Cam Spencer has always been a tone-setter

As the night wore on, a Cam Spencer technical felt inevitable.

The UConn guard, who always seems to keep his emotions at the brim, was making his mark on the Huskies’ eventual win over North Carolina at Madison Square Garden in December… and he was talking. Oh, he was talking.

His 16 first-half points helped UConn take a 44-39 lead into the locker room that night, and with it came a legendary reaction GIF and some verbal jarring with All-American candidate Armando Bacot.

Bacot’s the one who got the first-half tech, but Spencer got his just three minutes into the second half after nailing a three and continuing to chirp.

Not that UConn fans mind. The ever-unhinged online fanbase has embraced Spencer as their own, despite him being relatively new to Storrs.

“He plays basketball like I coach it,’’ head coach Dan Hurley said after the North Carolina game. “He’s loony competitive, but in a very positive way.”

That loony competitiveness helps, and so does his 45 percent shooting from three, paired with a playmaking ability that is even better than advertised. Spencer currently leads the Huskies with 15.4 points per game and has scored 12 or more points in all but three games this season.

While Donovan Clingan has been out injured, Spencer’s averaging 17 points per game and continuing to boost team morale with hustle plays and fiery intensity.

UNC’s Bacot didn’t take quite as kindly to Spencer’s intensity, telling reporters postgame, “he was saying things he wouldn’t say to me if we were in the park or something.”

Geo Baker, whose time at Rutgers only barely overlapped with Spencer’s – they never played together – weighed in on Twitter, saying what UConn fans were thinking: that Spencer will say anything, anywhere, to anyone.

Spencer’s former coaches and teammates agree with Baker: That’s just who he is. His addition to this year’s UConn team is a big reason why the Huskies are 14-2 and tied for first in the Big East despite dealing with injuries to two of their best players.

The Perfect Gentleman

Spencer’s college career began in the Patriot League with a Loyola (MD) program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2012-13.

A native of Davidsonville, Maryland, Spencer followed his brother, who played lacrosse for the Greyhounds, to Baltimore in 2019.

Head men’s basketball coach Tavaras Hardy first saw Spencer on the summer circuit. While injuries in high school kept Spencer’s recruitment from truly taking off, Hardy was one of the few Division I coaches who saw something in the eventual UConn marksman.

“A lot of people at our level didn’t think he was necessarily good enough,” Hardy said, referring to other mid-major coaches. “I gave him a stronger look…and saw some of the things that other people wouldn’t have seen because they weren’t looking at his heart.”