He’s the lowest-ranked member of UK’s No. 1-rated recruiting class. How does he fit?
The narratives for the roles that Kentucky’s incoming basketball recruits will be expected to play next season have already been pretty well established.
Top-10 prospects Brandon Boston and Terrence Clarke are seen as UK’s stone-cold scorers from the perimeter. Devin Askew is the Wildcats’ point guard of the future, an unselfish playmaker and seemingly perfect fit for another star-studded team. Isaiah Jackson is the defensive wizard of a power forward with pogo-stick athleticism, and Lance Ware is his counterpart in the post, a quickly improving player with a versatile offensive game.
And then there’s Cam’Ron Fletcher.
The 6-foot-6 wing committed to Kentucky back in August — becoming the second of six (so far) pledges for this 2020 class — and his is a future that’s been a little tougher for basketball analysts to decipher.
Fletcher’s game, at this point in his development, is predicated largely on his athleticism. Those who have followed him closely say there’s still a ways to go in the skill department, and that’s why his national ranking — No. 42 overall, according to Rivals.com — lags behind the recruits John Calipari has typically brought to Kentucky.
That (relatively) lower standing doesn’t mean Fletcher can’t be an impact freshman for the Wildcats next season. He’ll just need to bring the right mindset to make it happen.
“When he plays with energy and crashes the glass and gets out in transition and doesn’t hunt jump shots, he’s pretty good, because he can use his athleticism and length to his advantage. Especially on the high school level,” Rivals national analyst Eric Bossi told the Herald-Leader. “But if he settles for jump shots or tries to be a primary ball handler, he plays away from his strengths.”
Bossi scouted Fletcher and his Vashon (Mo.) team again recently. In that game, Fletcher displayed a more-in-control approach than on some past viewings.
“I was happy to see it was a little bit slower place than they typically like to play at Vashon. They kind of like to get up and down,” he said. “And I was glad to see that he kind of took things as they came to him in the game. The jump shots he took were smart jump shots. They were in the flow of things. They weren’t forced. And, not surprisingly, they looked better, because he had a rhythm as he was shooting them, versus ‘Oh, man, I gotta go find a shot.’”
Those around Fletcher acknowledge that he’s at his best when he’s affecting the game in different ways. When he tries to force the issue offensively, he can get into trouble. Bad shots often lead to missed shots, which can carry over to other aspects of his game.
“Sometimes, if he’s not getting the ball or he misses a couple of shots, his energy can kind of go down a little bit. He lets negativity roll downhill, so to speak,” Bossi said. “A couple of plays becomes a rut, instead of shaking it off and moving on to the next play. And that’s something that’s pretty natural for any young player. But, for him, it’s a big key, because so much of how he can cause mismatches and problems is predicated on him being active and playing with a motor. So, if he doesn’t have a motor, it’s tougher for him to impact a game until he gets his skill up to the level of his athleticism. … Physically, he has the tools of an NBA player. But the skill level has a long way to catch up.”
Vashon head coach Tony Irons agreed with that assessment. He also pointed to the root of that get-down-on-yourself attitude as a potential positive, if Fletcher learns to harness it in the right way.
“I take it as a kid that wants to play well all of the time,” Irons told the Herald-Leader. “And that’s not realistic. You’re going to have games where you don’t hit shots, or things don’t go favorably for you. And you just gotta be able to play through it.”
Expectations vs. reality
Merging Fletcher’s unreal athleticism, unrealistically high expectations for himself and improving skill set will continue to be a process, but Irons has seen signs of that growth this season.
Over the weekend, Fletcher scored 27 points in a game, with 20 in the second half alone. Irons said his star player found his groove in all aspects of the contest, and that rhythm led to favorable offensive results. At the end of the game, Fletcher hadn’t even realized that he’d scored that many points. He had lost himself in the game. And that, for him, was a positive development.
“I had to tell him he scored 27 points,” Irons said. “And then I told him, ‘You’re running the floor. You’re rebounding. You’re doing a whole bunch of different things. You’re not too much caught up on, How many touches am I getting? or things of that nature. When you’re just playing hard, good stuff happens for you.’
“So, hopefully, that continues. Because, afterward, he was like, ‘I get what you’re saying, Coach.’ So maybe that was the light-bulb moment.”
Irons let out a little chuckle at his last comment. He knows how much it’s taken to get Fletcher to this point, and how much more it will take to get him toward his ultimate goal of playing in the pros.
Fletcher’s basketball path has been a bit different than other highly touted high school recruits, especially the ones who end up at Kentucky.
Irons said he didn’t really play much as a freshman, and — while he did emerge as a starter for Vashon by his sophomore year — there had always been talented upperclassmen on the team to shoulder some of the spotlight and help guide him along.
Now, his teammates look to him as the leader. And his opponents — as well as those who come to see him play just because they know where he’ll be playing next — look at him as “the Kentucky recruit.” They’re expecting him to light up the scoreboard, and that’s just not his game.
“A lot of times, when you sign at a school like a Kentucky, people’s expectations for you are a little bit different,” Irons said. “In their minds, he’s supposed to come out here and score 40 points. Supposed to do this and that. He just needs to be the best version of himself, and then grow in the areas that you need growth in. That’s just what it is.”
Fletcher’s future at Kentucky
So, what will Fletcher’s role be next season?
“As always is the case with Kentucky, a lot of it is going to depend on who is back and who isn’t,” Bossi said. “But I think he’s going to be a role player, a guy who comes in and can provide energy. Frankly, what they were kind of hoping to have gotten out of Kahlil Whitney after it became evident that he wasn’t going to be like ‘the man’ as a starter. To use his athleticism and maybe cause some mismatches as a tweener ‘3’-’4’ kind of guy. And I think that, because that’s been his role for a while now, I think maybe he’ll be a little bit more accepting of that. Where, you know, Whitney came from kind of being like ‘the man,’ unquestioned, on a nightly basis, to having to do some other things, and that’s always a tough transition.”
If Fletcher buys into that mentality, he could be a dangerous weapon at UK.
Calipari’s infatuation with “positionless” players extends especially to defense, where capable, multi-positional defenders — who actually want to play defense — can stay on the court even when things aren’t clicking offensively.
Irons said this season has been positive preparation for Fletcher, who has played a tough schedule with Vashon and usually finds himself defending the other team’s best player, regardless of position.
This past weekend, Fletcher was matched up with Creighton signee Ryan Kalkbrenner, a 7-footer and Top 100 national recruit. A couple of weeks earlier, Fletcher was assigned to defend 6-3 combo guard DJ Steward, a five-star recruit who has signed with Duke.
Irons says Fletcher has continued to work on his jump shot, the primary point of emphasis offensively, and an area where the coach thinks his star player is already more accomplished than people think. Learning to move without the ball is another focal point for offensive improvement.
But it’s not scoring that will get Fletcher on the court at UK and keep him there, at least initially. That is something that will progress over time. And, according to his coach, Fletcher will be OK with that. For now, he’s more focused on development than instant results in college.
“One of the reasons why Kentucky was the best pick for him, in my opinion, was because he’s going to have an opportunity every day to play against people that are either as talented or more talented, and that’s going to help his growth,” Irons said. “He’ll be able to maximize and reach his ceiling faster than playing against people that are walking in on campus the very first day and he’s the best player on the team. So, I think, early on, it’s going to be an adjustment, as far as how physical it is, how fast it is, all those things.
“But he is a kid that loves the game. He loves basketball. So, he’s going to be able to adjust. I think his role, probably, early on is going to be a guy that Coach looks to to bring energy, defend, rebound, those type of things. And then just be able to constantly grow offensively to where he gets more comfortable.”
With so many other talented players around, any substantial playing time at Kentucky next season might be difficult to come by. It wasn’t promised, and it certainly won’t be given. Other UK freshmen have had difficulty making that adjustment. Fletcher’s coach doesn’t think that will be a problem with him.
“He’ll understand coming in that he’s going to have to earn whatever it is that he gets,” Irons said. “He’s not going to be like a prima donna or somebody that comes in, and — at the first sign of adversity — he’s like, ‘I can’t handle it. I’m out.’ He’s somebody that is going to fight through it. And the fact is — because he wants to play — he’ll be willing to do whatever he needs to play. He’s not going to be somebody who expects to play and expects for it to be a certain kind of way.”
