Tempo. Tempo. Tempo. To say that is important to the success of the Corona Centennial Huskies would be an understatement.
"I personally think if you're going be a half court team, you need to have an inside post presence to pound the ball into" says Corona Centennial head coach Josh Giles.
The Huskies lack an inside post presence, but boast three dynamic, senior guards in Michael Caffey, Dominique Dunning and Gelaun Wheelwright, to execute Giles' full court pressure and thrive in open space.
When the Huskies have the tempo to their liking, the product on the floor may appear to be hectic, crazy, or chaotic but to the Huskies its normal.
"We need to force tempo and play our game and Mike allows us to do that," says Giles.
Caffey is the senior point guard and leader that makes the team go. There may not have been a time all season long that it was clearer than in the Huskies CIF Division 1-AA semifinal win over Mater Dei.
It was obvious the Huskies didn't control the tempo in the first half and dug quite a ditch for themselves.
In the second half all of that changed, and it was Caffey leading the charge, forcing the issue on the defensive side of the ball and knocking down a pair of early fourth quarter three pointers to spark a 17-3 Corona Centennial run to start the final eight minutes.
Mater Dei head coach Gary McKnight had a front row seat for Caffey's explosion, which led to the Monarchs demise.
"Caffey makes that team run," McKnight said after his team's 60-58 loss. "[He] is their leader and he got going."
It has been a process for the senior to become the leader he is today. A four-year varsity lettermen, Caffey saw spot minutes as a freshman. His sophomore season featured many ups and downs. Caffey's talent was never a question but trying to take command of his position was.
"He was trying to learn how to be an effective point guard at the varsity level and he was trying to do it on a team that wins games," says Giles.
The turning point came during that same season when the Husky trio led Corona Centennial to an upset win over league rival Riverside King. The Wolves were led by current San Diego State standout Kawhi Leonard and finished that season ranked 7th nationally.
Since that time, Caffey has blossomed into one of the top point guards in the state. Next year he'll be playing at Long Beach State. Caffey's signature provided an absolute steal for head coach Dan Monson and the 49ers. There are plenty of scouts that believe the Husky senior is a major level talent.
"[Michael's] got another gear that a lot of players don't have. He's very competitive and knows how to win," said Monson upon Caffey signing his National Letter of Intent.
There's still one more win that Caffey has yet to get, and that's a CIF Championship. Saturday night he gets that chance when the Huskies take on top-seed Long Beach Poly in the CIF Division 1-AA Final at the Anaheim Convention Center Arena.
"Getting [a] CIF [championship] is one goal that we wanted. It's a big thing that we want to do," said Caffey.
