Warrior’s brother wins NCAA title

Pat Spencer’s brother Cam had an impressive performance in UConn’s championship game victory.

Pat Spencer and the Golden State Warriors clinched a spot in the NBA’s play-in tournament this week. His brother Cam had a pretty decent week himself.

Cam Spencer led off the scoring in Connecticut’s 75-60 win over the Purdue Boilermakers, as the Huskies becomes the first team in 17 years to repeat as national champions. Despite standing 6-foot-4, Spencer grabbed eight rebounds and blocked a shot for UConn.

Spencer was huge at the start of the game for UConn, helping them weather an early Purdue offensive surge by scoring seven of his team’s first 11 points. As the kids say, he got in his bag against the Boilermakers’ defensive pressure, throwing out ball fakes to get easy buckets for himself and his teammates.

He was also involved in the game’s strangest play, when UConn coach Dan Hurley reached out and pushed Spencer from the sidelines to reposition him, something Steve Kerr somehow managed to resist doing for the entirety of the Jordan Poole era in Golden State.

His brother was there to see it, too.

It’s not much of a flight from the game’s location in Phoenix to Los Angeles, where the elder Spencer is unlikely to see action in what amounts to a one-game playoff to host a one-game playoff in a week. But perhaps he’ll be inspired by UConn slowing down Player of the Year Zach Edey when it’s time for the Warriors to stop Anthony Davis.

Spencer has likely put himself in discussions for getting picked in the second-round, not what was expected when he used an extra year of eligibility and transferred to UConn from Rutgers. But no one thought his brother was going to make the NBA when he abandoned his spectacular lacrosse career for basketball, and now Pat Spencer has a two-way contract.

The Warriors have always been a team that supported families and siblings, like when Steph Curry and Klay Thompson had brothers sharing backcourt in Santa Cruz. Splash Brother-In-Law Damion Lee won a ring in 2022. That’s why it’s important for the Warriors to claim this Connecticut victory as a championship for themselves. It might be the only postseason win they can celebrate.