Cam Spencer looks to fill Jordan Hawkins' role for UConn men's basketball next season
When Cam Spencer left the UConn campus on Tuesday after his official visit he had his mind made up.
The Rutgers transfer, tabbed as a shooter but capable of more, thought it over on his plane ride back home to Davidsonville, Md., and it was a “no brainer,” he told The Courant Friday.
“I loved everything about (UConn),” Spencer said. “Coach (Dan) Hurley was really the first thing that attracted me. And just the blue-collar program that they are, they believe in hard work and toughness, and those are the kind of things that I pride myself on so I think we connected very well.”
Spencer shot 43.4% from 3-point range last season and led the Scarlet Knights in scoring with 13.2 points per game. Spending his first three college basketball seasons at Loyola (Md.) Spencer shot 43.6% from beyond the arc as a freshman, 46.7% in just five games as a sophomore and 35.3% as he took on a larger scoring role in his junior season.
He plans on doing his best to try to fill the role Jordan Hawkins played last season.
“Losing Jordan Hawkins, who was a great player for them and a great shooter, (Hurley) wants me to come in and fill that scoring role and that shooting role as best as I can. That’s pretty much what we talked about,” Spencer said. “But I’m a competitor and I’m a team guy so I want to help the team win in any way that I can.”
Adding a shooter was priority No. 1 on UConn’s transfer portal grocery list. The Huskies lost key perimeter weapons in Hawkins, Joey Calcaterra and Nahiem Alleyne to the Draft, graduation and the transfer portal.
While he is primarily credited as a shooter, Spencer presents additional areas of his game that will make the 6-foot-4 guard a unique tool for UConn’s quest to repeat.
“I think I’m a better playmaker than people think,” he said. “I do get labelled as a shooter sometimes but I pride myself on being a good passer and a good playmaker to help the team score in any way that I can. I think my passing is something that does get overlooked a little bit.”
Spencer averaged 3.1 assists and 3.8 rebounds last season and, with his quick hands on the defensive end, added two steals per game.
The bright blue 2023 national championship banner that hung in the corner of the Werth Center as Spencer watched the team’s first workout of the summer wasn’t what swayed him to join the Huskies, though it didn’t hurt.
Much of his decision to leave Rutgers as a graduate transfer had to do with wanting to be a part of “a winning program like UConn” and, like Calcaterra, Tristen Newton and Hassan Diarra who each transferred to Storrs before last season, Spencer wants to set himself up in the best way to reach his ultimate dream.
“We have a great schedule this year and it will be great exposure,” Spencer said. “I want to play at the highest level, so that’s really the main thing and I think the exposure that UConn will give me will help me get there.”
One of the best guards left in the portal before his decision came Tuesday, Spencer is completing all of the necessary paperwork as fast as he can and hopes to arrive on campus Monday or Tuesday.
UConn’s roster of 12 scholarship players includes two returning starters from the national championship game in Newton and Alex Karaban, an incoming McDonald’s All-American point guard in Stephon Castle, a 7-foot-2 center in Donovan Clingan and a bench full of players that hope to make a jump.
“I’m really excited to play with them all,” Spencer said. “I think they all have great characteristics and great games and I think they’ll all be easy to play with. As you saw last year, they just play with such a chemistry and share the game together. So I think I can come in and fit in pretty well. But honestly, just the connection that they have on the court is something special to be a part of.
“We’re just very like-minded in our competitiveness and I think they kind of pride themselves on playing with an edge and that’s how I pride myself. Those were the big connections and then obviously the winning culture that they have there and coming off of a great year last year that I want to be a part of. So we’re ready to get after it again this year.”
Source: Hartford Courant
