SANTA CLARA, Calif. - One of Santa Clara men's basketball's newest members is set to make the long trek from the Bay Area to Spain.
Francisco Caffaro, a graduate transfer from the University of Virginia, will soon join the Argentina Senior National Team for a series of four "friendly" games in Spain that will be played in preparation for the FIBA Americas Olympic Pre-qualifier.
Caffaro and Argentina will begin their journey with the first of four friendly matches beginning on July 25 in Alicante, Spain. They will play two games there before traveling to Prague to take on the Czech Republic and Latvia as their final preparation before heading home to Argentina. There, they will play in the Olympic Pre-qualifier tournament, held August 14-20, in the province of Santiago del Estero.
Caffaro is no stranger to playing for the Argentine National Team. The 7-footer from Santa Fe, Argentina has represented his home country on five previous occasions, beginning when he was just 15 years old. He averaged 7.4 points and 9.0 rebounds at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup, and helped Argentina capture the bronze medal at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship by averaging 16.7 points and 8.8 rebounds. His best game of the Americas Championship came against Team USA in which he posted 22 points to go with six boards.
More recently, Caffaro actually missed Virginia's game against Monmouth on Nov. 10 last season due participating in the World Cup Qualifier against the Dominican Republic. He finished with nine points and six rebounds.
As one of eight national teams that participated in the Americas Qualifiers for the 2023 FIBA World Cup but did not qualify for the World Cup, Argentina will be grouped with the Bahamas, Cuba and Panama in Group A of the Olympic Pre-qualifier for group play. Group B consists of Chile, Colombia, the Virgin Islands and Uruguay. The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals with the winners of that round advancing to the championship game on Aug. 20. The winning team will receive the final available spot to join the 19 FIBA World Cup National Teams for the final FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will be held next July and will determine which teams will earn a spot in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Group play begins on Monday, Aug. 14. See below for the entire schedule for the FIBA Americas Olympic Pre-qualifier tournament.
Group Play
Date Matchup
Aug. 14 Argentina vs. Panama
Aug. 16 Argentina vs. Bahamas
Aug. 17 Argentina vs. Cuba
Semifinals
Aug. 19
Final
Aug. 20
