Cam’Ron Fletcher, a former UNC basketball target, is transferring from the University of Kentucky. Could Tar Heels benefit from your services?
Cam’Ron Fletcher was once a highly praised recruit in the 2020 class, and made about 30 scholarship offers before his commitment to the Kentucky Wildcats. From a marginal 5-star perspective at one point in their recruitment, the highlight of Vashon High School had offerings from many of the country’s best basketball programs, including Creighton, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio State, UCLA and Virginia Tech.
After making his way through a list of who’s who of college basketball programs, Fletcher announced his five finalists. Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and North Carolina made the list, and each school had its own merit for the St. Louis native.
He has built good relationships with coaching teams in Alabama and Michigan State. Missouri was the city’s darling, and North Carolina had the fascination of blue blood. But for Fletcher, it was Kentucky that had the perfect mix of everything. Or so he thought.
He ended up committing to Kentucky in August 2019, and that was basically the highlight of his marriage to the Wildcats. Less than two years passed and Fletcher decided to leave the University of Kentucky and enter the NCAA transfer portal. This came after a season in which we saw Fletcher play in just eight games for an impressive 59 minutes, spend a week away from the team as part of disciplinary action in mid-December and were publicly embarrassed by his coach on social media. So overall, it looks like it was a terrible experience.
Fletcher – who averaged just 1.7 points and 1.7 rebounds per game – says he is grateful for the year he spent in Lexington, and that he learned a lot in his first year of college, despite not going the way he expected. He is, however, looking for a new beginning elsewhere. Where it can be, we don’t know. But you have to assume that he can take a look at some of the other schools he considered the first time. Could North Carolina be one of them? And would the Tar Heels have any interest in this point?
It’s hard to say what happened to Fletcher, his teammates and John Calipari last year, but it all seemed a little strange from the outside. A post on social media at the time of Fletcher’s separation from the team suggested that it was just a burst of anger from Fletcher about playing time at the end of the game between Kentucky and North Carolina. Other than that, the details about his weeklong separation from the team were somewhat vague and sparse, but I’m sure anyone who takes a look at Fletcher this time will have some questions for him when he engages in potential transfer talks.
Was there a personality conflict between Fletcher and his coach, or was it some kind of personality flaw that the teams didn’t see in Fletcher the first time?
As far as North Carolina is concerned, it is widely known that Roy Williams recruits character and team that fit the talent, at least if he is tasked with choosing between the two. So, if he saw this as a problem, Fletcher would not be an option for the Tar Heels. There is also the problem that Fletcher was not known as a great perimeter sniper when he was leaving school, and we have little evidence to suggest that he has improved since then. He shot only about 25 percent in the three-point range in his senior season, and North Carolina doesn’t really need another under-average shooter, although he is a defensive athlete in his squad.
So, in summary, when Fletcher hits the market in the next few weeks after being released by the NCAA for a Kentucky transfer, don’t expect the Tar Heels to come knocking on your door, even if they have availability on your 2021-22 list.
Check again at Keep It Heel for the latest news from the UNC basketball program.