Clark connected to Albany
Iowa star dating the son of former Siena basketball coach Fran Mccaffery
Connor Mccaffery grew up as a ball boy for Siena men’s basketball during the program’s best days under his father, coach Fran Mccaffery.
The Saints won 38 straight home games in the building called Pepsi Arena, and then Times Union Center, before the Mccafferys left after five seasons for Fran’s new job as head coach at Iowa in 2010.
“I just remember it used to be rocking,” Connor Mccaffery recalled Wednesday. “I was pretty young, but I remember going into the arena never really being scared we were going to be leaving with a loss.”
Now called MVP Arena, the atmosphere will be electric again this weekend, largely because Connor Mccaffery’s girlfriend is coming to town. You might have heard of her. She’s one of the most popular athletes in America.
Iowa senior guard Caitlin Clark, the NCAA’S all-time scoring leader with 3,830 points, will play Saturday in an NCAA East Regional Sweet 16 game against Colorado in front of an anticipated sellout crowd of more than 14,000. The regional runs Friday through Monday.
Connor Mccaffery, 25, won’t be in the building. He’s a team assistant for the NBA’S Indiana Pacers and works in their video room. The Pacers have home games on Friday and Monday, when Iowa could be playing an Elite Eight contest.
Mccaffery, who played at Iowa from 2017 through last season. said he’s talked to Clark about the Albany area for her first trip here. Though Clark won’t have much time to look around, Mccaffery plans to text Clark’s mother, Anne, with restaurant suggestions.
“I wish I could come, too, and see it live,” Connor Mccaffery said. “I think it’s going to be fun. I
think she’ll kill it. You know how the people in that region love basketball. They’ll appreciate kind of what she’s able to do and watching those teams. There’s going to be some good games in there.”
Mccaffery did attend Clark’s final home game, a second-round win over West Virginia on Monday.
Mccaffery and Clark have dated for about a year. She was friends first with Patrick Mccaffery, Connor’s younger brother, an Iowa forward who entered the NCAA transfer portal on Wednesday.
“We were always friends,” Connor Mccaffery said. “She was friends with Patrick. I was friends with her. Our teams hung out together. We had good relationships with the women’s team and we just eventually started hanging out. Really, at first, it was no different than it had ever been. It was just kind of easy how it all worked out, you know.”
Mccaffery said they share a competitive nature.
“Some fire, passion, all of those things,” he said. “I would say there’s definitely some similarities there that come out. She’s fierce, and I love it.”
They could be reunited in Indianapolis this summer. The Indiana Fever have the 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft April 15 with Clark the presumed top selection.
Clark is a frequent visitor to the Mccafferys’ home in the Iowa City area. Fran Mccaffery has watched Clark elevate the Iowa women from a successful program to a must-see national brand.
“The level she took everything, not only locally, but nationally, you don’t see that,” Mccaffery said. “The closest thing I’ve seen to that is Michael Jordan, which is an incredible comparison, when you think about it. Every road venue she goes to is sold out. Every game here is sold out.”
Playing in front of packed houses, Clark is still averaging a nation-best 31.8 points per game and leading the nation with 181 3-pointers against defenses targeting her.
“She’s being treated like a rock star, but it’s not like she comes out on stage and sings 15 songs,” Mccaffery said. “She’s getting doubleteamed. She’s getting knocked to the floor. Everything they’re doing to try to stop her and she’s still expected to get 35 every night. That’s really hard to do. And she does it.”
Beyond that, Fran Mccaffery said he’s impressed with how Clark has handled the deluge of requests off the court. The Mccafferys are constantly asked to pass along items for Clark to autograph and are “protective” of her.
“She’s just a humble person,” Fran Mccaffery said. “It’s incredible the demands on her time and, ‘Can you sign this, can you sign that.’ Everybody wants to meet her. And she’s handled that incredibly well. She’s got a great smile and she’s engaging with people and she stays locked into her craft.”
Connor Mccaffery sees his girlfriend on TV in commercials with Jake from State Farm. She’s also a spokesperson for Bose, Gatorade and Nike who earns seven figures in name, image and likeness money, according to ESPN. Lebron James tweeted his congratulations to Clark for breaking the scoring record.
“I feel like I’ve just gotten used to it,” Connor Mccaffery said. “We’ve always been friends, so when we’re hanging out, we don’t even think about it. It’s not like it’s a running topic or joke or anything like that. It’s like it’s happening, but you go on and continue to be normal. You don’t make a big deal out of it. Just keep everything for her as normal as it can be because, as we all know, it’s not very normal right now.”