I am him and he is me: How Cam Spencer’s similarity to Dan Hurley has kept UConn hungry entering NCAA Tournament

Cam Spencer (left) embodies Dan Hurley's insatiable appetite to win so much so that it has fueled UConn’s national championship defense. (Photo by the Hartford Courant)

NEW YORK — The comparisons between Dan Hurley and Cam Spencer have begun to circulate more widely as UConn prepares for its NCAA Tournament opener Friday, so much so that Hurley's wife, Andrea, said the senior guard was essentially a clone of her husband, only with blond hair.

The coach, however, saw the kinship another way.

“I’m a bald him,” he quipped, removing his UConn cap to reveal whatever hair has managed to remain three-plus decades after his basketball endeavors took on the larger-than-life existence they currently occupy in the landscape of the sport. “Or balding.”

Follicles aside, Spencer has brought a different dimension to the Huskies in their national championship defense in his ability to be an effortless extension of his coach. The similarly attuned Hurley has since brought out a side of the Maryland native that had not come to the surface at either of his previous stops at Loyola or Rutgers, revealing itself in a regular season that culminated in first team all-Big East recognition alongside backcourt partner Tristen Newton.

“He’s a unique competitor,” Hurley said of Spencer. “With Tristen in the backcourt, you’ve got fire and ice there. He’s the fire and hunger. I think that’s been something for us, too.”

The hunger, a force of nature in its own right through expletive-laced tirades whenever Spencer misses a shot or verbal sparring matches with opposing players and coaches, has galvanized his teammates as UConn starts the defense of its crown Friday in Brooklyn against Stetson. According to some of the elder statesman in the program, it harkens back to the intensity of Andre Jackson, the uber-athletic guard now plying his wares in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks.

“We needed somebody just like Coach, like Andre was last year,” Newton declared with regard to Spencer and his addition to the program. “The personality that he brought really helped us out this year. He has the same personality (as Hurley), so he brings that fiery edge that we needed.”

“He wants to win every game,” Donovan Clingan added. “He doesn’t fear losing and he hates losing. Like Tristen said, he has the same personality as (Hurley). Their personalities match perfect. They butt heads sometimes in practice, but on game nights, they have each other’s backs and we all have each other’s backs. He’s really connected this team like how Andre did last year.”

Alex Karaban has seen Spencer’s essence perhaps closer than anyone this season, as the sophomore forward has been his roommate on the road this season. Karaban pointed to the laser focus of Spencer, who is notoriously absent on social media, as a driving force behind where he and the team have arrived to this point, and much like the UConn fans who will undoubtedly pack the Barclays Center stands, is awaiting the first major payoff this weekend.

“He’s talked about Brooklyn and wanting to get to Brooklyn,” Karaban said. “He’s been speaking it to fruition now and he’s been waiting for this opportunity, and what they’ve said about his competitive fire and stuff is definitely noticeable.”

For Hurley, the satisfaction of having a guard in his own image goes beyond the impact Spencer provides on the court. The rewarding part of the journey for the coach, he said, has come with affording his young star the experience he came to UConn for, something he did not have in his career until committing to the Huskies.

“When we recruited Cam, (we said), this is the type of year we think you can have if you join this program,” Hurley recalled. “This is what we’re going for. He hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament, he hasn’t won championships at this level, he hasn’t experienced college basketball at the top of the sport.”

“So having a critical player that hasn’t experienced this thing has been great for our team, because it’s instilled a wild ambition within the group. He’s got such a big personality and he’s just so damn competitive.”