Virginia Basketball 22-23 Roster Preview: Francisco Caffaro
The countdown is on for the start of the 2022-2023 college basketball season. Just over a week remains until a new season of college hoops tips off. With that in mind, it's time to preview the roster for the 2022-2023 Virginia men's basketball team. CavaliersNow will be going through the UVA roster player-by-player in preparation for the season, which begins on Monday, November 7th against NC Central at John Paul Jones Arena.
Today, we analyze redshirt senior center Francisco Caffaro.
Click on the links below to read our player previews for the rest of the UVA men's basketball roster:
Francisco Caffaro and Kihei Clark are the sole remnants of the 2019 Virginia men's basketball National Championship team who are still on the roster. Caffaro redshirted that season, but was on the bench and with the team when the Cavaliers cut down the nets in Minneapolis. Over the next two seasons, Caffaro averaged right around seven minutes per game, not really cracking the rotation in his first two years playing at UVA.
Then, last season, Caffaro became a key contributor for Tony Bennett at the center position. The 7'1" Argentinian appeared in all 35 of Virginia's games and even overtook Kadin Shedrick as the starting center in the second half of the season, starting in 16 of UVA's final 20 games. In 17.7 minutes played per game, Caffaro averaged 4.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game and shot 52.4% from the floor - almost entirely on hook shots and dunks within a few feet of the rim.
While Caffaro has proven to be an adequate option in doing the bare minimum required of a center in Tony Bennett's UVA system - setting screens and finishing dunks on the offensive end, and hedging ball screens, forming a brick wall in the low post, and protecting the rim on the defensive end - there is some concern that Caffaro has already reached his ceiling in terms of what he offers the Cavaliers on both ends of the floor.
As Jack Salt reincarnate, Caffaro's weaknesses on the offensive end remain unchanged. He has a penchant for clumsiness anytime he deals with the ball. If he puts the ball on the floor near the basket, he has trouble getting it back up to his hands to be able to do anything with it. Caffaro ranked 5th on the team with 32 turnovers last season, but each of the four players above him - Armaan Franklin (43 TOs), Reece Beekman (50 TOs), Jayden Gardner (52 TOs), and Kihei Clark (77 TOs) - handle the ball considerably more than he does. Caffaro sets vicious and effective screens, but isn't as much of a threat to do anything off of them as other forwards and centers. He is able to finish dunks but, for the most part, they have to be uncontested in order for him to do so.
On the defensive end, Caffaro's strength allows him to be solid in the post against other bigs, but he lacks the speed and agility to hedge ball screens as effectively as Kadin Shedrick without fouling. Of course, both Shedrick and Caffaro struggled mightily with foul trouble last season, resulting in them nearly evenly splitting the minutes at center.
Caffaro certainly has had his moments. He recorded a 16-point, 9-rebound performance in the win over Virginia Tech last season and also scored in double figures at Notre Dame. But overall, Kadin Shedrick offers significantly more upside for the Cavaliers at the center spot on both ends of the floor. Shedrick is more agile with his movements and has more leaping ability. He is a better shot-blocker and rim protector and moves well enough to recover after hedging ball screens. On the offensive end, he is developing a jump shot - something we don't expect to see from Caffaro at any point in his career - and generally, Shedrick has the edge in terms of post moves, finishing, and dunking ability over Caffaro.
The big theme heading into this UVA men's basketball season is depth and versatility on the roster. Tony Bennett has lots of options with his lineups. It will be interesting to see how he experiments with Ben Vander Plas and Jayden Gardner at the power forward position to go along with Shedrick and Caffaro at center. You could potentially see lineups without Shedrick or Caffaro at center if Bennett wants to go small. One player whose development could significantly impact Caffaro is Isaac Traudt. We covered Traudt last week and you can read the full preview on him here. If the 6'10" freshman can hold up well enough on the defensive end, his undeniable value on the offensive end might be too much to ignore and you might see him start to take the reserve center minutes away from Caffaro.
Caffaro is the tallest, biggest, and strongest player on the team by far. But beyond that, his value on the floor has been extremely limited. He has areas where he can improve: developing his postgame, getting some touch with his hook shot, improving his handle of the basketball to limit loose balls and turnovers, and becoming a more viable option rolling to the basket out of screens. On the defensive end, he can get better at contesting and blocking shots at the rim (only 11 blocked shots all season) and more importantly, avoid foul trouble.
If he can improve in these areas and be a reliable defender without fouling (very important), then Caffaro could very well contribute quality minutes for the Cavaliers this season, But he must show that development early to avoid getting passed by the other newcomers on the depth chart. Either way, this will be a very important season for Francisco Caffaro.
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