Not too many teenagers had the same challenge Patrick had when he was 13.
Patrick had to fight cancer and win.
“I was doing workouts with Duez Henderson and he took me home and told my Mom that he’s really struggling to breathe,” said Patrick. “I was really hitting a wall and I couldn’t really recover. She took me to the doctor and I got a head and chest X-ray, and they saw a narrowing in my trachea, and I had to get an ultrasound. That’s when they found the tumor. I had to get surgery. I got a biopsy and they found out the tumor was malignant, which meant another surgery.”
Patrick had to be isolated for about a week where nobody could be near him.
They even made t-shirts that said “P-Mac,” Patrick’s nickname on the front.
“Checkups came after that and now I’m in the clear,” said Patrick.
Fran McCaffery, Patrick’s dad, was at his surgery in the morning at the University of Iowa hospitals and then flew to Dayton, Ohio to coach Iowa in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in 2014. The Hawks lost to Tennessee that night 78-65 in overtime.
Adam Woodbury scored 16 and Peter Jok came off the bench with 10. Iowa outscored Tennessee 35-4 on bench points.
Patrick had a tough time dealing with the loss but felt good about beating cancer.
West High Trojans
Patrick was about 6-4, 140 pounds when he was a freshman at Iowa City West High.
The Trojans won the state tournament in 2017, when Patrick was a sophomore and his brother Conner was a senior. Patrick also helped West High to go to state as a junior and senior.
“P-Mac” averaged 19.9 points as a junior and 25.1 as a senior becoming the all-time leading scorer for West High while growing up to 6-8, 180.
“I was always able to score,” said Patrick. “I was lucky enough to be on good teams. I played for a great coach, coach (Steve) Bergman and had great teammates.”
He was named Player of the Year by the Des Moines Register as a senior. Patrick also played baseball at West his junior year batting .407 with eight home runs.
West finished runner-up that year at state.
Iowa Hawkeyes
Patrick redshirted his freshman year in 2019-20.
Iowa finished 20-11, 11-9 that season. Iowa was getting ready to play Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten basketball tournament when Covid shut down the world.
“Luka was really starting to come on,” Patrick said. “I was matched up with Joe Wieskamp every day. That made me a lot better. They showed me how to handle myself on and off the court. I try to pass that on to the new freshman.”
2020-21 Iowa 22-9, 14-6
The Covid year saw Iowa finish third in the Big Ten behind Michigan and Illinois.
They had big wins over North Carolina, Iowa State, Rutgers and Minnesota.
Patrick, who is now 6-9, 200, played in all 31 games averaged 5.2 ppg., shot 44% from the floor and 71% from the free throw line. Patrick led the team in steals five times and in blocked shots four times.
Iowa beat Wisconsin then lost to Illinois in the second round of the Big Ten tournament.
The Hawks beat Grand Canyon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and were knocked out by Oregon in the second round.
No fans, but Luka goes off as a unanimous All American, Big Ten Player of the Year and set an Iowa single season scoring record with 740 points.
“It sucked not playing in front of crowds,” said Patrick. “We all play in the Big Ten and we know what the atmosphere is like. We go to Maryland and there is literally no people. There were the refs and maybe four administrators…that was it. That was really weird.”
Patrick said he has really enjoyed playing with Conner and being coached by his dad.
“It’s a blast,” said Patrick. “Nobody knows the game better than my dad and my brother is right behind him in that. Being able to be around them and my mother at every game. I’ll never take that for granted. I’m really happy I chose to play here.
2021-22 Iowa 26-10, 16-8
There were no real expectations for the Hawkeyes last season.
They lost one of the best players ever in Luka Garza as well as Joe Wieskamp, who is playing in the NBA. Little did they know that Keegan Murray would come through with one of the best seasons ever for a Hawkeye. Patrick is the same age as Keegan, played against him in high school and they have been teammates for the last two years.
Did Patrick see this coming?
“Maybe not to that extent,” said the 6-9 forward. “You knew Keegan was going to make a huge jump. Maybe I didn’t think he was going to average 25, maybe 18 or 19 at least. So much talent, so much ability. He can do so many things on the floor. He’s unbelievably athletic and coordinated. He has everything that you need. I was able to see that every day.”
Keegan and Patrick were usually on the same team but sometimes had to go against each other in practice.
“Open gym and pickup games in the summer Keegan and I would matchup every time,” said Patrick. “We would really go at each other. It was fun competing with him.”
Last season Iowa came out blazing with eight straight wins and the Hawks led the nation in scoring at 94 points per game. Purdue, ranked No. 2, broke that streak, then the Hawks lost to Illinois and Iowa State. Iowa ended the Big Ten season winning five of six and were seeded 5th in the Big Ten tournament.
Big Ten tournament
The Hawks rolled through the Big Ten tournament beating Northwestern 112-76, Rutgers 84-74, Indiana 80-77, and Purdue in the championship 75-66.
The Indiana win was a 3-point bank shot that Jordan Bohannon hit with one second left.
“As soon as he shot it I was like, ‘that’s going to go in’,” said Patrick. “You always trust J Bo in those moments.”
In the Purdue game, Iowa was out rebounded 48-30, outscored 38-28 on points in the paint and only shot 29% from three. The Hawks did have a 29-20 advantage on bench points with Payton Stanford scoring 10.
“We forced a lot of turnovers (17) which kept up in the game,” P-Mac said. “Payton came up big. You dream about winning the Big Ten championship and the watching selection Sunday.”
Wrap
The Hawkeyes have replaced Keegan Murray, who broke Luka Garzas one year scoring record.
It’s not going to be easy but I have a feeling his twin brother Kris might be just what the doctor ordered to fill in for Keegan.
Don’t count the Hawks out.
Iowa Hawkeyes forward Patrick McCaffery (22) against the Richmond Spiders in the first round of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Thursday, March 17, 2022 at Key Bank Center in Buffalo, NY.