STORRS — Cam Spencer’s first conversation with UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley flowed naturally. They both spent childhood years dealing with the shin scrapes and following the lofty standards of older brothers who went on to essentially reshape an entire college sport.

“He was very relatable for me,” Spencer said. “He’s a blue collar guy, competitive as heck, just like myself. We had a similar upbringing with him and his brother and dad, and the competitive household I grew up in. From the first phone call, we clicked. We’re both fiery people. We’re just very alike in that way.”

Bobby Hurley, Dan’s older brother, famously starred at Duke and is still considered one of the best college point guards in history, casting a shadow that Dan stepped out of for good, if he hadn’t already, by leading UConn to a national championship in April.

Pat Spencer, Cam’s older brother, is one of the best college lacrosse players in history — and so versatile an athlete that he’s now pursuing a professional basketball career with the Golden State Warriors organization.  

Pat’s story is unique. He set an NCAA record that still stands with 231 assists in his four years as a lacrosse player at Loyola (Md.). He won the Tewaaraton Award, which goes to the top player in the nation as the sport’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy, as a senior in 2019 and transferred to Northwestern for a final season of eligibility as a graduate student.

There, Pat played basketball, averaging 10.4 points and 4.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 2019-20, which was Cam’s freshman year as a basketball player at Loyola. While Cam Spencer has climbed the college basketball ladder in years since — transferring from Loyola to Rutgers, then Rutgers to UConn — Pat has pursued a dream of one day playing alongside, say, Steph Curry.

“I had a great time with lacrosse but I didn’t want to make it my career,” said Pat Spencer, a point guard who is expected to start this season with the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s G League affiliate, for the second year in a row. “Basketball was my first love. People ask me if I would go back and do it any differently. I would have definitely set myself ahead a bit further on the basketball journey, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I had an opportunity to play [lacrosse] in front of my parents and grandparents and basketball was just on the back burner for a short period of my life. It was always in mind.”

Pat and Cam — and their younger brother, Will Spencer — were standout athletes at The Boys’ Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore, less than an hour’s drive from the family’s home in Davidson. Pat was more heavily recruited as a lacrosse player and Cam, four years later, more heavily as a basketball player.

Cam arrived at Loyola as Pat was departing for Northwestern. He was the nation’s leader in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.78-to-1) before his freshman season was cut short by injury, 23 games in. Cam averaged 10.2 points as a sophomore at Loyola and then 18.9 to lead the Patriot League as a junior in 2021-22. He transferred to Rutgers and spent one year under coach Steve Pikiell, a Bristol native and former UConn captain, averaging a team-high 13.2 points while shooting 43.4 percent on 3-pointers.

UConn, coming off the national championship, needed a scorer and a shooter in spots vacated by Jordan Hawkins and Joey Calcaterra.

Pat Spencer finished his one-season college basketball career with 122 assists. Maybe some recent advice to his little brother unofficially counts as another assist. Pat helped guide Cam, a 6-foot-4 guard, in considering the transfer portal as an option after last season, and ultimately suggested he attend UConn.

“I think it just depended on what his goals were, and he's got high goals," Pat Spencer said. "He won't be looked at as an NBA prospect, but there's a handful of guys at the next level — like Seth Curry, not Steph Curry, but Seth Curry — who play the right way, high IQ, shoot the cover off the ball and have an impact. I felt like the Big East and UConn would give him an opportunity to compete against more of an NBA style play, more NBA-caliber guards, guys that get up and down, a lot of pick and roll, a guard-heavy league. And, obviously, Hurley is a competitor and they’re coming off a national championship. So there were a lot of factors that went into choosing UConn, and that is nothing against Rutgers. It just seemed like a really good opportunity to be out in the market and get after it with UConn.”

Pat joined Cam and their parents — Bruce and Donna — for Cam’s official visit to Storrs in early June.

Cam Spencer, who committed days after that visit, is likely to be part of a starting lineup at UConn with ample perimeter threats, alongside trusted shooters in point guard Tristen Newton and small forward Alex Karaban. He has already developed a certain reputation around the team.

“He fits right in,” Hurley said. “He's our type of guy. He's a ruthless competitor. Maybe a little bit too much of a perfectionist. He's got to chill with that a little bit. But he fits perfectly for what we need and how we play.”

Like Hurley, Cam Spencer is hellbent on winning — even a 3-point shooting contest as part of the annual First Night celebration. After his blue team lost to the white team on Oct. 13 at Gampel Pavilion, Spencer was visibly irritated.

“That was crazy,” Hurley said. “That, I thought, was a little over the top. I tried to comfort him a little bit but he wanted nothing to do with me. He was just staring at the white team outside the huddle. [Assistant] Luke [Murray] has a picture of it, where I'm trying to console him. He's waving me off, get away. That guy’s shot.”

But he sure can shoot. Cam is 179-for-442 on 3-pointers in his four college years (40.5 percent). His overall field goal percentage is 50.8.

“We're different,” Pat Spencer said. “He's more of a sniper. We pride ourselves on having high basketball IQ and making other guys around us better. I would say he's more of a scorer. I'm more of a facilitator and playmaker. I'm a bit more athletic and probably a better on-ball defender. He's got a really good feel for the game off the ball. We complement each other pretty well.”

Will Spencer is a sophomore 6-4 guard at Division III Hood College in Maryland. He averaged 3.4 points last season as a freshman. Pat Spencer is 27, Cam 23. That four years of separation meant Cam was always chasing around a bigger, tougher older brother. He left some playgounds in tears. 

"Tough love, I'd call it," said Pat Spencer said. 

“We grew up playing all kinds of sports and we’re as tight as they come,” Cam said. “We’re the biggest competitors when we’re going against each other, but when we’re watching we have each other’s back and we’re each other’s biggest fans.”

Pat played 68 lacrosse games at Loyola, finishing with 149 goals and 380 points — fourth on the NCAA’s all-time Division I list. He is one of the most decorated players in the sport’s history.

“Following his footstep, where he had a legacy already, I wanted to make my own path but also follow him in any way that I could,” Cam said of choosing Loyola out of high school. “He taught me a lot. I learned a lot from his experiences at those schools, and I’m just thankful to have him as an older brother.”

Pat was a four-time all-Patriot League lacrosse player and four-time team MVP. The key to his lacrosse success? It certainly wasn't specialized around-the-calendar training.

“I didn't really touch a lacrosse stick in the offseason,” Pat said. “All I did was play basketball. So I had my hand in it for four years of college. Obviously I had a lot of things I wanted to fix. Northwestern was a great year for me, learning and figuring out what I needed to do to get to that next level. I had to completely transform my shot. I had some really bad habits there. And to compete on the defensive end, I had to cut some pounds and get back into basketball shape. It was a growing year for me, a learning year.”

Spencer had such a good thing going with lacrosse in college that he didn’t want to prematurely step away from it. Loyola, under coach Charley Toomy, made the Final Four in 2016, Pat’s freshman season. Pat graduated in 2019 with a degree in finance and added a Master’s in sports administration at Northwestern.

Cam switched majors after transferring to Rutgers and graduated with a degree in labor relations. He is working toward a Master’s certificate in non-profit management at UConn.

Former Washington Wizards’ general manager Tommy Sheppard gave Pat Spencer his first professional basketball opportunity, an invitation to training camp in 2021. Pat also played with the Wizards in the summer league, and the Wizards' G League team, the Capital City Go-Go. He had had several solid performances — one that stands out, in particular, because it was against the Warriors.

Pat Spencer, a 6-3 guard, He was among the Warriors’ final cuts last year before joining Santa Cruz for four games. He is currently at the tail end of rehabilitation from offseason surgeries on a hip and wrist. Pat has averaged 7.6 points a game in parts of two G League seasons. 

“Goal one is to get healthy, to be able to compete,” said Pat. “I've missed the hell out of that. Goal two is to get that opportunity up top. I feel like I can be of value at a backup position and be a high IQ player, protect the ball, make plays. It's about right time, right opportunity. I feel like there can be a potential move for me here [with the Warriors].”

Pat often joined Cam for high-level summer league and pickup games in the Baltimore area over the years.

“When he switched sports, it wasn’t too big of a surprise to us as a family,” Cam said. “The college lacrosse schedule is pretty different from the college basketball schedule, as far as how much time they are on campus or with each other. They get summers off. So he was always playing basketball, keeping a ball in his hand. From the outside, people thought he hadn’t touched a ball in four years but, really, he had been practicing.

“College lacrosse is great and professional lacrosse, they’re trying to get it going. But as far as a career, I think he was always leaning toward basketball and looking to attack what is his first love. He always wanted to go after the basketball dream, and that’s what he’s doing.”

Cam, too.

“No matter what, you'll see him giving his all,” Pat said. “That's just kind of how it was in our household. We're just a competitive bunch. Three brothers getting after each other all the time, it was just the way of the household. Some people do better in a less intense environment. For us, we just like to compete.

“I watch every game and we talk every day. He's had a heck of a journey, too. We've both come from that background of being under-appreciated or under-recruited, whatever you want to call it. Fortunately for him, similar situation for me, Loyola took a chance on him. We knew in high school that he had the ability to play at the high-major level.”