By: LARRY VAUGHT
ST. LOUIS — Not many players would be willing to be as honest as Kentucky sophomore Willie Cauley-Stein. Then again, few college basketball players are quite like the flamboyant Wildcat.
He readily admits that if a “couple of things had changed” that the perception of Kentucky going into Friday's NCAA Midwest Region matchup would be different. However, he’s not afraid to admit he’s part of what could have changed UK’s season.
Recently ESPN analyst called the 7-foot center the “biggest teaser” in college basketball because of the way one game he would showcase his talent and the next game he would disappear. He did that in UK’s last two games when he failed to score, had only three rebounds and blocked just two shots in the SEC Tournament semifinals against Georgia and then came back with 10 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks against No. 1 Florida the next day.
Cauley-Stein didn’t read or hear Vitale’s comment, but he was not insulted. In fact, he agreed.
“That probably it is fair. It has been like that all year,” Cauley-Stein said. “I will have a stretch where I play three games crazy and the next game it is like hide-and-seek and I am not there.
“It is annoying to me. I don’t know why I do it. I don’t know what happens. I would say that (Vitale’s statement) is pretty accurate and I just have to find a way to get over that. That is just me still trying to figure out how to play a college level game and be consistent at what I am trying to do.”
He was a preseason second-team all-SEC selection, but did not receive the same postseason accolade. He’s averaging 7.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game after averaging 8.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game last year. He shot 62.1 percent from the field last year, 60.2 this season. He has improved his free throw percentage from 37.2 as a freshman to 48.8 as a sophomore.
But stats don’t clearly measure his value because it is his emotion, or lack of emotion, that can impact how UK plays, especially on defense where he is the team’s only true rim-protector.
“I think my problem is that sometimes I think like we have so many people that I can hide a little bit and that is what really gets me,” Cauley-Stein said. “I shouldn’t play like that. I should just put it all out there every game. Some games I just go into the shadows. If I get a dunk or block here and there or a rebound it is cool instead of going to get every block and trying to dunk everything and trying to get every rebound. That is what kind of separates the way I play each and every game.”
Has he got better this year?
“I don’t know. That is hard to tell,” he admitted. “I think I have got better at some things and other things have stayed the same. Like in the beginning of the year, I thought my offensive game was nice. Now it is kind of like the same as it was last year where I kind scored sometimes and sometimes I didn’t.”
Again, refreshing honesty from a player who has never hid from criticism or overestimated his own worth. Yet in a few weeks, he’ll have to make the biggest decision of his life — and one that will be much harder than picking UK over home state Kansas State two years ago. He’ll have to decide whether to leave UK for the NBA or return to Kentucky for his junior season.
“I am not even really thinking about that. I am just focused on our team. I have never won a championship and I want to make a run to the Final Four,” Cauley-Stein said.
Does he enjoy UK?
“College? Yeah, it is fun. You meet a lot of people and college ball is fun. It’s not a big thing on my mind to leave, you know what I am saying. If the opportunity presents itself, then why wouldn’t you go. But if not, I am cool with staying a year or two here,” he said.
“I don’t really even know what I enjoy the most. You just have like security. Like if you leave, you are on your own. Know what I am saying? In college, you have a whole coaching staff that is kind of like your dad and they are family just like your family. You don’t feel alone like you would if you left and you started to having to pay for yourself. It’s not like you have a meal plan. You have to start paying bills and stuff. That’s a lot to think about when you 20 years old. So why not stay in school?”
For now, though, he says he would like to “shock the world” during March Madness. He had no trouble defining what he meant — or what UK fans wants.
“A lot of people think that we're not going to make it past the first round. So winning the first game would shock the world. So just winning game by game, taking it step-by-step and you are going to shock somebody,” Cauley-Stein said. “There's a lot of people that don't think that we can make a run at it. And, you know, a lot of people don't want to see us make a run at it, and I think that's what he (John Calipari) means by doing something crazy.
“Despite how the season went, now the real season begins tomorrow for us. And, I think his whole thing is just trying to shock the world and do what people say we can't do.”
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