You don't usually see a guy walk away from being the absolute best in the world at something. But Pat Spencer isn't exactly a usual guy. Imagine being the number one overall pick in a professional draft, having the keys to a kingdom you built yourself, and then just... saying no thanks.
He didn't want the stick anymore. He wanted the rock.
Most people know him as the "lacrosse guy" who somehow fangled his way onto the Golden State Warriors roster. But if you look closely at Pat Spencer college basketball history, you’ll see it wasn't some fluke or a PR stunt. It was a calculated, gritty, and honestly pretty stressful gamble that started in the Big Ten.
The Pivot from the Turf to the Hardwood
By 2019, Pat Spencer had nothing left to prove in lacrosse. He was a four-time All-American at Loyola Maryland. He held the NCAA Division I record for career assists (231). He won the Tewaaraton Award, which is basically the Heisman Trophy of lacrosse.
He was the king of the field. And then he left.
Spencer utilized his final year of NCAA eligibility to graduate transfer to Northwestern University. It sounds simple enough on paper, but think about the jump. He went from dodging long poles on grass to trying to guard Big Ten point guards who had been playing elite-level hoops since they were five.
The skeptics were everywhere. You’ve got to remember, at the time, people thought he was just scratching an itch. They didn't think he’d actually start.
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Why Northwestern?
It wasn't a random choice. He needed a high-major stage to prove the dream was real. Northwestern offered a spot in one of the toughest conferences in the country. If he could survive the Big Ten, he could survive anywhere.
He didn't just survive. He became their most reliable floor general.
Pat Spencer College Basketball: By the Numbers
Let's talk about that 2019-20 season. It was weird. It was the year of the pandemic, which cut everything short, but Spencer squeezed every drop out of his time in Evanston.
He played 31 games and started 29 of them. That right there tells you what Chris Collins thought of him. You don't start 29 games in the Big Ten if you're just a "cool story."
The Stat Line:
- Points: 10.4 PPG
- Assists: 3.9 APG
- Rebounds: 4.1 RPG
- Field Goal %: 43.6%
He wasn't a knockdown shooter yet—his three-point clip was a struggle at 23.5%—but he was a dog on the glass and a visionary passer. Honestly, those lacrosse eyes translated perfectly. In lacrosse, he was an "X" attackman, meaning he sat behind the net and saw the whole field. In basketball, he saw the back-side cuts before they even happened.
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I remember watching him against Maryland in January 2020. He dropped 17 points and grabbed 9 rebounds against his hometown school. He looked like he belonged. He wasn't the fastest guy on the court, but he was the strongest. He used his 6'3", 205-pound frame to bully smaller guards, a habit he definitely picked up from years of taking hits on the lacrosse field.
The Grind Most Fans Missed
After Northwestern, the path got murky. There was no "straight to the NBA" moment.
He went to Germany to play for the Hamburg Towers. Then he moved back to the States for the G League. He spent time with the Capital City Go-Go and the Santa Cruz Warriors. People forget he was 24, 25, 26 years old while doing this. He was an "old" prospect.
His mom, Donna, even admitted she used to ask him if he was sure about this. He was living in a small apartment in Germany, away from everyone, making way less money than he would have as the face of pro lacrosse.
The Golden State Breakout
Fast forward to late 2025 and early 2026. The injuries hit the Golden State Warriors hard. Steph Curry goes down, and suddenly, Steve Kerr looks down the bench and sees the guy who used to lead the nation in lacrosse assists.
In December 2025, Pat Spencer finally got the "real" call. He averaged 15.2 points over a five-game stretch. He even earned his first NBA start against the Cavaliers on December 6, 2024 (wait, let me get that date right—it was the 2025-26 season window). He put up 19 points and 7 assists.
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Kerr’s quote about him after that game became a legend in its own right. He basically said Spencer is a "motherf—" on the court. That’s the highest praise you can get in a locker room.
What We Can Learn From the Journey
The Pat Spencer college basketball story is actually a masterclass in "unlearning." He had to stop playing like a lacrosse player and start playing like a guard. He had to fix his jumper. He had to learn how to navigate a high-screen-and-roll in the most complicated offense in the NBA.
Real Actionable Takeaways for Athletes:
- Leverage your "other" skills. Spencer didn't ignore his lacrosse background; he used the field vision and physicality it gave him to stand out.
- Be okay with being an "old" rookie. If you're 23 and entering a new field, you aren't "behind." You're just coming in with a different level of maturity.
- The transfer portal is a tool, not a trap. Spencer used his grad year at Northwestern to reset his entire career trajectory.
- Embrace the G League. It isn't a death sentence. For Spencer, it was the necessary refining fire that turned a lacrosse star into an NBA-caliber rotation player.
The biggest misconception is that Pat Spencer is lucky. He’s not. He’s a guy who was willing to be a "nobody" at Northwestern after being a "somebody" at Loyola. That's a ego-death most athletes can't handle.
If you want to follow in his footsteps, start by looking at your current skill set. What do you do that no one else in your field does? For Spencer, it was seeing the floor like a 360-degree map. Find your "lacrosse vision" in whatever you're doing.
Keep an eye on the box scores for the rest of the 2026 season. Spencer is currently on a two-way deal, but with the way he's playing, a standard contract conversion feels like an inevitability. He's already active for nearly 40 games this season. The Warriors need his grit, and frankly, the NBA needs more stories like his.