STORRS — There were a number of things Dan Hurley could’ve talked about to start his postgame press conference after the UConn men unveiled their fifth national championship banner and opened the season with a 95-52 win over Northern Arizona in front of a record Gampel Pavilion crowd.
But he decided to focus on Cam Spencer, the only starter who didn’t score in double-digits – and that is exactly why.
Spencer, a fifth-year guard who transferred in from Rutgers, was the co-leading scorer for the Scarlet Knights last year (13.2 points per game) as he attempted nearly 10 shots a game and made 43.4% from 3-point range. He took only three shots on Monday, all from beyond the arc, and made two.
“I just thought maybe the best thing I saw tonight was how Cam approached it,” Hurley said in his opening statement. “A guy with his type of credentials coming in, the scoring and all of the production in his career, but his willingness to take three shots and just elevate the play of everyone around him – the impact he had on us offensively, whether they were the hockey assists or the ball movement – I thought, to me, that was the story of the night.”
Spencer had four assists in the first five minutes of the game and finished with five to go along with his eight points, a rebound and a steal. Often turning down a shot of his own for a better one, Spencer picked his spots and then got back on defense.
“This team has got tremendous depth in terms of the amount of people who can beat you offensively, and a willingness for players on this team to allow others to eat, others to have big nights when the matchups dictate that, I think is going to go a long way with the team,” Hurley said. “I thought he set a great tone for our season with the way he approached things.”
Spencer’s first shot, a 3 from the top of the key, hit the back of the rim and bounced about eight feet in the air before falling through the net for his first points as a Husky.
His role on this team is, in part, to make up for the losses of Jordan Hawkins and Joey Calcaterra, two sharpshooters that spread the floor for the Huskies’ offense last year. But Spencer has shown quickly that he can do much more than that with his impact on the defensive end, plus his ball movement and feel for the game.
“He helps us out so much,” said Alex Karaban, who led all scorers with 22 points. “For him to only take three shots and he left a huge impact on the game, I mean, his passing, he was always making the right reads. Defensively he was playing hard, diving on the ground, what he does really just goes beyond the box score. For him to sacrifice what he did today, he’s going to have those big games and we’re gonna look at the box score and see him have 10 3s or something.
“Just what he did out there was super helpful, just a credit to who he is as a person and as a teammate.”
Shooters roll
Cam Spencer's first points as a Husky pic.twitter.com/jJ8v51ZP3Y
— UConn Men's Basketball (@UConnMBB) November 6, 2023
Second-year jumps
Only returning 38% of scoring from last year’s national championship roster, UConn is going to count on performances like the 22-point, seven-rebound effort Karaban gave them on Monday. The 6-8 forward led the team in minutes and averaged 9.3 points per game last year.
“He showed that this thing is all built on (players taking a) next step, big jump,” Hurley said. “He’s one of those couple of players – Donovan (Clingan), Alex, Tristen (Newton), Samson (Johnson), Hass (Diarra) – we need big jumps from our returners, we need big jumps from all these guys to be a program that’s going for the big things this year.”
Clingan, on a minutes restriction as he works his way back from a foot injury, made the most of his 15 minutes with 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks. He averaged 6.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 13.1 minutes per game last year as a freshman playing behind Adama Sanogo, and is expected to take his production to an even higher level once he returns to full strength.
Newton’s production Monday was along the lines of what UConn fans grew to expect last season. He finished with a steady 14 points (4 of 7 from the field), seven rebounds and three assists.
Off the bench, Johnson gave a glimpse of what he has to offer after missing nearly all of last season – he had 11 points (five dunks), five rebounds and three blocks. And Diarra, the veteran guard in the second unit, had six points, two rebounds, two assists and a block – a slight increase from his 2.1 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists last year.
A gracious guest
Northern Arizona head coach Shane Burcar, who added former UConn graduate assistant Tim Russo to his staff as an assistant coach this year, had his team sit on its bench during UConn’s national championship banner ceremony to watch.
“We used that as inspiration, we want to be the Big Sky champs this year,” he said. “No matter what happened tonight – obviously when you prepare for a game like this you’re hoping for an upset of the century, coming in here (and winning), but it was pretty apparent midway through the second half that wasn’t happening so you try to build your team as you move forward… It’s nothing but a win-win for us right now.”
Burcar, after praising Hurley and thanking the program for the opportunity to play the game, said the record attendance and the student section, which was filled an hour before the game, was the best environment he’s ever coached in.
“The other thing too is we love the game of basketball, we want to be respectful to the team that’s having us here,” he said. “I think UConn’s gonna be really, really good, the Big East is a fist fight every night, so we’ll be rooting for them now that we played them.”
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