After losing Jordan Hawkins and Joey Calcaterra to the NBA and graduation, the UConn men’s basketball team needed an experienced perimeter scorer to help fill the void.

So Dan Hurley and staff made former Rutgers guard Cam Spencer, a 43.4% 3-point shooter, a top priority. Spencer committed to UConn Tuesday night.

After three years at Loyola (Md.), Spencer became Rutgers’ leading scorer with 13.2 points per game last season, his first with the team. He also contributed 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and had active hands defensively with 2 steals per game. Spencer transferred to Rutgers ahead of last season after breaking out at Loyola (Md.) where he averaged 18.9 points per game during the 2021-22 season.

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Spencer, 6-foot-4 and 207 pounds from Davidsonville, Md., about an hour east of Hawkins’ hometown, will come to UConn as a graduate student with one year of eligibility.

Hurley noted on Monday, with Spencer in the facility making his official visit, that “help from the perimeter” was the top priority for the team “to continue to play the way we want to play.”

With the addition of Spencer and the return of Tristen Newton, plus a probable leap in production from Alex Karaban and the unknowns that exist with a talented freshman class, UConn will be formidable from the perimeter – though topping the program’s record-setting year from the 3-point line would be a stretch. Behind Hawkins’ 109 3-pointers, good for second-most all-time in a single season at UConn next to Ray Allen’s 115, the Huskies made a program-best 353 3-pointers last season.

UConn now has 12 scholarship players signed on for the 2023-24 national championship defense. Hurley has said he won’t fill the 13th scholarship spot unless there is a perfect fit.