Even before UVa figures out its roster needs this spring going deeper into the offseason, the Cavaliers are going to look very different once they take the floor again at John Paul Jones Arena.
One of the things that will be the same, though, is that the players will be under the direction of strength and conditioning coach Mike Curtis.
This is the first half of our conversation we had with Curtis during UVa’s NCAA title run.
So many of the guys we saw this season are known commodities. One of the players we didn’t get to see in action was Francisco Caffaro. What have you seen from him during his redshirt year and what do you expect this redshirt year to do for him? What does he still need to address from a physical standpoint ahead of his debut?
I think that we’ve just got to continue to build a foundation for him in terms of just strength and movement capacity. He’s a hard worker but he’s a little bit raw in a lot of aspects, in terms fluidity of movement. It needs some work. We need to get to a place where he has a little bit better ability to be efficient with his movement. He’s got some extra body movements that we need to eliminate in terms of building better efficiency. He’s a tough kid but I think on top of that—which is an objective for most of our bigs—is to continue to add strength. But he works hard. There are times that you have to push him a little bit because it’s not exactly the work ethic that we want him to have come next year, but it’ll be an ongoing process like it is with all of our guys in terms of trying to slow cook and make sure that they are where we needed to be for next year.
Caffaro is obviously part of a big group of international players that you’ve had to work with on this year’s team. Given their relative lack of exposure to American basketball, how does that complicate your job in terms of the impact strength and conditioning can have? Is it a positive in any way?
In truth, there’s not that much difference in terms of just what their exposure is to training before they get here. You’re always for the most part, what I found, starting with a blank slate. You get some American kids who might have been exposed to some structured training in some capacity through a lot of the private facilities that we have in the United States. A lot of these European kids don’t have that. A lot of what they do is maybe what I would like to see more American kids do but they’re exposed to multiple sports. So a lot of times they have the lack of wear patterns than some of our American kids have. It’s just a matter of getting them stronger within the increased mobility and range of motion that these guys have. That’s the one thing that strikes me and reflecting on that but at the same time, at the end of the day there’s always a ton of work to do with all of them. No matter how you look at it, it’s a lot of work and you’re starting from zero. But it’s just starting from a little bit different initiation point.
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