MIchigan officially added its fourth member to the Class of 2012 on Wednesday when Spike Albrecht (Crown Point, Ind./Northfield Mount Hermon) sent in his Letter of Intent to the school.
Albrecht had been a late commit for the Wolverines, verbally pledging to the school last weekend. Michigan started recruiting him hard last month when space opened up following the transfers of Colton Christian, Carlton Brundidge and Evan Smotrycz.
He now becomes the third member of this class to have played for the AAU program SYF Players joining Mitch McGary (Porter, Ind./Brewster Academy) and Glenn Robinson III (St. John, Ind./Lake Central) and the fourth Michigan player in the past two seasons to commit to the school from that program.
"Spike Albrecht is an excellent addition to our basketball program," Michigan coach John Beilein said in a statement. "His work habits and love for the game remind me a lot of Zack (Novak), Stu (Douglass) and Corey (Person). He is a very skilled point guard with strong leadership skills, terrific court vision and a very high basketball IQ.
"Spike is a proven winner who values an assist just as much as any points he may score."
The 6-foot, 178-pound Albrecht is expected to compete for time at the backup point guard slot with senior Eso Akunne and fellow freshman Nick Stauskas.
"I'm really excited to be signing with Michigan," Albrecht said in the statement. "Playing in the Big Ten has been a dream of mine ever since I was little. I'm just happy and thankful that I get the opportunity to attend such a great school and be a part of a great basketball program."
Della Valle out
Shooting guard Amedeo Della Valle (Henderson, Nev./Findlay Prep) told WolverineNation that he will not be visiting Ann Arbor this weekend after Beilein called Della Valle’s high school coach on Tuesday to tell him that they were no longer recruiting him.
Beilein said that Della Valle could still visit the campus this weekend, though there would be no scholarship offer. Della Valle declined the visit.
Della Valle, who had narrowed to Arizona, Michigan and Ohio State, is now unsure of what exactly he’ll do. He will visit Ohio State next weekend and possibly open up to some other schools as well.
Della Valle said Beilein, who visited Findlay on March 22, told him he could see him playing at Michigan whether or not Burke decided to stay.