ROSEMONT, Ill. — For Spike Albrecht, the feeling was “bittersweet.”
Sure, he’ll be losing three of his good friends — Nik Stauskas, Mitch McGary and Glenn Robinson III — but he’ll also have three new teams to watch on the NBA League Pass at his apartment.
While it appears Albrecht is ready to embrace his new leadership role on a notably young Michigan men’s basketball team, it’ll take some time for the junior guard to deal with the absence of some of his best friends.
“It’s a little bit different,” Albrecht said. “Just for me personally, those were three of my really close friends.
“Obviously I was excited for them to start a new chapter in their lives, but not having three of my best friends with me at school who I literally spent 10 months out of the year with is a lot different. But I still keep in touch with them all the time, so those friendships will last forever.”
Albrecht, unlike his former teammates, knows he won’t play professionally. But he acknowledges the other player left at Michigan from the “Fresh Five” recruiting class likely will.
For Caris LeVert, his relationship with Stauskas, McGary and Robinson remains the same. Though the trio is no longer on campus, the junior guard still talks to them “probably a couple times a week.”
“I ask them a lot of questions about how it is,” LeVert said.
Recently, LeVert’s conversations with his friends have turned into words of encouragement for McGary to recover from his foot injury and for Stauskas and Robinson to get through training camp.
Though talk about the three rookies’ transition to the NBA is a hot topic for the pentad, Albrecht knows the lessons McGary, Stauskas and Robinson are learning will benefit LeVert more than himself.
“They’ll talk to me about the league, this and that,” Albrecht said. “They’ll tell Caris about it, but Caris is learning more about things like that.”
LeVert might be the next Wolverine in line to enter the NBA, but like his tight-lipped teammates who went last year, he remains focused on the present.
“One thing I respect about Caris is he doesn’t get caught up with things like that — the NBA or things like that,” Albrecht said. “He’s focused on things this season. What he can do to help us win this year. That’s why I’ve got a great deal of respect for him. And those guys who just (went to the NBA), they’re all the same way. And that’s why we’ve been able to be successful.”
As far away as LeVert is from making a decision about declaring for the draft, he knows his conversations with McGary, Stauskas and Robinson will “affect me greatly until I get to that decision point.”
But as Albrecht said, that decision isn’t anywhere near LeVert’s mind right now.
“Right now, I’m not really looking into that,” he said. “(I’m) just kind of checking in with those guys. Before basketball, they’re my brothers first. But I think when it gets to that point, me talking to them will really help me.”
Though LeVert and Albrecht are separated from the other members of the Fresh Five by thousands of miles, they know the group will be reunited soon enough.
After all, McGary, Stauskas and Robinson have a new team to follow this season, too.
“They’re excited to come back to Michigan, hang out with us, watch our games,” Albrecht said. “They’re still Michigan Men and really great friends of ours.”