviously I would have traded 
all that in to have not played and 
won the national championship, 
that’s what mattered to me.”

He checked with Bartelstein, 

and the captain gave him the 
OK. He pressed send and within 
minutes his phone was exploding.

@KateUpton hey saw you at the 

game last night, thanks for coming 
out! Hope to see you again ;-)

“I remember frickin three days 

straight my phone was just non-
stop,” Albrecht said. “I remember 
after the first couple of minutes, 
me and (former Michigan player) 
Nik (Stauskas) were sitting in 
a room and we were laughing. 
Stausky, he was going nuts and 
I was like, ‘Dude, I don’t think I 
should’ve done it. This has gotten 
to be real bad.’ It was just getting 
stupid.”

Bartelstein saw Spike’s status 

— not his ego — blow up. On 
campus, he was an overnight 
celebrity. The departing senior 
didn’t want that one game to be 
Spike’s only legacy.

“Don’t let that half define the 

rest of your career,” Bartelstein 
told Spike afterward. “Don’t let 
that be the end of it.”

Spike listened. His sophomore 

year, he helped Michigan to its 
first outright Big Ten title in 
28 years. The year after, he was 
named a co-captain and played 
major minutes with two bad hips 
when other teammates suffered 
season-ending injuries. This year, 
he is on track to become one of the 

winningest players in program 
history. Not bad for a guy pegged 
as a career backup.

* * *

It’s the Friday night before the 

Michigan football team’s game 
against Brigham Young and Spike 
Albrecht — like dozens of other 
Michigan seniors — is in a corner 
by the bar at Rick’s American Café.

On the opposite side of the 

basement bar, former Yankees 
captain Derek Jeter is sitting at a 
booth with some friends. Jeter sits 
in a roped-off area, and dozens 
of Snapchatting students hover 
around to get a shot of the Yankees 
legend at their favorite campus 
hangout.

Back on the other side, Albrecht 

and Caris LeVert — Michigan’s 
co-captains — pose for a picture 
with two giddy girls.

Spike 
and 
some 
other 

teammates eventually sneak their 
way over toward Jeter, and the 
future Hall-of-Famer calls him 
over. Michigan’s co-captain and 
Captain Clutch meet and pose for 
a quick picture with some others.

Just 
a 
couple 
of 
captains 

hanging out.

“Stunningly, 
he 
knew 
who 

we were, so that was probably 
the highlight of my weekend,” 
Albrecht said.

Asked 
if 
he 
was 
actually 

surprised Jeter knew him — one 
of the faces of Michigan athletics, 
someone who dropped 17 points in 
a national championship game — 
Spike didn’t hesitate.

“Hell yeah, that does surprise 

me. I was shocked that he called 
my name before I even introduced 

myself. I thought that was pretty 
cool.”

He’s still not used to the 

attention. He never will be.

* * *

Two weeks before the season 

started, 
Michigan 
hosted 
an 

open practice followed by an 
opportunity for fans to take 
photos with the players.

The line for Spike was twice 

as long as the 
line 
for 
any 

other 
player, 

and for an hour, 
he smiled and 
posed as they 
snapped.

Colin 

Williams, 
6, 

went to Spike’s 
line 
first. 

Dressed in his 
No. 
2 
jersey, 

he said that Spike is his favorite 
player.

His dad, David Williams, says 

Spike’s a natural draw for his son. 
“They see Spike, and they say, 
‘Hey, he’s not much taller than me. 
I can play just like him.’ ”

Spike has heard that his whole 

life.

“The things I do, I feel like a 

lot of people can do,” Albrecht 
said. “You don’t have to be a freak 
athlete or 6-(foot)-5 to do a lot 
of the things I do out there. So 
I think that’s part of the reason 
people can relate to me.”

Standing next to him, it looks 

like that. The 5-foot-11 guard isn’t 
that big. That could be anyone. But 
the reality is, most people haven’t 
put in the work to do the things he 

does.

“He reminds me of that swan 

that looks so graceful out there 
on the water,” Brumm says. “But 
under water, he’s swimming like 
heck.”

Perhaps Bartelstein summed 

up people’s natural attraction to 
Spike the best: “The legend of 
Spike Albrecht is that any kid can 
be him if you work hard at it.”

* * *

It’s 10 days 

before Michigan 
tips off against 
Northern 
Michigan, 
and 

Spike 
sits 
in 

the 
lobby 
of 

the 
William 

Davidson Player 
Development 
Center, his back 
to a rare sunny 

November day in Ann Arbor.

He’s relaxed. He tells stories 

about driveway hoops, swears that 
he’s the best ping-pong player on 
the team and says that he hopes 
that, in the future, he’s “making a 
lot of money.”

Three of the five members of 

his freshman class are on NBA 
rosters; Caris LeVert, the fourth, 
is poised to join them next year. 
Spike couldn’t be happier for 
them. In fact, he says he knew 
from the first time he played with 
them that they’d all go pro.

“I don’t get jealous,” Albrecht 

said. “It doesn’t make me mad or 
anything like that. They’re all 
great kids. Some of my closest 
friends who’ve worked their tails 
off to be in the positions they’re in, 

and I feel like I’ve done OK with 
what I am or what I got.

“You don’t see many guys 

like me playing in the NBA. You 
don’t even see many guys like me 
playing college basketball. So I’ve 
always been realistic with myself. 
I have tons of confidence in myself 
and I don’t doubt my ability, but 
those dudes, you watch the NBA 
at all? You see what those guys do. 
It’s a whole different animal.”

He hasn’t ruled out playing 

overseas next year, but he doesn’t 
try to think about the future too 
much.

“It just seems crazy that I’ve 

put in 20 years of work and 
busted my ass for this game, given 
everything I got, and then it’s just 
all gone,” he said. “So that’s going 
to be tough for me. … I’m sure if 
you ask anyone, it’s tough giving 
up what you love to do and what 
you’ve worked so hard at for so 
long.”

Maybe he’ll play overseas for a 

few years. Maybe not. As for his 
future, no one’s totally sure yet.

Vogrich jokes that he’ll work at 

Abercrombie and Fitch. His dad 
thinks he’ll make a career out of 
his people skills. He used to chat 
up so many people during his 
Little League days that they said 
he’d become the mayor one day.

But enough about what’s next 

for Spike — he wants to talk about 
his coach’s future.

Earlier in the day, Michigan 

announced 
it 
had 
extended 

Beilein’s contract through 2020-
21, and Spike jokes that Beilein 
offering him a scholarship didn’t 
get the coach fired after all.

It got him an extension and a 

raise.

Five-year-old Hunter D’Agostino, left, and brothers 6-year-old Gabriel and 9-year-old Ilan Seinfeld-Chopp practice dribbling with Spike Albrecht at the William Davidson Player Development Center on Tuesday.

ALLISON FARRAND/DAILY

“The legend of 
Spike Albrecht 
is that any kid 
can be him.”

