Northwestern Basketball Alum Pat Spencer Earns Major Warriors Promotion
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The Golden State Warriors have rewarded the NBA's only active Northwestern University men's basketball program alum.
Golden State clearly realize they have a keeper in Pat Spencer.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Warriors have now inked the 6-foot-2 vet to a rest-of-season standard roster deal. The 29-year-old Spencer had begun the year on a two-way contract. Capologist Yossi Gozlan reports that Spencer will earn a prorated $857,804 salary for the duration of the year.
It's a no-brainer move for a struggling Golden State club that will be without six-time All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler for the rest of the season as he struggles with an ACL tear. Spencer offers some backcourt scoring and passing, and deserves more shine.
Spencer is good enough to have done this during an actual, meaningful regular season game:
Pat Spencer buzzer beater over LeBron James, words I never expected to write in my life. pic.twitter.com/MYrXXQNgXK
— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) February 8, 2026
Through 37 games for the Warriors thus far, Spencer has been averaging 6.0 points on .428/.429/.833 shooting splits, 3.0 assists and 2.2 rebounds a night. In three regular season contests for Golden State's NBAGL affiliate the Santa Cruz Warriors, Spencer was adding 22.0 points while slashing .451/.400/1.000, 6.0 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals per.
The Northwestern University men's basketball program doesn't exactly have a long and distinguished list of NBA alums. In fact, only 21 players have made the league — and three of those players are active right now. That's what happens when you don't make the postseason at all until the Chris Collins era.
Beyond Spencer — who spent a grad school season in 2019-20 with Northwestern after an enjoyable lacrosse run at Maryland's Loyola University — rookie shooting guard Brooks Barnhizer (the No. 44 pick this season) and Milwaukee Bucks bench power forward Pete Nance are the other two ex-Wildcats ballers.
Will another Welsh-Ryan Arena standout make the NBA, too, next season?
Prolific Northwestern senior small forward Nick Martinelli, who tested the draft waters last season, feels like he's good enough to at least warrant a two-way deal at the NBA level next year. Time will tell.
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An Evanston native, Alex Kirschenbaum is also a proud Northwestern alum. He has written for Bleacher Nation, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Hoops Rumors, Trailers From Hell, Men's Journal, and Bulls fan sites Blog-A-Bull and Pippen Ain't Easy, among others. Alex knows Zach Collins has given the Bulls some good years, but he'll never forgive the then-Gonzaga center for that very obvious goaltend against the Wildcats during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.