Patrick Spencer was disappointed his G League team, the Santa Cruz Warriors, lost in the Western Conference semifinals. However, it meant the former Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse star could travel to Phoenix to watch his younger brother play in the Final Four.
Cam Spencer is the starting wing guard and second-leading scorer for the top-seeded Connecticut men’s basketball team, which faces fourth-seeded Alabama on Saturday in the second national semifinal at State Farm Arena.
Patrick Spencer will be part of a huge contingent of more than 40 family and friends of the Davidsonville native who will be in attendance Saturday night. Parents Bruce and Donna Spencer repeatedly used the word surreal when asked about seeing their middle son perform on college basketball’s biggest stage.
“We would always watch March Madness as a family. I think every kid that plays basketball dreams of this moment,” Donna said. “It’s been a magical ride for Cam and we’re just so incredibly proud of him.”
This will be the second Final Four for the Spencer family. As a freshman, Patrick Spencer helped Loyola reach the national men’s lacrosse semifinals that were held at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The standout attackman scored a goal and dished off five assists in an 18-13 loss to North Carolina.
Like his brother, Cam Spencer was a standout attackman in lacrosse at Boys’ Latin, earning All-MIAA A Conference honors and being named second team All-Metro by The Baltimore Sun. He had several Division I scholarship offers for the stick sport.
Cam also excelled on the basketball court for the Lakers, averaging 21 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.8 assists as a senior. He was named MIAA A Conference Player of the Year and first team All-Metro by The Sun.
Loyola Maryland was the only Division I school to offer Spencer a scholarship for basketball, and he took it. The 6-foot-4 combo guard developed into a first-team All-Patriot League performer after leading the conference in scoring (18.9 points per game) and steals (2.3) as a junior.
Two transfers later, Spencer is playing at the pinnacle of the sport as a pivotal member of a Connecticut team seeking to repeat as national champion.
“Underappreciated, underrecruited — whatever you want to call it. Cam didn’t get offers because he didn’t play well on the AAU circuit, which is just bad basketball,” Patrick Spencer said. “We knew as a family what Cam was capable of. Knowing Cam as a person and a competitor, we knew he could play at the highest level.”
Patrick Spencer has enjoyed his own unique journey. After being presented the Tewaaraton Award as the nation’s best lacrosse player as a senior at Loyola, Spencer transferred to Northwestern to play basketball as a graduate student and averaged 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game in his lone season.
Stockton Photo, Inc./Stockton Photo, Inc.
Loyola Maryland’s Cam Spencer shoots over Army’s Tucker Blackwell in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals on March 10, 2021.
Spencer was the No. 1 overall pick in the Premier Lacrosse League draft but chose to pursue professional basketball instead. The 6-3 point guard recently signed a two-way contract with the Golden State Warriors and made his NBA debut on Feb. 25.
Patrick said he and Cam share similarities in terms of having a high basketball IQ, but are different types of players.
“Cam is definitely a better shooter. Athletically, I’m definitely a step above him,” he said. “I think we both play the game the right way. We both understand how to work within the team concept.”
With Santa Cruz being ousted from the playoffs by the Stockton Kings, Patrick will rejoin the Warriors and be ready when called upon to dress for the parent club. He is flying to Phoenix for Saturday’s game, then flying back to San Francisco where the Warriors play the Utah Jazz on Sunday night. If Connecticut advances to the national championship, he will fly back to Phoenix on Monday.
“I’m really excited to have the opportunity to go to the Final Four and be part of that with Cam. I’m just really proud of him because I know how much work he’s put in,” said Patrick, who has only seen his brother play in-person once this season — at Marquette around Christmas time. “UConn has turned out to be a great fit for Cam. They’ve given him the chance to be a secondary ball-handler and playmaker for that team.”
Cam Spencer is averaging 14.4 points and 4.7 rebounds for Connecticut, which brings a 35-3 record into the Final Four. He leads the Huskies with 55 steals and ranks second with 139 assists.
Spencer has proven a perfect complement to All-American point guard Tristan Newton, who leads UConn in scoring (15.0) and assists (232) while ranking second in rebounding (6.7).
“It’s been awesome to share a backcourt with [Newton] all season. He’s such a great player who makes the game so easy for his teammates,” Spencer said in a recent interview.
Davidsonville’s Cam Spencer transfers to UConn men’s basketball to ‘compete for a championship’
Spencer transferred to Connecticut from Rutgers to improve his professional stock and also compete for a national championship.
“Obviously, UConn had great success last season and I’m hoping to help continue that in whatever way I can,” Spencer told The Capital in June. “UConn has a well-established winning culture and that’s something I want to be part of. With one year left, I wanted to play at the highest level and compete for championships.”
Bruce Spencer, a 1984 Annapolis High graduate, said Cam also visited Miami and Oklahoma before choosing Connecticut. He believed the offensive system employed by coach Danny Hurley was ideally suited to his skills.
Connecticut went into the transfer portal to find a shooting guard after Gaithersburg native Jordan Hawkins declared for the NBA draft following a standout sophomore season. Hawkins was a first-round pick (14th overall) of the New Orleans Pelicans.
![Baltimore, MD -- 01/04/2019 -- Left to right, the Spencer brothers - William, Pat (assistant coach) and Cam - pose before a game at Boys' Latin. (Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun Staff) [ BKB BOYS LATIN SPENCER FAMILY ] 822 W. Lake Ave / 14 rt (DSC_1659.JPG)](https://i0.wp.com/www.capitalgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BS-201901040spencer-p1.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1)
“Cam really connected with Coach Hurley because they have the same fire, intensity and passion for the game,” Bruce Spencer said. “It didn’t take long for the UConn coaching staff to realize Cam was a complete basketball player, not just a shooter. They saw that this kid knew how to hoop and that they could use him in a lot of different ways.”
Connecticut captured the Big East Conference championship and will try to become the first team since Florida (2006, 2007) to claim consecutive national championships. Spencer scored 11 points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds to help UConn beat Illinois, 77-52, in the East Region final.
Spencer was one of five players named to the East All-Region team and was joined by teammates Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle, who are both considered potential NBA lottery picks.
“Coming to UConn, you sign up to go win a national championship. We’re on the right path, but we still have a lot of work to do,” Spencer told the media.
As the Huskies were counting down the nets, Bruce and Donna Spencer made their way down to the court at TD Garden Arena in Boston to celebrate with their son. Donna got choked up after giving Cam a big hug because she knew her parents would have loved to have watched him achieve such success.
George and Martha Robey died four months apart in 2023. Donna said her mother succumbed to cancer, while her father had a brain tumor.
“It was a very emotional moment,” Donna said of the postgame hug with Cam last Saturday night. “All the kids were incredibly close with my parents. I know they think about them all the time.”
George Robey was a diehard sports fan and every Sunday would talk to Cam about the previous week’s competition.
“Every Sunday, Cam would call my dad to go over the pros and cons, highs and lows of the week,” Donna said. “Cam has mentioned several times how much he misses that weekly call. He’s focused and locked in, but I know that he thinks about his grandparents a lot.”
Donna and Bruce traveled to Madison Square Garden in New York City and have attended every NCAA Tournament game with Connecticut playing its first and second round games at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Spencer has certainly accomplished his goal of showing the scouts he is capable of playing in the NBA. Bruce and Donna are now hoping there will come a day when they can watch their sons share the same court at the professional level.
“We can’t stop pinching ourselves because we know how incredibly rare it is to have two boys playing basketball at such a high level,” Bruce said.
NCAA Tournament Final Four
Alabama vs. Connecticut
State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona
Saturday, 8:49 p.m.
TV: TBS