CLEVELAND — Willie Cauley-Stein has talked many times over the last year about how difficult sitting on the bench for the latter half of Kentucky’s magical tournament run was for himOn the eve of the Elite Eight, he revealed another facet to what it was like being relegated to spectator status.”It was a weight off your shoulders though, knowing you’re not going to have any impact on the game playing,” Cauley-Stein said. “So that worry, that stress, you didn’t have to endure that.”Unable to play due to a stress fracture in his ankle that knocked him out of UK’s Sweet 16 matchup with Louisville and had him in plainclothes for the Elite Eight and Final Four, Cauley-Stein admits there was part of him that enjoyed just being along for the ride.A year later, he has no such chance.Cauley-Stein is the upperclassman leader and defensive anchor for top-seeded Kentucky as the Wildcats carry a 37-0 mark into an Elite Eight showdown with Notre Dame at 8:49 p.m. on Saturday. Night in and night out, the 7-foot junior draws the toughest defensive assignment and carries an ever-growing offensive load.In short, whether UK makes its fourth Final Four trip under John Calipari will be up to Cauley-Stein as much as anyone. Different as it may be from last year, it’s exactly where he wants to be.”It feels good,” Cauley-Stein said. “You just embrace it. You can’t be scared of it. You can’t be scared of the moment that we’re in.”Whenever Cauley-Stein feels the fear, he needs only reflect on where he was two years ago.Then, he had just seen his freshman season unceremoniously end in the first round of the NIT. After that loss at Robert Morris, Cauley-Stein said he was on a mission to render it a distant memory.The mission continues.”I feel like I’m on a mission,” Cauley-Stein said. “I said that day after we lost, I have never won a championship before. I’ve never won anything, any crazy awards and I’m back to fill that spot in my heart, that emptiness. And crazy enough, it’s happening. Never thought it would happen like this, but it’s really happening. It’s crazy to think that two years ago I was just talking. And now I’m living it, and it’s sensational.”The crazy awards – national defensive player of the year, All America – are certainly coming and Cauley-Stein already has two conference titles under his belt, but the championship he really wants is three wins away. Third-seeded Notre Dame, which put on an offensive clinic in shooting 75 percent in the second half of an 81-70 Sweet 16 win over Wichita State, is the first hurdle.The Fighting Irish (32-5), rated third nationally in offensive efficiency, will be the best offense UK has faced all season. Kentucky, of course, is first in defensive efficiency , pitting two of the best units in the game against one another.”It’s going to bring that competitiveness out,” Cauley-Stein said. “But then it’s also going to make you cautious. They got the reputation of being a really good offensive team. Well, we got the reputation of being a really good defensive team. … It’s just one of those things that you’ll know when the ball gets thrown up whether you think you can play the guy or not.”For Cauley-Stein, the answer will surely be yes. The question, however, is who he’ll actually guard. Notre Dame has just one regular who stands taller than 6-foot-8 – 6-10 Zach Auguste – and often plays three 6-5 players at the same time. Almost all of them can shoot, with four players hitting 40 percent or better from 3-point range.Not included in that group is star 6-5 point guard Jerian Grant, who averages a team-best 16.4 points per game and 6.7 assists. Could Cauley-Stein see time on him? Is sharpshooter and leading rebounder Pat Connaughton his more likely cover? Or what about any of the other five players averaging 6.4 points per game or more?”We’re going to get everybody’s best, so them having five guys who can be a threat to us just opens up our defense,” Cauley-Stein said. “It’s going to put more pressure on our defense to play better and accept that challenge.”It’s a challenge Cauley-Stein will be happy to accept considering he didn’t have the choice a year ago.”I think this means a lot to him,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “He didn’t get to experience it last year, and who would have known what would have happened last year if he was playing. I know he has a chip on his shoulder because he wants to go out there and he wants to prove that we can win it.”That desire started long before he ever had to sit out during last year’s NCAA Tournament. “Playing in your backyard and you’re thinking of these moments, taking a last-second shot and shooting maybe the last free throws of the game and if you make them then you win, if you miss you lose,” Cauley-Stein said. “That’s that pressure that you put on yourself all when you were growing up. This is it now. This is the time to put it together.”