Willie Cauley-Stein talks playing with the Kentucky Alumni team in TBT this summer (FULL INTERVIEW)!

all right joining me now on inside TBT Willie colly Stein welcome to the show hey man I'm excited to be on here excited for the for the opportunity so um yeah man just I'm I appreciate y'all you know jumping on with me absolutely appreciate you jumping on obviously we got you on right now because you've committed to play with La Familia this summer the Kentucky alumni team let's start with this you joined Reed Travis Eric bledo and Don lamb we'll see who else the team gets but how about that forsome right there n that's it's actually cool how it came together because uh D lamb had actually hit me up when I was still in Italy and uh he's playing in Africa and he was like talking about it and then how it came together was just kind of wild so n man it's cool um you know even talking to Twan about the whole gig and his whole plans for alumni weekend funneling into the tvt it's like sounds like a you know a fun fun time of just getting back to the roots and um putting in some work and then also you know having a chance to to play in front of all them fans again it's going to be amazing yeah we were talking a little bit before we started recording you know you said you've watched TBT excited to playing it but you're really just excited about being back you know in Kentucky with your family would love to just expand a little bit upon that yeah yeah you know now I got three kids and a wife and um you know they never got to see that uh obviously the kids and my wife did at the time she was my girlfriend but you know she seen she seen you know some games there and how Rowdy they get so you know my my daughter she loves the game and loves like like right now we're watching all the college games and she just sitting there know yelling at the the TV and I'm like oh you don't even know you don't even know like imagine you know being in this building with 24,000 people screaming like it's it's a great feeling so um the opportunity to to be able to go back and just play in that building you know like 10 years later is it's kind of surreal and it's a blessing yeah you know I've seen a ton of your highlights over the years after Kentucky and whether it's you know NBA overseas those crowds you know you you play into the crowd a little bit but I got a feeling you're pretty excited to to play up that Kentucky crowd again oh yeah that's like you know how that's where it all started at and uh you know yeah man it's it's actually hard to put in the words of what it's like playing there so um you know they've done a lot of Renovations and so it's like you know all different I hadn't been back in a while so um got some plans that I want to do you know like um little autograph tours and um you know golf events that I want to put on during that two weeks that I'm there so you know I got some plans that I want to get out in the city and see and you know kind of soak up that that love and energy again um it's it's one of a kind so yeah well that's very cool looking forward to seeing what ends up happening with all those events you you mentioned the the love and the energy if you think back to your time at K at Kentucky with Big Blue Nation behind you is there a moment where you were like okay I've heard this place loud before but this is the loudest it's ever been yeah uh I probably would say the day that I the first day that I got there on Big Blue Madness and you know they rolled the carpet for all the X NBA players that came back um and it was like so loud dude and then probably didn't feel I mean it was it was like that every game but like one time that comes to my mind is when we went uh I think it was 34 and 0 our last home game before the tournament it's either 33 or 34 and know they had the little shirts for us got to talk on the mic but bro that was probably the coolest the coolest feeling ever and I don't know there was a few times winning the SEC tournament getting the MVP that was like I did not know that I was going to win that bro like didn't even think about it I've never really been in the race for any any any winnings of like that before so that year was just crazy one it was special so you know we're hoping you guys can recreate a little bit of that magic in TBT that that would definitely be fun something from your Kentucky years is your matchups with Louisville monre herrell I'm sure you've seen they're putting together a pretty good squad over there in the Ville too you know do you have any thoughts on a potential matchup there oh man no it's always just the just the Rivalry in in general of Louisville and uh you know UK it's just um just the way that people get involved in that it's just amazing amazing to be in in between that as players you know like we just respect each other um you know I feel like everybody even even to this day my my wife says mrees is like my Arch nesis I'm like no like nah I never had anything against mantes I actually think you know his game is is is so unorthodox and how he refined it through the league and added his offense like it's you know that's his game I don't think you can replicate his game so it's going to be cool to like you know I haven't played against him since probably 20 2018 2019 so it'll be cool to kind of step back in the in the in the in between those lines and um just play hard against one one one another again like that you know kind of how we did back in the day um obviously I think the fans will will definitely have a a show um I Heard isn't pton playing too Payton's playing Russ is playing those are their three guys so far yeah bro what the three Russ and Peyton in their time was crazy and then then you add montre as a as a as a older guy with those you know that they got a they got a squad yeah man that's gonna be it's gonna be fun it's gonna be a good match up yeah I mean the best part of tbt for sure is the generations of the alumni teams coming together that maybe have played you know open gym together but you know we're not going to get into necessarily who else is going to be added to the team but who did you not play at Kentucky with that you'd be excited to share the court with in TBT if it were to happen oh man I don't even know anybody anybody sh just a chance to play with anybody that you didn't get to play with that we all took runs at it and we all kind of left our own personal Legend there so you know that's going to follow everybody that comes back so it doesn't really matter who it is it's going to jail everybody's going to have a good time you know playing just relishing in that moment for those you know those few games there absolutely another great part of tbt is the Elam ending I know that you may have played in some leagues that have the Elam ending but in the NBA right now no Elon ending I think the obvious answers to of your four for mer teammates of your current teammates who would be the best in the Elam ending obvious answer Steph obvious answer clay but are there any guys that you've played with that you'd be like you wouldn't believe it but this guy is a killer in open gym killer in pickup always makes the final basket he would be the guy in the elim [Music] ending man you know what's crazy uh we used to play pickup with the Kings uh you know who Anthony toer is yeah oh gez super OG but this dude is not miss in the pickup like I don't know how many Corner threes this dude gamed us with that summer bro but dude was like could not miss I don't bro it was like the craziest craziest day of pickup ever like anytime we play it would be three on three four on four five it's like he just doesn't he just doesn't list man he's a robot when it comes to shooting bro and that was probably you know all the all the obvious ones but like the sneaker I feel like Anthony to that's a good answer I never in a million years would have guessed that that that would have been your answer considering the guys that you played with you know I want to I mean those are obvious those are obvious yeah those are obvious and they don't really play pickup like that they don't play like that like Anthony plays hard every single time he touches the floor it doesn't matter what it is so other guys is probably you know they probably be too cool to play like super hard like that so what's your what's your favorite where's your favorite place to get your summer runs in because this summer it's going to be at uh rup arena in TBT but other Summers uh I mean I've only really played in La the LA runs and uh a few Tyler Roose runs they're pretty good but I heard Miami's runs are really good do you have your guys like you're calling your your four guys hey we're we're running fives we got to run the court for a few hours or you just let whoever's there play with you yeah no it's really just like who who's working out with Tyler at the time um he'll just bring all the guys in and like put us match up how he wants us to match up but so yeah pretty much just go there and whoever's on your team make it work last question for you in honor of La Familia do you have a go-to coach C story from your time in Kentucky that you like to tell uh I I always like to like say about Coach Cal was like how diligent he was about trying to teach us about real life things real life situations um everybody always wants to hear about like you know getting cursed out or you know crazy things that he said but like I mean he really just like you know like that's just like normal coach stuff but but like real life people don't expect him to to to be telling us those things like I don't know how many meetings we had about you know domestic violence stuff I mean like every week we had a meeting about domestic violence stuff and just like preventing it how to prevent it had you know police officers come in and tell us how to like deal with situations if it ever comes up and so like those are the things that I really really like you know stuck with my heart is just even the financial stuff that he that he you know taught us um I mean it's bigger than basketball man and that's why that's why it's called La Familiar because it's like it's a fraternity once you go there and you're a family member when you when you go there and you know you spend your time there and um put in your work at UK so um and he's there for you for life after you know what I mean if you ever run into a problem once you leave there like he's always going to be you know able to give you some sort of advice or put you in a position to to start working your way back up to succeed so that's I you know I was always appreciated that from him you think he's pulling up this summer for TBT oh yeah I definitely feel like if he's in town why not got all your ex players there and um you know just a just a hype around you know these games being in Lexington is you know people they love basketball there so any type of basketball being played they're going to they're going to try to watch well Willie I appreciate you coming on the show we're we're fired up to have you you know playing in TBT I'm sure La Familia the team the players the fans they're going to freak out when you know not just this interview drops but the announcement that you'll be suiting back up in Kentucky colors rep in BBN rep in La Familia it's going to be an exciting summer yeah man no I'm I'm I'm hype man I can't wait it's it's going to be it's GNA be one for the BS absolutely thanks again for coming on the show I appreciate you