Cameron McCaffrey brings energy, focus to court

Sophomore guard Cameron McCaffrey has been a major asset for the Augustana men's basketball program this season, helping them to an early season record of 3-1. 

Through four games, McCaffrey has been the team's leading scorer, averaging 20.8 points per game. Yet, with the statistics piling up, McCaffrey's main focus on the court is playing as a team, playing competitive and at the end of the game, getting the win. 

McCaffrey started playing basketball at the young age of seven, learning to enjoy the game alongside neighborhood friends before finding the spotlight as a freshman when he made the varsity squad at Century High School in Portland, Ore. 

As a senior, McCaffrey averaged 25 points, six assists and five rebounds a game.  He also had five last-minute game-winning shots, including one that sent his team to the Oregon 5A finals in the state tournament.

His senior year of high school included 733 points, twelfth highest single-season point total in Oregon history.  He was also named the Player of the Year in the Northwest Oregon Conference, earned Class 5A All-State honors and made the Class 5 All-State Tournament Team.

During the summers of his high school career, McCaffrey played on the Oregon Select AAU traveling team, where he first realized that he could play basketball at the collegiate level. 

McCaffrey verbally committed to play at Oregon State originally, but in his senior year, the Beavers lost three scholarships for the next season. He was given the option to walk on and receive a scholarship in the future, but McCaffrey chose to re-join the recruiting class and find a new college to play for. 

McCaffrey received a call from Augustana College in late spring and came out for a visit.

"After my visit, I fell in love with the college," McCaffrey said.  "The selling point for me was the team and how well they blended."

While McCaffrey fell in love with the program, head coach Tom Billeter fell in love with McCaffrey's style of play.

"Cameron is very competitive and fears nothing," Billeter said.  "I really like his toughness and tenacity.  Cameron is a very good point guard who plays the game at a very high pace, he is always attacking and pushing the ball."

McCaffrey signed on with Augustana soon after the visit, something Billeter credits to his players doing a "very good job of making him feel a part of the team on his visit."

As a true freshman, McCaffrey made his presence known when he finished the season as the team's third-highest scorer.  Coming off the bench, Cam averaged 12.9 points per game. 

As he was known for in high school, McCaffrey made a last-second shot to win the game against a top-ranked Winona State squad on Feb. 13, 2010, and finished the game with a career-high of 29 points. 

McCaffrey was named the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Freshman of the Year, Division-II Bulletin All-Freshman team and earned All-NSIC second team honors.  McCaffrey was also third on the team in assists, with 57, and tallied his first 20-point game against South Dakota State School of Mines on Dec. 17, 2009.  In 18 of 27 games played, he scored in double digits.

This year, McCaffrey is all about going for the win.  He stated that the team's goals for the season are to be number one in the region, host the regional tournament, and above all else, they "want to be the Division II national champions."

To get there, though, McCaffrey made it clear that the "team will play each game minute-by-minute, shot-by-shot and focus on winning."