McCaffery was born in
South Bend, Indiana where his father,
Fran McCaffery was an assistant basketball coach at
Notre Dame. He spent his early childhood in
Greensboro, North Carolina while Fran was the head basketball coach at
UNC Greensboro until moving to
Albany, New York after his father became the head coach at
Siena. McCaffery moved with his family to
Iowa City, Iowa at age 12 when his father was named the head coach at the
University of Iowa. He committed to play both college basketball and baseball at Iowa. McCaffery initially intended to redshirt his freshman basketball season with the Iowa Hawkeyes, but ultimately started the season playing off the bench. However, he suffered a labrum injury and used a medical redshirt. McCaffery batted .238 during his freshman baseball season before choosing to focus solely on basketball. McCaffery decided to utilize the extra year of eligibility granted to college athletes who played in the 2020 season due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and return to Iowa for a sixth year. Over the course of his college career, he played in 166 games and averaged 4.5 points and 3.2 assists per game. ==Coaching career==