Connor McCaffery will play baseball at Iowa, redshirt first year in basketball

Fran McCaffery encouraged his son to pursue what he wanted.

For Connor McCaffery, that means continuing both his baseball and basketball careers at the University of Iowa.

The Iowa City West standout will play baseball at Iowa next season while redshirting in basketball, he announced Friday on Twitter.

McCaffery had already committed to play basketball for his father, part of a recruiting class that includes posts Jack Nunge (Newburgh, Ind.) and Luka Garza (Washington, D.C.). But without another basketball scholarship open, McCaffery will be a walk-on in both sports and only play baseball in 2017-18.

'(Baseball) Coach (Rick) Heller and my Dad have a great plan in place and I'm excited to get started,” McCaffery wrote on Twitter. 'I thought this was the best opportunity in both sports considering I still love both and I wanted to continue playing both at a higher level.”

McCaffery hit .407 with eight home runs and 33 RBI last summer for West's Class 4A state runner-up.

'I'm really excited for my last high school baseball season with my guys,” McCaffery wrote, 'and then I'll be starting practice with both the (Iowa) baseball team and basketball team immediately after.”

He was The Gazette's area boys' basketball player of the year this season after leading the Trojans to a 4A state title, averaging 19.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 51.8 percent, including 41.0 percent from 3-point range. The 247Sports composite rankings list McCaffery (6-foot-4) as a three-star basketball recruit, ranked 109th overall.

'I just have been encouraging him to, ‘Do what it is you want to do,'” Fran McCaffery told The Gazette last week. ''Don't worry about my program and do we need you. What do you think is best? Do you want to pursue baseball?'”