McCaffery enjoys NBA Players Camp
The summer months are always very busy for future Hawkeye Connor McCaffery.
The son of Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery has not only been busy playing basketball, but he’s also been a standout performer for the Iowa City West baseball team, where he is hitting .442 this season, including 5 home runs and 14 RBI’s.
This past week, McCaffery took a break from the diamond and got back on the hardwood, participating in the prestigious NBA Players Top 100 Camp in Charlottesville, VA. The camp annually brings together some of the top prep players in the nation and this year it included not only McCaffery, but 2018 Iowa commit, Joe Wieskamp from Muscatine.
“I loved the camp,” McCaffery said on Sunday. “I thought it was a great experience. All of the speakers and the classroom stuff that we did was really good. All of the coaches were great and the completion was really good.”
At a recent high school event, McCaffery, who is ranked by Rivals.com as the 90th best prospect in the Class of 2017 and a four star recruit, scored 40 points and this spring playing for the Iowa Barnstormers AAU program, he had shot the ball very well from three point range. With this event, the dynamics were different with other guards handling the ball and while his shot wasn’t falling as much, he still took a lot away playing against high level competition.
“I thought I played well. I didn’t shoot it great, but I played well. I just tried to play like I normally play,” he said. “I have shot well this spring with the Barnstormers. I made a ton of three’s this spring and then playing with my high school team at events, I have continued to shoot it very well. When I was at the camp, it’s kind of tough because I used to having the ball more and I had to adjust a little bit because you have to adjust to the other guards.”
The NBA Players Top 100 Camp is also fertile ground for recruiting with players already committed, like McCaffery and Weiskamp, spending some time with prospects who could be on Iowa’s recruiting radar. One of the late additions to the camp was 2017 big man, Luka Garza, who was named to the all-star team and the camp. Garza is one of Iowa’s top targets in McCaffery’s class and recently made an official visit to Iowa City.
“We spent a lot of time with Luka. He sat with us all the time when we were eating,” McCaffery said. “We have a really good relationship and I think he likes Iowa a lot. I think right now he’s getting a lot of offers and more attention. I think he’s probably going to play it out over the summer, but I would really like to play with him because he can really score and we play together very well.”
The rest of the summer for McCaffery will be filled with playing baseball and continuing to work on developing his basketball skills in the gym. He will play out the season with his high school team and is also scheduled to play with his Iowa City West hoops teammates at a team camp at Drake. With baseball in the forefront, McCaffery might not be playing AAU hoops in July. That will depend on how well the Iowa City West baseball team does the rest of the way. If they don’t make it to state, then he could play with his AAU team in late July in Las Vegas.
With all of his success in baseball, his father has given him the green light to possibly play the sport at Iowa following the college hoops season. It’s something that the younger McCaffery is giving some serious thought to doing while he is at Iowa.
“I love baseball and I would love to see how good I can be playing it. I want to play this season out and I really haven’t talked much to the Iowa baseball coaches about it, but I would be interested in it.”