John Calipari has had future No. 1 overall picks. He’s even had a player, Anthony Davis, whom he called spider-man.But for all the talent Coach Cal has had in five-plus seasons at Kentucky, he’s never had a player who inspired a name-based adverb as Willie Cauley-Stein did with his performance against North Carolina.”Willie Cauley was really–he was Willie good today,” Calipari said.Cauley-Stein, for the second time in as many top-25 matchups for Kentucky in the last eight days, was the best player on the floor as the top-ranked Wildcats (11-0) took down the No. 18 Tar Heels, 84-70.”I was just playing,” said Cauley-Stein, who had 15 points, six rebounds, four steals and two blocks.That might be what makes Cauley-Stein so scary, that it didn’t take any sort of extraordinary effort to do what he did in his 28 minutes. As always, he ran the floor and created opportunities for himself and his teammates with his rare blend of size and speed. He of course threw down a few of his patented lobs, soaring higher than he had seemingly any business doing. Per usual, he was a defensive terror, short-circuiting North Carolina opportunities with his ability to guard every position, athleticism and quick hands.”To be 7-foot and run like that and be able to jump like that is incredible,” said Devin Booker, who tied Cauley-Stein with a team-high 15 points, including three made 3-pointers.It’s when those things collide that it becomes clear exactly how good Cauley-Stein has become as a junior. One 37-second stretch late in the second half perhaps best illustrates that fact.UK was leading by a relatively comfortable 12-point margin with 5:19 left, but the Tar Heels were still within shouting distance with preseason All-American Marcus Paige burying 3s left and right. Cauley-Stein, however, put an end to any designs the Tar Heels may have had on a comeback.First, he rose and dunked a lob from Trey Lyles that seemed destined to go out of bounds. Moments later, he flew down the court as Lyles snared a defensive rebound, received a pass and threw down an emphatic one-handed slam for one of Tyler Ulis’ eight assists. To finish it off, he got around his man in the post, deflected a J.P. Tokoto pass, dove on the floor to complete the steal and called timeout.In the course of three possessions, Cauley-Stein sent a sellout Rupp Arena crowd of 24,406 into a frenzy, demoralized Carolina and all but sealed UK’s 11th straight double-digit win to start the season, only the second time in school history and first since 1946-47 such a start has happened.”He affects the game in every way,” UNC’s Roy Williams said. “He blocks shots, gets steals, gets follow-dunks, and gets dunks from guard penetration throwing it up around the rim, he goes and gets it, but he is a complete player. If you look at it, he affected the game drastically and only took nine shots.”Cauley-Stein’s do-it-all effort came in UK’s first game without Alex Poythress, whose season ended Thursday due to a torn ACL suffered in practice. Poythress is his best friend on the team, but Cauley-Stein had to put his classmate, suite mate and former roommate’s pain out of his mind.”At the end of the day you just have to clear it out,” Cauley-Stein said. “Once you step in between the lines you can’t be thinking about anything else but the game plan and what you have to do for the team to win.”But whenever Cauley-Stein came to the bench, his first move was to give a handshake or hug to Poythress, who attended Saturday’s game on crutches. Poythress began the game sitting at the table along the baseline, but couldn’t stay away from his teammates and moved to the bench to be with them.”It was just big he got to come out,” Cauley-Stein said. “I didn’t know if he’d be able to come out. The fact that he got out of bed and came to support us is big to us. It’s good that he’s still smiling and likes to be with us. That’s the most important part about it.”Cauley-Stein, even in dealing with an injury to his teammate, is showing maturity and perspective he hasn’t always had. With that, he’s beginning to come close to fully realizing his otherworldly potential.”Knowing that there’s a role I have on the team,” Cauley-Stein said. “Last year I didn’t really need to have a role. Just roam around and block shots. This year it’s clear I have a role I have to uphold. That type of leadership role, too, is big to me. Having that is really what’s keeping me going.”More concerned about his team than himself, Cauley-Stein is flourishing.”You’re talking about a junior, you’re talking about a guy that’s played against some of the best players in the country, and he’s a veteran, he’s coming into his own, he’s figuring out who he is as a person, as a player,” Calipari said. “He’s doing it.”The numbers prove it.Over his last five games, Cauley-Stein is averaging 13.6 points on 59.1-percent shooting. To go with that, he’s grabbing 7.8 rebounds, snagging 2.6 steals and blocking 1.6 shots, all while garnering praise from NBA Draft experts as a potential high-lottery selection.Even so, he sees bigger things in his future.”I feel like I haven’t even begun to peak,” Cauley-Stein said. “I’m just climbing. Like, if I want to, I could do something that’s really never been done in history, and that’s the way I look at it. If I really want to be the best player in the country, all I have to do is work at it.”