

Mick McCabe: Spike Albrecht's performance no surprise to Michigan

Apr. 10, 2013
Spike Albrecht
Michigan's Spike Albrecht saves the ball on the floor in the first half during the 2013 NCAA championship game between Michigan and Louisville. / Julian H. Gonzalez / DFP

A TLANTA -- For nearly 16 glorious minutes Monday night, the college basketball world belonged to a kid named Spike who scored 17 points.

I can guarantee you that Tuesday there were thousands of short kids across the country firing up three-point bombs and telling themselves they were the next Spike Albrecht, all 5-feet-11, 170 pounds of him.

Their fathers probably were telling them the same thing.

But the truth is they are not.

You see, Albrecht is not your paper boy. He is a legitimate Division I basketball player.

And while we spent the first half of the NCAA championship game mesmerized by the Michigan freshman who grew up in Crown Point, Ind., no one on the floor or sitting on the U-M bench was surprised one little bit.

Listen, U-M coach John Beilein did not give Albrecht a scholarship to be the student manager. The real surprise is that the only men smart enough to offer this kid a scholarship coach at U-M and Appalachian State.

How so many college coaches could have missed so badly is mystifying.

But really, we shouldn't be surprised. Why do you think college coaches get fired so often? They don't win enough games because they recruit the wrong players.

Albrecht's father, Chuck, told me of a game in Crown Point when more than 20 college coaches were in attendance and Albrecht scored 33 points and knocked off No. 1 Merrillville.

Not one college coach called.

That is why Albrecht spent a year at a prep school. He led his team to a victory over Mitch McGary's team in the semifinals of the New England prep school tournament. In the final, Albrecht scored 23 points with nine assists and was selected the MVP, but the only coach who noticed was U-M assistant Jeff Meyer.

He spoke so highly of Albrecht that Beilein flew to the prep school to watch Albrecht in an open gym.

Beilein was able to look past Albrecht's lack of size and muscle definition -- something most coaches cannot do.

What Beilein noticed most about Albrecht was that his team never lost.

But that doesn't factor in when has its list of the top 150 players and top 20 points guards and Albrecht is not on either list. didn't have Albrecht among the top 100 players or top 30 point guards.

Of course they didn't -- because he didn't look the part.

Forget that he simply made plays and won games. Albrecht simply didn't pass the eye test, which is why even Beilein felt a little uneasy when he signed him.

He was afraid of the backlash of signing a kid who looks more like someone's little brother on siblings' weekend than a guy who made the Final Four's all-tournament team.

That is why Beilein told John Carroll, Albrecht's prep school coach: "I love this kid. I'm either in a lot of trouble or I'm going to be a genius."

Compared to a lot of coaches around the country, Beilein is a genius.


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