Loyola men's lacrosse coach Charley Toomey loves sharing one random fact about Golden State guard Steph Curry.
"Steph had one game in his college career that he did not score a point in," Toomey told Sporting News. "You know who they played? It was Loyola. Jimmy Patsos assigned two guys to him and they played a triangle and two. They lost by 30, but it's the one game in his college career he did not score a point in.
This checks out. Curry did not score when Davidson beat Loyola 78-48 on Nov. 25, 2008.
Why would Toomey have a ready-to-tell story about Curry? The Greyhounds coach has been staying up late watching one of his former players in the Western Conference semifinals. Reserve guard and former Loyola lax legend Pat Spencer has emerged as a role player for the Warriors while Curry works back from a hamstring injury.
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"I don't think (NBA) guys make the most of their minutes," Toomey told Sporting News. "If he gets eight minutes – two steals, shoots 2 of 4 – it's pretty impressive. He does the most with his minutes. That's for sure."
Toomey has more stories about Spencer, who was a dominant lacrosse player at Loyola from 2016-19. Spencer won the Tewaaraton Award – which is the equivalent of the Naismith Award or the Heisman Trophy – after finishing with 49 goals and 65 assists in 2019. He holds the NCAA's all-time assist record and is considered among the best to ever play college lacrosse.
Yet when Northwestern men's basketball coach Chris Collins called Toomey after coming aware Spencer was interested in switching sports, Toomey made a curious statement: "The moment lacrosse ends, he's all basketball."
Spencer confirmed as much on the "Old Man and the Three" podcast on May 8 when he said, "I didn't touch a lacrosse stick in the offseason."
How could that happen? Spencer's path through four years of lacrosse at Loyola and one year of basketball at Northwestern to the NBA – where his younger brother Cam plays for the Memphis Grizzlies – is improbable. Pat was cut from the junior varsity lacrosse and basketball teams in high school. When Spencer grew into a starring role in lacrosse, he simply could not shake a dream to play professional basketball. Now, he has become a fan favorite for Golden State – which trails Minnesota 2-1 in the Western Conference semifinals heading into Monday's game.
"It's such an incredible story," Collins said. "I always said I was never going to bet against him, but I don't think any of us would have predicted that he was going to be playing meaningful minutes in the NBA playoffs five years after playing for Northwestern and playing lacrosse."
MORE: How long will Steph Curry be out for Warriors?
Why did Pat Spencer go to Loyola for lacrosse?
Spencer emerged as a two-sport star at the Boys' Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore as a junior. Spencer grew from 5-foot-4 and 120 pounds into the 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame he has now – and Toomey saw an elite skill set on the summer lacrosse circuit in Maryland.
Spencer received just two offers to play college lacrosse, and he admitted on the "Old Man and the Three" that he had second thoughts about lacrosse when a high school teammate was being recruited by Stanford for basketball. Spencer averaged 14.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists as a senior.
"The hardest part for me was telling all these schools that were coming to look at him that I was already signed for lacrosse and committed to Loyola and committed to that journey, and I felt like I owed it to them to see that journey through," Spencer said.
Don't take this as Spencer being a nonchalant superstar who does not care about lacrosse. He was an outstanding lacrosse player in Maryland – arguably the most competitive high school scene for that sport in the country. He made the value decision that this was the better bet to play Division I sports and kept his promise.
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Why Pat Spencer had a record-setting career at Loyola
Toomey said Spencer made an impact at Loyola after just two practices.
Seniors on the team met with Toomey to make sure Spencer would have a significant role on the field. Spencer, in turn, came to Toomey with a request of his own.
Spencer played the "X-attack" position – the player who stands behind the lacrosse goal on offense. Think point guard in basketball – but coming from behind the basket instead of in front of it. That is the lacrosse version of a facilitator. Despite early success, Spencer was getting frustrated.
He went to Toomey's office with a request for when he would dodge from behind the net.
"I want an inside guy, I want a ball-side guy presence and I want a throw-through pass. Every time I get there, that's what I want and I can make the read for us," Spencer told Toomey.
"Let's go over to the offensive coordinator's office and figure this out," Toomey replied.
Toomey made the rule that Spencer had to get a touch on every offensive possession past the mid-line. The rest is lacrosse history. Spencer helped Towson reach the Final Four in the 2016 men's lacrosse tournament. Spencer is the all-time NCAA leader with 281 assists, and he added 149 goals. That total of 380 points ranks fourth all time.
Pat Spencer's Loyola lacrosse stats
| YEAR | GOALS | ASSISTS | POINTS |
| 2016 | 37 | 52 | 89 |
| 2017 | 28 | 55 | 83 |
| 2018 | 35 | 59 | 94 |
| 2019 | 49 | 65 | 114 |
| TOTAL | 149 | 231 | 380 |
Spencer also played great in the four NCAA tournament appearances. Spencer had 23 goals and 27 assists in eight tournament games. He scored three goals with six assists in a 15-13 victory against Syracuse in the first round of the 2019 NCAA tournament, then closed his career with six goals and five assists in a 21-14 loss to No. 1 Penn State in the quarterfinals.
It's not quite comparable to Curry at Davidson in men's basketball – Loyola had won a national title four years earlier.
Toomey goes for a different comparison within lacrosse instead.
"The Gait brothers," Toomey said. "Gary is coaching at Syracuse, and I would put Pat up there against those guys in terms of production and what he was able to accomplish in the sport. Gary had a 'Batman and Robin' in his brother Paul. Pat didn't have a twin brother on the team. I really believe in my heart of hearts that Pat is one of the best ever to play the game."
Toomey remembers the games, but there was a quality about Spencer that stood out more than anything.
"There had to be a win and a loss in every drill, or he wasn't interested," Toomey said. "There had to be something on the line because that is how competitive he was. If it was stick work – this group vs. this group – the first one to five drops had to run a 120. That is who he was."
How Pat Spencer landed at Northwestern
Collins shares a similar story from the opposite vantage point with Spencer.
"He hated doing drills," Collins said. "It was so funny – and he and I laugh about it now – all he wanted to do was play five-on-five. The shell drills and the fundamental stuff you have to do at the beginning of the year – he had no interest in that."
Collins can still hear Spencer asking the same two questions: "Coach, when are we going to scrimmage? When are we going to play five on five?"
How did Spencer end up at Northwestern? Spencer played in summer-league basketball pro-ams at the Loyola rec center in the summers after lacrosse season. He even considered quitting lacrosse after his freshman season.
"I knew he wasn't going to do every rep on every lifting day, but he was going into Truxton Park," Toomey said. "He was playing basketball under the lights at night with these guys getting up and down the court and being very competitive. My whole thing was, 'Just don't roll your ankle.'"
Under Armour – the company which supplies the Wildcats' uniforms – is based in Baltimore. A rep reached out to Collins and dished on Spencer, who wanted to follow a Greg Paulus-like path. Paulus played four years of basketball at Duke (2005-09) before using one year of eligibility as a quarterback on the Syracuse football team in 2009.
Collins – an assistant for Duke from 2000-13 – knew Paulus. Collins also knew the relationship between lacrosse and basketball because of a friendship with Duke lacrosse coach John Danowski. Collins remembers when Danowski would meet with Collins and former Duke assistant coach Steve Wojciechowski to discuss that relationship.
"I didn't realize until I learned lacrosse how many similarities there are with basketball," Collins said. "The spacing, screening, the vision – the only difference is they can play behind the net, which we can't. They would always come and spend time with us and want us to draw up our underneath out-of-bounds plays. That was kind of like replicating a guy being behind the net and getting moving and screening. The only difference is they have a stick."
That prompted Collins to take a chance on Spencer.
"I didn't know much about the basketball end of things, but I know when you're the best in the world at something, there's an 'it' factor to you," Collins said.
Spencer fit in with a young team that featured nine underclassmen, including future star Boo Buie. Spencer had a breakout game at the Fort Myers Tipoff when he scored 23 points with eight assists in a 78-51 victory against Bradley on Nov. 25, 2019. He averaged 10.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists in that one season with the Wildcats.
"You could see how athletic he was and explosive, but we just kind of took a flyer on what he'd been and what he wanted to do," Collins said. "It was amazing, honestly. Forget about making the NBA. I'm still amazed that he was able to be as successful as he was in the Big Ten after not playing organized basketball since high school."
Spencer used that season to work into basketball shape. He played his final collegiate game on March 11, 2020 in a 74-57 loss to Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament. That was one of the final games before the COVID-19 shutdown.
"They allowed me to come in and by myself competitively, work on a lot of things I need to work on," Spencer said on "Old Man and the Three" podcast. "Change my body, mechanically had a handful of things wrong with my shot. It was just an incredible year."
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Pat Spencer emerges as role player for Warriors
Spencer played in Germany with the Hamburg Towers before working through the G League to get an NBA opportunity.
Collins heard the praise for Spencer from Golden State forward Draymond Green after Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Spencer averaged seven points in seven minutes per game in the first round against Houston. He scored four points with two assists in Game 1 against Minnesota.
"Pat is a damn good basketball player," Green said. "I know it don't look like it. The (uniform number) No. 61 don't help, but Pat is one of the toughest players on this team."
Toomey and Collins knew that. Toomey still hears about Spencer at Loyola along with his brother Cam, who took a similar off-beat journey to the NBA, though he did spend his entire college career on the basketball court. Cam played three years at Loyola, one at Rutgers and then started for UConn's 2024 national championship team. He was drafted by the Pistons in the second round and then traded to the Grizzlies 10 days later, and played in 25 games as a rookie this season.
"I heard this after he graduated – other teams would say, 'Don't poke the bear,'' Toomey said of Pat. "Do not talk to him off the ball. Let him go through the motions. If you upset him or you throw a hard slash on him, you are going to see the Hulk. Cam is the same way (in basketball). That is a very, very competitive family.
"The Loyola alums, lacrosse and basketball, are just so super proud of what he and his brother Cam have been able to accomplish," he said.
Collins continues to emphasize that Spencer took four years off and essentially re-started at 22 years old. That is arguably the best part of the incredible story.
"He's as tough a competitor and as driven of an athlete as I've been around and that's saying a lot because you know I spent 13 years coaching at Duke as well," Collins said. "Even when you watch him in these games now, when he goes in he makes things happen right away. It's crazy. It's so fun to watch."