“That’s definitely what we’ve said. That’s just added pressure, though. I think it’s a great platform to do your thing,” Cauley-Stein said. “Whatever comes from it, comes from it. But really just going out there and playing hard and kind of showing that I’m only 30. There’s still a lot of games left and hopefully some comes out.”
La Familia, UK’s alumni team playing for the $1 million first-place purse, opens tourney play Friday night in Rupp Arena.
Cauley-Stein played in 105 games in three years at Kentucky under coach John Calipari and was sensational his junior year in 2014-15 when he averaged 8.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, 1.2 steals and 1.0 assists per game while shooting 57 percent from the field. He was the sixth pick in the 2015 NBA draft after helping UK go 38-0 before losing to Wisconsin in the Final Four.
He played in 422 NBA games in seven seasons averaging 8.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game before playing overseas, including last season in Varese, Italy.
Cauley-Stein had been weighing options to return overseas or play in Puerto Rico before getting this opportunity to showcase what he can still do.
“Keep something going. You don’t want to stop playing for too long. I know that for sure, especially if you’re trying to keep it going when you get to stopping a little too long,” Cauley-Stein said. “It doesn’t matter how young or old it is.”
Cauley-Stein believes if a professional team sees a player has not been playing, it just moves on to the “next guy, next wave” rather than giving the older player another chance.
You just gotta kind of stay busy and stay ready. I’ve easily had opportunities where I wasn’t ready. It’s just about staying ready at this point, learning from that and let the chips fall where they fall,” the former Wildcat said.
