How the turntables: Spike Albrecht will join Louisville basketball staff

Louisville basketball makes some interesting staff additions.

Chris Mack just added an interesting character to the Louisville basketball staff, as well as a beloved former Cardinal.

There’s a scene in The Office when Michael gets fed up with the new boss, Charles Minor, and goes up to New York and tells the CEO David Wallace that he is quitting. He comes back to Scranton, and after spending a day distracting others and drinking scotch and Splenda (“tastes like Splenda, gets you drunk like scotch”), Michael decides to rent out the downstairs storage room and start the Michael Scott Paper company with Pam and Ryan.

Very quickly, MSPC steals all of Dunder Mifflin Scranton’s biggest clients by undercutting costs with zero regard for profit. Though he is hemorrhaging money, David and Charles are forced to offer him his job back.

Upon his return, Michael famously walks into the office and proclaims “well, well, well…. how the turntables.”

After turning down an offer and trying to strong-arm the corporate guys into giving Pam and Ryan sales positions, Michael leaves the conference room and says “our balls are in your court.”

I couldn’t help but be reminded of this scene when I heard the news of Louisville basketball’s newest addition to its coaching staff, former Michigan star, and nearly Louisville villain, Spike Albrecht.

The former Wolverine is coming to Louisville’s court at the start of the 2020-21 season, but in this the 2020th year of our Lord, this news feels like it’s pretty much par for the course.

Albrecht, for those who just woke up from a seven-plus year coma or have some sort of unique ability to block out terrifying memories, was the infamous player who came off the bench in the 2013 national title game and absolutely lit up Louisville in the first half.

After Naismith player of the year, Trey Burke, was relegated to the bench when he was whistled for two fouls early in the game, the little-known Albrecht was inserted, and he went absolutely banana hammocks on the Cardinals.

To put into perspective how dumb the sequence of events was, Albrecht had never played more than fourteen minutes in a collegiate basketball game, and he put up more goose eggs in the scoring column than games in which he actually scored a point. His career-high was seven. He scored 17 points in a first half that could have been one of the worst memories of all-time for Louisville basketball fans.

Thank goodness for Peyton Siva, Russ Smith, FFMOP Luke Hancock, and company, who helped the Cardinals storm back and lead for the majority of the second half en route to Louisville’s third national title.

Albrecht went on to have a pretty solid career. During his junior season, he started the final 17 games for the Wolverines and finally topped his 17 point game with 18 points in a February 2015 match-up against Iowa. After some injury issues sidelined him in 2015-16, he took a redshirt season and ultimately transferred to Purdue.

The Cards did end up facing Albrecht when Louisville hosted Purdue in 2016. He finished the game with 0 points and a rebound in 9 minutes.

Albrecht was never a freakishly talented player, but he did possess a lot of what is needed to have a successful coaching career. He commands the room well, has an excellent basketball IQ, and an evident passion for the game. After starting his career in the “real world,” Albrecht quickly realized that he wanted to do something that he was passionate about, so he went back to his alma mater Northfield Mount Herman School in Northfield, Massachusetts.

Now, seven years after his performance against the Cardinals, and three years after graduating from college, Albrecht will join the Louisville basketball staff as a graduate assistant.

According to Lucas Albach of the Courier-Journal, former Louisville star Christen Cunningham will also join the staff as a graduate assistant in 2020-21.

Cunningham, who was a graduate transfer from Samford under Mack in his first year with the Cards, averaged 10.1 points and 4.8 assists in his graduate year. He quickly made a name for himself among the Louisville fanbase as one of the more clutch players in recent memory and helped bridge the gap for Mack during his first season.

Adding two higher-profile graduate assistants like Cunningham and Albrecht will only serve to benefit the Cardinals next season, and should be great in terms of leadership and ability to relate with players on an inexperienced but developing squad.

Cunningham should be the perfect addition to help along rising sophomore David Johnson, who will take on the role of starting point guard next season and be expected to take a step forward in preparation for a jump to the NBA.