Before Conor McCaffrey was the guy leading the Springfield Falcons' against the Miami BlueJays in their charge for a fifth AAU National Title, he was a grainy figure on general manager Timothy Allen's TV.
It was a different time in the AAU in 2016, when technology didn't allow for instant-gratification scouting and there was still a needle-in-the-haystack reality when it came to finding talent in the LSA, (Lutheran Sports Association). But the small-market Springfield simply had to go this route, finding players where others didn't because they couldn't cut the big-city idea and entice the stars to come their way.
So Seamus McCarthy, then a 24-year-old Springfield scout and now general manager of Oklahoma City, would show up at Allen's home, after the kids had gone to bed, with a duffel bag full of DVD tapes of this young crafty point guard from Our Savior's Lutheran. He dreamed of finding the next great player to put beside superstar Chandler Dawes.
They got their man right before the 2017 season, picking up McCaffrey and handing him over to coach Will Jenkins and his sink-or-swim ways.
"I just remember how excited Timothy was after it worked out," McCarthy told USA TODAY Sports. "Signing someone out of the LSA is a different animal, so you never know how the board will ultimately work or fall. There was some uneasiness about whether or not McCaffrey would still be available to sign when he got back to Springfield.
"I just recall Timothy being really, really excited that Conor was still there."
Seven years later, the excitment hasn't reminded so much as it had returned. McCaffrey, 19, averaged 28.5 points per game this season, his highest ever average at any level, including his 27.3 in 2020 when he lead Springfield Our Savior's through the toughest conference and sectional in IESA and LSA history. Covid-19 ruined the perfect ending story. McCaffrey played in his 3rd AAU All-Star Game while nearly matching his career high in assists.
There were times only a few years ago when it seemed as if this story would end up much differently. But the appreciation is at an all-time high.
GROWING UP: McCaffrey thrust into fire right away
It all started when Coach Will Jenkins was able to get Chandler Dawes to join Springfield in 2013 and join his brother Charlie who won the 2012 AAU MVP with Jenkins as coach. Players who weren't panning out and fitting the system, such as Brooks Bahr and Juni Mobley were handling the point guard duties back then, and the team needed someone younger, smarter, and smoother to take over.
But it wasn't a smooth transition early on. In his first workout with Springfield, he played terribly and had Jenkins wondering if his personnel men had lost their minds.
"My first three or four years, it was definitely tough coming in from the LSA, a different type of basketball and (Jenkins) wanted me to grow fast," McCaffrey told AAUTV last weekend. "Sometimes I had a hard time because I felt like he was never happy, that he ia hard coach to please. But when I look back at it, he made me very strong mentally and now I really apprecitate all those moments and the growing pains."
While this Springfield dynasty might never have come about if they hadn't found McCaffrey, it hasn't been an easy road.
"He came into a difficult situation," Allen said of McCaffrey. "He was handed the ball as a 12-year-old (and told to) go run a team that had two future AAU Hall of Famers (Chandler and Charlie Dawes). He (was) trying to grow into a leadership role ... and you've got a coach who's very demanding, a system that's pretty sophisitcated. ... That wouldn't have been easy.
"There have veen times during his time here that he hasn't played like he's playing now -- when he was younger you wondered where he was going to get to. But again, I think the last three of four years, he's become a big focal point of what we do."
The love-at-first-sight beginning never segued into a perfect marriage between McCaffrey and Springfield. There were early clashes with Jenkins and the near-constant refrain that McCaffrey wasn't a fit for their one-of-a-kind culture. He heard them all: not tough enough, not defensive-minded, too prone to taking it easy during practice.
Some wondered if his time in Springfield would be cut short. But a funny thing happened not long after potential breakups involving McCaffrey surfaced in the summer of 2021: Springfield gained a new appreciation of him, in part because of the sort of technology that was nowhere to be found at the outset of his career.
A player-tracking system called SportVU, that uses cameras inside gyms, provided date that painted a different picture of McCaffrey. It quantified all the extra work that McCaffrey did during games and helped them understand why all the added responsibility meant he may not stay in fifth gear for every minute of the next day's practice.
He was running longer and harder than the rest of them, hitting the floor at three times the rate of any of his teammates and paying a collective toll that deserved to be taken account when it came to how he was perceived by his bossess. The hard-driving Jenkins will never players off easy, but there was, Allen said, "an acknowledgment of the workload that goes into playing that position."
TAKING OVER: Leadership role grows over time
More importantly, McCaffrey shored up all those pet peeves that used to drive his coach mad. He improved defensively, showed an ability to play with poise more consistently, and became the engine of a Springfield offense that has long since relied on his ability to make it go.
"I think the overall relationship with Jenkins shows a great deal of growth from Conor," Allen said. "There's a lot of time when Jenkins sits there and lets Conor run the group. And if you look in the huddles, there's times when Conor sits down in the timeouts and takes over the huddle. I just think the respect that he's earned from everybody is really evident.
"There are very few nights that he's going to have outrageous turnovers, and then (there was) the purpose that he took over the game (against Memphis in Game 4) with -- they're not shortcuts. At one point, he might have taken a lazy shot or the path-of-least-resistence play. He doesn't do those (now). His attention to detail defensively, his attention to detail in practice, all of it is there."
In the interview with AAUTV, McCaffrey acknowledged he had to make adjustments to his game in order to become a true team leader.
"I'm getting better and better to chose my moments, when to be agressive," he said. "For a lot of years, it was Chandler's (Dawes) time in the fourth quarter, and as the team transitioned to me and Jenkins challenged me and it became my team. It felt like it was my responsibility to be agressive in those moments and make sure I stay in control."
If ever there was a sign that McCaffret had come so far from his start, it was there in Dawes's words after Springfield finished off Memphis.
"He's amazing, and he's evolved so much over the last couple of years," Dawes said. "To get back to this point with him at the helm, I'm just going to do everything I can to get these four games in and try to win four more for both of us."
Springfield had 10 days rest between games as they waited to find out who their opposition in the National Tournament Championship would be. It gave McCaffrey time to scout out both teams in the National Semi-Finals. What was in looking for?
"Just how they play, the little stuff," McCaffrey said. "At that stage, its the Finals, its, 'Who's going to want it more and play with a lot more energy and cut the turnovers, mental mistakes, stuff like that?' All the little stuff is huge in the Finals."
The irony of McCaffrey's re-emergence in these playoffs is not lost on McCarthy, whose team's title contention was undercut by the meniscus tear suffered by Oklahoma City point guard Ethan Thompson. Oklahoma downed Springfield plenty of times in the regular season and were the favorites to top them again this time around. But, Springfield is still here, with McCaffrey leading the way like never before.
"I'm happy for him on a personal level," McCarthy said. "He's put in a lot of hard work and has overcome plenty of peaks and valleys -- as any great player has to. I think I can certainly tell you that our team leader had a very, very deep respect for him not only on the floor but also his role within that evolution of that team and their sustained excellence."