Willie Cauley-Stein: Grown
by Bill DiFilippo, Slam Magazine, March 2015
When you think of Kentucky, you think of teams with players who go to school for a year out of necessity. Odds are, you’ve heard the phrase “pro factory” used to describe John Calipari’s Wildcats, because no school churns out NBA players quite like UK.
Willie CauleyStein is different. The 7footer is in the middle of his third year in Lexington, which is... unusual.
UK squads are supposed to be made up of star freshmen and sophomores. The juniors and seniors are supposed to be scarcely used walkons who play in garbage time.
Instead, CauleyStein gives the Cats an impact player with two rare commodities in Lexington: experience and veteran leadership.
While Calipari has never directly said that he wants the Kansas native to be a leader on the youth-laden Wildcats, Cauley-Stein knows his coach wants him to step up. “You kind of can tell who he looks to as, like who he wants to make decisions or if he has a question, it’s gonna go primarily through me,” CauleyStein says.
This has led to Cauley-Stein playing a major role on the No. 1 Wildcats. He’s the team’s per game leader in minutes (24.5), points (10.7), rebounds (6.8) and steals (1.7) through 11 undefeated games. He’s also on the watchlist for the Naismith Trophy, which is given annually to the best player in America.
For CauleyStein, this has validated his decision to return to school. “When you see stuff like that, you’re like, Dang, we have a really good chance of being a team that’s never been like this before,” he says.
Cauley-Stein knows what the Wildcats need to do this year. He knows the expectations are to win a title or die trying, and if he wins a Championship, he’ll be a legend. And above all else, Cauley-Stein knows he is supposed to lead the Wildcats, at least for the rest of this year.
As for next year? “I think that I’ll want to go [pro], but who knows what will happen between now and then?”
— Bill DiFilippo, Slam Magazine, March 2015
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