Ex-Wolverine Spike Albrecht offering free online ball-handling workouts for kids

Countless people have found ways to give back during the coronavirus pandemic. Add Spike Albrecht to that list.

The former Michigan guard has been hosting free online basketball clinics on the videoconference platform Zoom that have gained popularity over the last month.

“We're all in this together,” Albrecht said on WTKA’s “The Michigan Insider” earlier this week. “We're all at home chilling. Nobody is doing anything so get up, get in your driveway, get in your garage, get in a ball-handling workout and try to get better. You can still work on your skills during this time even if you don't have a hoop.”

Albrecht left his corporate job in medical sales last year to return to the basketball world. After completing his first season as an assistant coach at Northfield Mount Hermon, a prep school in Massachusetts, he started doing ball-handling workouts with his players over Zoom in late March.

It didn’t take long before a few AAU coaches and high school teams contacted Albrecht and asked him to lead workouts for their teams. From there, Albrecht got the idea to do them on his own and on his own platform.

After enlisting the help of his sister Hannah, who recently graduated from Purdue Fort Wayne where she was a three-year starter, Albrecht reached out to coaches he knew in Indiana, Michigan and on the East Coast. As the word spread, the list of participants grew.

“And here we are five to six weeks later going from 10 to 15 kids to over 200, 250 kids on a workout. It has really evolved,” said Albrecht, who played at Michigan from 2012-16 and is best remembered for his 17-point, first-half performance against Louisville in the 2013 national title game.

“I wasn't the greatest player by any means. But the one thing I take pride in and that I was pretty good at is ball-handling, so I feel comfortable doing a ball-handling workout for these kids. … It's just something fun and something for these kids to take and use on their own time.”

Albrecht holds the ball-handling workouts four days a week out of the garage at his parents’ house in Indiana. The Sunday and Wednesday sessions are reserved for smaller kids and beginners, while Tuesdays and Thursdays are designed for more advanced players.

The workouts typically start at 6 p.m. EST and last roughly 40-45 minutes. Albrecht and his sister will demonstrate drills, watch and give feedback. All that’s required is one or two basketballs.

Albrecht also has had several former Wolverines, like Glenn Robinson III, Jamal Crawford, Moritz Wagner and Duncan Robinson, drop in to speak to the kids and give them advice.

“Every day I have people hitting me asking if we still have room,” Albrecht said. “We're still taking kids and we're going to get as many kids on as possible. If kids are interested in hooping and getting better, they're more than welcome to jump on the workouts.”

For more information on how to take part in Albrecht’s free workouts, email him at spike2315@yahoo.com and/or send him a message on Twitter @SpikeAlbrecht.

jhawkins@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @jamesbhawkins