LoPinto, White Using Graduate Years to Play Basketball

Emma LoPinto and Sammy White, both NCAA champions and All-Americans during their lacrosse careers, have decided to pursue college basketball with their fifth years of eligibility.

LoPinto confirmed that she will use her graduate year to play basketball at Boston College, while White will return to Northwestern for a graduate year with the Wildcats’ basketball team.

“Northwestern has done so much for me as a school that there’s no other place that I honestly would rather be playing basketball,” White said. “I’m grateful that I’m going to have my lacrosse teammates and everyone there to support me because they’re even more excited than me. They made me realize this was the right decision.”

“Given my experience at Boston College these last two years, staying another year was an easy decision,” LoPinto said. “Not only am I thrilled to be playing basketball. I will continue to be surrounded by the people and things that I love.”

In 2019, Tewaaraton Award winner Pat Spencer decided to use his fifth year of eligibility to play basketball at Northwestern. He passed up an opportunity to play professional lacrosse to chase a dream of playing another sport at the highest level.

While Spencer wasn’t the first lacrosse player to try his hand at another sport in college, his story — an eventual path to the NBA — shed light on a growing trend and became a model for others to follow.

Spencer was certainly on the mind for White, who committed to Northwestern as he was starring for the Wildcats.

“[Pat] was one of the first ones to do it,” White said. “I was like, ‘I didn’t even know that was a thing.’ He was the real deal in lacrosse. Seeing him being able to do it so seamlessly and with a coaching staff that was so willing to incorporate him, it gave me the reassurance that it could actually happen.”

White grew up playing basketball with her father in Timonium, Md., where Rick White took her to the local YMCA and trained her throughout her childhood. She fell in love with basketball in middle school and starred for Dulaney High School, breaking the 1,000-point mark and earning multiple All-County honors.

She said she loved the transition from basketball, a winter sport, into the lacrosse season in the spring.

“I was in better shape than I would be if I was just running for lacrosse,” White remembered from her time playing basketball at Dulaney. “Part of the reason why I am effective at defense in lacrosse is because of basketball — the footwork, the movement from left to right, the anticipation, the change of direction.”

Once White received an offer from Northwestern, she knew lacrosse took priority in her life. She seldom played basketball during her first four years in Evanston, but she made up for it when she came home for the summers, when it was back to the gym for a training circuit with her father.

By the fall of 2024, White informed Kelly Amonte Hiller and the Northwestern coaching staff that she intended to enter the transfer portal to pursue basketball. Hiller was ecstatic and offered to speak with women’s basketball coach Joe McKeown, who eventually invited White to a practice before she left for winter break.

By the time Northwestern lacrosse was making a run to the NCAA tournament this spring, White was in deep discussions with McKeown about her future. She decided to stay in Evanston, a place where she had built a network of connections.

“I got to a point where I was like, ‘OK, if I’m going to play basketball, I want it to be my main focus,’” White said. “Staying at a school that I’m already familiar with, where I already know people, I thought would benefit me. I wouldn’t have to learn a whole new system or get used to a whole new place.”

LoPinto made the same decision to stay in a familiar place. She returns to basketball four years removed from her time at Manhasset (N.Y.) High School, where she scored over 1,000 points and won the conference player of the year award.

The lightning-quick guard made even her future U.S. U20 Women’s National Team counterpart Madison Taylor dread facing her on the court, let alone the lacrosse field.

“Emma was famous on Long Island,” Taylor said. “When I was guarding her in basketball, I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ She’d just shoot three-pointers all game. She’d always be so nice after the game and I was like, ‘Thanks, but you just scored so many points in my face.’”

After a successful high school basketball career, LoPinto shifted her focus to lacrosse. She played two seasons for Florida before transferring to Boston College and winning an NCAA championship in 2024. A few months later, she was named the Most Outstanding Player at the World Lacrosse U20 Women’s Championship, taking home a gold medal from Hong Kong, China.

As often as she could, LoPinto found a basketball and a hoop to keep her skills fresh. She never wanted to rule out the chance to play again.

“I thought about doing my fifth year since high school and always kept it in the back of my mind in my four years of playing lacrosse,” LoPinto said. “Even during the season or coming home for breaks, I would try and keep a ball in my hand because it brings me so much joy.”

Both LoPinto and White will report back to school in the coming weeks to begin new journeys, but they’re not done with lacrosse just yet. Each will make the trip to Florida to compete with the U.S. Women’s National Training Team in the Pan-American Women’s Lacrosse Championship, which begins Thursday.