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ST. LOUIS — It would not have mattered where Kentucky played, Norma Stein says she still would have been both “excited and nervous” about watching her grandson, sophomore Willie Cauley-Stein, play in the NCAA tourney.
“Being close to use doesn’t change. I’m still nervous,” she said as she got set for Friday night’s game here between Kentucky and Kansas State. “Now he’s playing a school that was one of the schools recruiting him.”
Norma Stein and her husband, Val, lived Spearville, Kansas, about a 10-hour drive to St. Louis. However, they often spend time in Baldwin City, Kansas, where they have two granddaughters that play high school volleyball and that’s a six-hour trip to St. Louis.
“But we were all coming to this game. Willie’s mom will be there. Our two granddaughters and two other grandsons will be there. Willie’s brother is coming,” she said Thursday. “We never expected they would get to play this close to us, so we just thought we would all come.
“I feel better about the team, too. They had a great chance to beat Florida (in the SEC Tournament title game). I guess it was just not meant to be. We didn’t go to Atlanta because I wasn’t driving in that mess.”
Norma Stein — who says she “loves it when he dunks” — thinks her grandson has “improved tremendously” during his two years at Kentucky.
“I usually don’t criticize how he plays. I just tell him ‘next game you will get it’ if he has a bad game,” Norma Stein said. “Some refs let you play, some won’t. It’s just the way it is. I always tell him not to get down on himself because it won’t do any good.
“I could always tell when he is having fun out there and that’s what I try to tell him. It’s just basketball, go play and enjoy it. I know he gets down on himself and that does not do any good. I just tease him to go play and have fun,” Norma Stein said.
“I enjoy watching him do anything. His senior year of high school he was even going to play tennis. He went out for the team and just messed around. I told him he should be able to cover the court at his size, but he was more of a football person (and was an all-state receiver his senior year). He loved football from the time he started playing until he graduated and realized he needed to just concentrate on basketball at Kentucky.
“I always knew he was gifted. It didn’t make any difference what sport he did. He was good in every sport and enjoyed them all. We never forced them to play sports, but they all did. It was just one of those things where he was talented in every sport. He just had a knack for all the sports.”
She’s in no hurry to find out what kind of “knack” he might have for the NBA. He’s been projected as a first-round pick by many draft analysts, while some others don’t have him going that high if he decides to leave UK.
“I don’t think he’s worried about that right now. He is the kind of person that he wants to take care of business now and worry about the rest later,” Norma Stein said. “He is so nonchalant. He does his thing. He doesn’t care what other people think. He just does his thing. He has always been laid back. He’s just Willie.
“I think about him staying. I would like for him to get his education and what he wants. But like I said, I will support whatever he decides whenever he decides.”
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