BALTIMORE – Former Loyola University Maryland men's basketball teammates Cam Spencer and Santi Aldama will soon be reunited, this time at the professional level after Spencer was selected in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft.
 
Spencer, who played for the Greyhounds from 2019-22, was the 53^rd pick in the second round of the draft. He was selected by the Detroit Pistons and traded to the Memphis Grizzles, the team for whom Aldama averaged 10.7 points and 5.8 rebounds in 61 games during 2023-24.
 
A native of nearby Davidsonville, Maryland, Spencer played in 58 games over three seasons for the Greyhounds and had a stellar 2021-22 campaign. That season, he led the Patriot League in scoring, averaging 18.9 points while posting a 2.4:1 assist-to-turnover margin.
 
He earned All-Patriot League First Team recognition, was named to the Academic All-Patriot League Team and earned All-NABC District XII Second Team honors that season.
 
Not only will Spencer join Aldama in the NBA, he will also have the chance to compete against his older brother Pat, '19, a former Loyola men's lacrosse All-American and 2019 Tewaaraton Award winner. The elder Spencer played a season of college basketball at Northwestern (2019-20) and made his NBA debut for the Golden State Warriors in March 2024.
 
Including Cam Spencer, there are four former Loyola players playing or coaching in the NBA. Aldama and the Spencers join Michael Malone, '94, who is the head coach of the Denver Nuggets and led the team to the 2023 NBA Championship.
 
He is the fourth former Loyola men's basketball player to be selected in the NBA Draft, the third post-ABA merger and the second in the current two-round format. Bob Connor, '71, was a 12^th-round pick of the Baltimore Bullets in 1971, and Mike Morrison, '89, was picked 51^st in the second round of the 1989 draft by the Phoenix Suns.
 
During his career with the Greyhounds, Cam Spencer averaged 14.6 points, scoring 848, to go with 182 assists (3.1 per game) and 81 steals. He finished his collegiate career at Rutgers (2022-23) and Connecticut (2023-24), the latter culminating with the 2024 NCAA Championship.
 
Spencer and Aldama were classmates at Loyola after both signed National Letters of Intent during the fall of 2018 as high school seniors. They played together for two years before Aldama became Loyola's first-ever NBA First Round draft pick in 2021. Their classmate, Golden Dike, also recently began his professional career, Hestia Menorca in Spain's Primera FEB. He played for Loyola from 2019-24.
 
Spencer, Aldama and Dike all were named to the Patriot League All-Rookie Team in 2019-20, and they led the Greyhounds to the Patriot League Championship Game in 2021.
 
Aldama has played in 170 games over the last three years for the Grizzlies, starting 55. He averaged 9.0 during his second professional season in 2022-23 and raised that to 10.7 this year.