When Pat Spencer (SPS ’20) first laced up his shoes in Welsh-Ryan Arena in 2019, he was a grad student who hadn’t played a lick of college basketball.
The current Golden State Warriors guard, who’s in the midst of a breakout season, was a college lacrosse star who some still consider the greatest of all-time in the sport.
He was fresh off a historic season at Loyola University Maryland, where he’d won the Tewaaraton Award, the highest award in lacrosse, and was selected first overall in the inaugural 2019 Premier Lacrosse League Draft.
But he turned it down. From 2016 to 2019, he’d given his all to the Greyhounds. He brought them to the NCAA semifinals his freshman year and to two quarterfinals in the next three years. Upon getting drafted, he decided it was time for his story to change.
Spencer set his sights on basketball, and Northwestern took a chance on him. Since then, he has grinded his way into the NBA, landing his first standard contract Feb. 7.
“He’s a dog,” Warriors point guard Stephen Curry told The Daily. “Find me anybody else who’s got the self-confidence to do what he’s done.”
‘Sports are meant to be won’
Though Spencer wouldn’t have his name embroidered on a collegiate basketball jersey until after a four-year lacrosse career, his journey to Northwestern basketball began more than 20 years earlier.
His dad, Bruce Spencer, loved basketball since his own childhood. His mom, Donna Spencer, too played in high school and was a lifelong fan.
When Pat Spencer was born, not playing basketball wasn’t really an option. His dad took the reins, coaching the future NBA guard personally until he was 11.
Pat Spencer’s two younger brothers, Cam and Will Spencer, received the same treatment. Cam and Will Spencer would also go onto play at the collegiate level, with Cam Spencer continuing on to play in the NBA as a guard for the Memphis Grizzlies.
“We’ve always been junkies,” Bruce Spencer said.
Growing up, the Spencer family driveway became the local venue for neighborhood kids to practice their basketball game.
But with the way things were run at the Spencer household, this wasn’t your average game of pickup basketball.
“If you were coming to our house, you were getting in a game to win,” Bruce Spencer said.
Bruce Spencer is a self-described ultra competitor, something Donna Spencer said is just innate to who he is. He said he won’t even play church volleyball because “sports are meant to be won.”
To say that mentality rubbed off on his sons would be an understatement.
To this day, Pat Spencer said he credits the way his family raised him for his success. Specifically, he said his grandpa, dad and anyone else who’s “a little off in the head competitively” have served as role models.
Pat Spencer packed his schedule with almost every sport as a kid, seeking out opportunities for competition. In a given season, he was on up to as many as three teams for different sports. His parents said getting him to all his practices was a constant rush, but to feed his competitive nature, they had to make it work.
“He’s always been that ferocious, ‘I want to win’ kind of kid.” Donna Spencer said. “When he was little, we tried to temper it. But I believe part of it’s just the nature of who he is.”
Between the lacrosse field and the basketball court
By the time he entered high school, Pat Spencer’s main commitments had narrowed to lacrosse and basketball.
As a high school freshman, though, the 5-foot-4 120-pound Pat Spencer was undersized when it came to hardwood. Despite his best efforts, he got stuck on junior varsity through sophomore year.
In lacrosse, however, his size didn’t matter as much. Though he also started his high school career on junior varsity, Spencer was quickly able to make a name for himself as an attacker at summer lacrosse programs.
By the start of his junior year, the pressure to commit to a school — and a sport — was mounting. With loose regulations at the time, fellow talented high school lacrosse players had already signed their offer letters, leaving limited options for Pat Spencer.
“It was the wild west back then,” Bruce Spencer said. “You had eighth and ninth graders committing to schools they couldn’t even spell the names of.”
Pat Spencer had to make a decision. He loved basketball more, but knew the odds of securing any kind of collegiate commitment at that time were slim to none. And for Pat Spencer, competing at the highest level possible was always his top priority.
Fortunately for him, Charley Toomey, the coach of Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse, noticed Pat Spencer’s prowess on the field and still had an open spot on his team.
The Division I school would keep Pat Spencer close to home, where his entire extended family was excited to cheer him on. After a couple visits and a few good conversations, he was in.
Once he signed, his growth skyrocketed. By the end of his junior year of high school, Pat Spencer had helped his varsity lacrosse team win a conference championship.
“We knew we were getting a good one,” Toomey said.
Pat Spencer also made significant strides on the basketball court in the following years and was catching the eyes of some scouts who came to watch his teammates.
One teammate in particular, Kodye Pugh, was gaining some attention in Pat Spencer’s senior year. When the scouts came, his coach, Cliff Rees, would send Pat Spencer into the game to help Pugh showcase his talents. But Pat Spencer ended up serving as a distraction.
“Numerous times, (Rees) said the scouts came back asking about Pat, and asking ‘Is this kid committed?’” Donna Spencer said. “And he would say, ‘Yeah. But not for basketball.’”
Pugh’s mom was upset that Pat Spencer was taking up the spotlight, Bruce Spencer said. But for Pat Spencer going halfway has never been an option.
Becoming a lacrosse star
Pat Spencer started practicing for his freshman season at Loyola Maryland in September 2015. Once the team got going, he was immediately a star.
In his first game, the Greyhounds faced off against Virginia on the road, a team studded with experienced vets and future professional lacrosse players.
After seven minutes, Pat Spencer had already posted a goal and an assist.
By the end of the game, Virginia’s best defender was on him, Bruce Spencer said. And by the end of that season, Toomey said Pat Spencer was the best player in the country.
“The game looked slower to him than it did for a lot of kids around him,” Toomey said.
Over the next few years, Pat Spencer continued to establish himself as a generational talent.
His teammates loved him, too. He was the kind of guy to put his arm around a freshman in the locker room, Toomey said.
But what stood out the most to Toomey was the fire that Pat Spencer possessed.
“He was a constant competitor, to the point that I’ve never seen it,” Toomey said. “You don’t want to play him in checkers.”
When summer rolled around, though, it was always a different story.
“He wouldn’t pick up a lacrosse stick,” Bruce Spencer said.
Whether it was playing pick up at the Loyola gym, running competitive games at pro-ams or practicing with his brother, Pat Spencer was all basketball until regular lacrosse practice resumed in September.
Toomey said he and the Greyhounds didn’t mind as long as he wasn’t getting injured. He was getting more exercise on the basketball court than most of his teammates were with the standard strength and conditioning program, Toomey said.
Even once lacrosse season was back on, Pat Spencer needed more. He would frequently eat his lunch at the Loyola Maryland basketball team’s practices before heading back to the lacrosse field.
By the end of his time at Loyola, he had set the all-time NCAA Division I record in assists, was second in points, a one-time winner and three-time finalist for the Tewaaraton Award, the first player to receive Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year honors all four seasons, and was widely recognized as the greatest lacrosse player ever.
After being selected first in the 2019 Premier Lacrosse League Draft, Pat Spencer’s future lacrosse career was mapped out. But his itch for basketball just wouldn’t go away.
“The four years at Loyola were really magical,” Donna Spencer said. “We loved it, he loved it, but it just wasn’t his dream.”
Joining the ’Cats
Pat Spencer knew he had to give basketball a shot. But even his most loyal supporters, like Toomey, weren’t sure that giving up lacrosse was the right move.
Still, Pat Spencer never doubted himself.
“I’m a believer in, if you have a passion for something, you got to pursue it,” he said.
With no basketball tape or highlights to look at though, finding a scholarship was tough.
Only one coach decided to give him a shot: NU’s Chris Collins.
“When you’re the best in the world at something, whatever that is, there’s a greatness to that, and Pat carries some of that,” Collins said. “I just felt, even if he wasn’t a great basketball player, some of his qualities would rub off on our younger guys.”
Collins extended a scholarship to Pat Spencer and he joined the Wildcats as a grad student guard that next summer.
After a Europe trip with the team, he was excited to hone his skillset in Evanston.
“I knew I was going to have to learn a lot about my game and my body,” Pat Spencer said. “That whole year was really a learning experience for me.”
To his benefit, his lacrosse background assisted in the transition. He said many of the skills and drills were similar across sports. Even some of the lingo was the same: pick-and-rolls, fast breaks and man-to-man defense.
The players on the NU women’s lacrosse team, meanwhile, were stoked to have Spencer joining the Wildcat family, coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said in an interview with Northwestern Athletics in 2019.
“He’s pretty much a superstar in our sport,” she said. “Everybody knows who Pat Spencer is.”
His family, too, was more than excited to see Pat Spencer in action on the court.
Cam Spencer was also playing at the collegiate level at Loyola Maryland at the time, but for their parents, Big Ten basketball was where it was at, Bruce Spencer said.
“No disrespect to the Patriot League, but they’re not quite like the Big Ten venues,” he said. “When we got that going, I was like, ‘I’m not going to miss these games.’”
And his family definitely got to see him play. Pat Spencer started in 29 of 31 games he played during his year with the ’Cats.
But his stats didn’t jump off the stat sheet. He averaged 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists on 43.6% shooting from the field.
More importantly for Pat Spencer, though, the team didn’t perform as he would have hoped. NU went 8-23 during his year there, and his career ended on a 74-57 loss to Minnesota.
“It was frustrating in terms of losing,” he said. “First time I’d ever lost in my life.”
Still, Collins was focused on building something bigger.
Pat Spencer knew where he stood. He was the only grad student on a roster stacked with freshmen. He could see what Collins was working towards, but knew they weren’t going to get there in his time.
“I wanted to leave a blueprint of competitiveness, an edge, and a fire on some of those young guys, so they would have something going forward,” Pat Spencer said.
For one freshman in particular, Collins said Pat Spencer’s mentality left a mark: guard Boo Buie. In the years after Spencer left, Buie would go on to become the ’Cats’ all-time leading scorer and take the team to their second and third NCAA Tournament appearances.
Even for current ’Cats, the Spencer mentality has left a mark.
Senior forward Nick Martinelli recalled a time where he squared off against Cam Spencer. He said that it’s easy to see how both brothers have succeeded after witnessing his “unmatched” competitiveness first-hand.
Despite Pat Spencer’s modest performance in the 2019-20 season, he still had his sights set on the NBA.
Though Pat Spencer made great strides while at NU, even Collins said he wouldn’t have guessed that dream would come true. He could have used one more year in Evanston to finish polishing his game, Collins thought at the time.
Still, knowing Pat Spencer’s mindset, he knew better than to rule it out as a possibility.
“I just never bet against that guy in anything,” Collins said.
Making his dream a reality
The next year, after completing his master’s in sports administration over the summer and going undrafted, Pat Spencer found a spot on the Hamburg Towers in Germany.
After his brief stint abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to the States and continued to work hard on his individual game in Washington D.C. with a professional trainer. With the personalized coaching, he started noticing real progress.
Pat Spencer dedicated particular time to working on his 3-point shot. While at NU, the first-time college hooper shot a weak 23.5% from behind the arc. In the NBA, he has worked his way up to over 40%.
In 2021, he signed with the Capital City Go-Go, the NBA G League affiliate of the Washington Wizards. A year later, he made it to California with the Warriors G League affiliate.
Pat Spencer continued to improve year over year. By last season, Pat Spencer was averaging 22 points as a star for the team. In February 2024, his performance earned him his first NBA Contract: a two-way deal with the Warriors.
This year in particular, has been a hallmark year in Pat Spencer’s career.
With Curry, the Warriors’ star guard, injured for large swaths of the season, Pat Spencer had a real opportunity to step up and get serious playing time.
In typical Pat Spencer fashion, he did not take this opportunity lightly.
He got into double-digit scoring 11 times and put up as many as 13 assists in a single game before signing a full-time contract. Even to NBA players, his competitiveness is something special.
“He’s not backing down from anybody,” Curry said. “That’s why he’s where he’s at right now.”
Spencer also became a media sensation this season. First, it was a clip of him going head-to-head with his brother Cam Spencer. Then, it was him shouting to the crowd after a big three, “I’m that motherf—r.”
Fans couldn’t get enough. He also earned him Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s respect, too.
“His coach realized that Pat is that motherf—r,” Kerr said in a postgame press conference.
Pat Spencer doesn’t care about any of it, though.
He’s a simple guy, he said. He is not on any social media, rocks number 61 — a reminder of the 60 people drafted in front of him — and still drives the same car from high school.
“I don’t value material things,” he said. “I value relationships, I value hard work, I value family, I value being able to turn a game on on a Wednesday night and see my brother play in the NBA. Those are the things that are fulfilling.”
While Pat Spencer continues to defy the odds, back in Evanston, Collins is loving every minute of it. He said in his more than 25 years coaching the sport, watching the progress Pat Spencer has made is one of the more remarkable things he’s ever seen.
“I don’t think there’s anything else that makes me smile more than when I turn on a Warriors game and see him out there,” Collins told the Chicago Tribune in December.
Pat Spencer is now just one of three former ’Cats with current NBA contracts, along with Pete Nance (Communication ’22) and Brooks Barnhizer (Communication ’25).
At first, it was just a good story: a lacrosse star turned NBA player. But signing the standard contract marked something different.
Just days before inking his name, Pat Spencer said his goal was to impact winning at a high level. With a contract, he could do what he’s always loved and have the security take care of his family.
Since then, Pat Spencer has opened the doors to a future where that could be a possibility.
But going forward, he said his competitiveness still drives him. He said he’s got his mind set on the one thing he hasn’t won in any sport since high school: a championship.
“You try to embrace everything and enjoy it along the way, but when you’re wired competitively, sometimes it’s hard to take those moments in,” Pat Spencer said. “I’m sure one day I’ll be able to look back on it all and appreciate the journey.”
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