Cam'Ron Fletcher (21) impressed John Calipari Wednesday with his effort. (UK Athletics Photo)
He was not one of the Kentucky freshmen players being talked about a lot in the preseason. He’s not on any 2021 NBA draft mock lists. Yet don’t be surprised if Cam’ron Fletcher plays a major role for Kentucky this season even if he is a “dirty” player.
“I don’t care about attention for real, I just play hard and play dirty. That’s just me,” Fletcher said after Wednesday’s 81-45 win over Morehead State.
He had nine points on 4-for-5 shooting along with five rebounds, three assists and one steal in 17 minutes of play. He also did not have a turnover.
‘I love what I saw from Cam’Ron Fletcher) today because he just plays hard,” Calipari said.
However, even the coach admits what he saw from Fletcher was a bit of a surprise.
“Like (Fletcher) has not done what he did today in the game. That’s why he didn’t go in earlier. But now, what he just did today, we’re going to push him in there,” Calipari said after the game.
“It was game time, so I generally just run, and I knew I had to play hard, and everything just fell into place,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher, not known for his shooting, even hit a corner 3-point shot. But that’s not his forte. Battling for loose ball, playing physical defense, going after rebounds or whatever other little things he can do is what Fletcher provides.
“Don’t worry about scoring or anything else. Just worry about fighting and everything else will fall into place. When you’re playing hard, stuff just falls in line,” Fletcher said when asked what Calipari tells him. “For the first game with my team, I just wanted to go out there and have fun, I wanted everyone else on the team to have fun. I just wanted to get the win.”
Fletcher knows defense could define Kentucky’s team more than anything else this year and what Calipari continues to stress daily.
“He knows we have a lot of good offensive players, but with our defense, we can win games for real. He loves defense,” Fletcher said.
