Willie Cauley-Stein – photo by Walter Cornett | WildcatWorld.com
There’s just something about switching on a smaller defender, usually a guard, and blocking his shot that Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein really enjoys. He gets a kick out of seeing the opposition look to the sideline with a sense of helplessness.
“That’s what I really take pride in is guys think that because I’m so long and tall that I can’t guard them,” Cauley-Stein said. “And when I do guard them it’s like, you kind of peep them after a dead ball and they look at their coach like, ‘What do I do?’ Like, ‘I can’t get past him and I can’t shoot over him so what am I supposed to do?’ That kind of gets you like, ‘Good, he’s probably not going to come back this way.’ ”
Cauley-Stein did that on more than once occasion Tuesday night against Ole Miss. In fact, the entire Wildcat cast did it against the trigger-happy Rebels, taking away the Rebels’ strengths of shooting and driving the ball with switching defense on pick-and-rolls and off-ball screens.
