Willie Cauley-Stein has always been the one with experience. He knows what it’s like to go through a freshman season under John Calipari. He’s seen the difference between an NIT season and advancing to the Final Four. He understands the ins and outs of college life.When his younger teammates have needed perspective, he’s been there. Until Thursday.On Thursday, Cauley-Stein and six fellow Wildcats declared for the NBA Draft. UK’s elder statesman is officially out of sage advice.”I’m in the same boat as them,” Cauley-Stein said. “I don’t really have any. Just, I’m excited. This is a chance to start your life.”Cauley-Stein might be 21 years old, but saying moving on to the professional ranks is the start of his life is no accident. His three years in Lexington have been memorable – particularly thanks to fans and teammates – but Cauley-Stein now has his fate completely in his own hands. “I’m saying life because that’s you,” Cauley-Stein said. “You can control everything. When you’re in school, you control your schoolwork. That’s what you have control over. Basketball-wise, you’re told where to go, you’re told when to be there, you’re told everything.”For Cauley-Stein – projected as a top-10 pick – it’s sink-or-swim time.”When you take that next step, it’s on you,” Cauley-Stein said. “So if you don’t go to that place–we’re going to tell you to go here, but if you don’t go we’re going to find you or we’re cutting you because you don’t know how to be on time for your job. Here, it’s like, OK, we’re going to run you. OK. You’re a kid. Now you’re a grown man.”Cauley-Stein twice passed up opportunities to enter the NBA Draft, returning for both his sophomore or junior seasons when others might not have. A year ago, Cauley-Stein likely would have gone had he not gotten hurt during UK’s magical tournament run. Instead, he came back to take a shot at playing on college basketball’s biggest stage. Though Cauley-Stein didn’t get the two wins there he wanted, he now feels comfortable taking that next step.”I was going to leave last year, broke my ankle, didn’t get a chance to play in the Final Four,” Cauley-Stein said. “That was my whole motive coming back. I got a chance to play in it, I’m healthy.”And in hindsight, the injury was a blessing for Cauley-Stein, who developed into a consensus first-team All-American in 2014-15. It gave him one more season to mature and play under John Calipari, the coach he says prepares his players for the next level better than any in America.”It would chew anybody up and spit them out,” Cauley-Stein said. “Being young like that and going, you gotta be here. Like, this place prepares you for that. The young guys that thrive in the NBA, there’s a reason why. There’s a method. There’s a remedy that Cal does that that’s why they’re ready to go when they get there. Because they’re mentally–the way everything is ran here is exactly how a pro team is set. That’s why it’s so successful here.”Cauley-Stein now looks to be the latest in a long line of Calipari pupils to excel in the NBA. Even though he played every sport under the sun growing up, Cauley-Stein has always worked toward this exact moment.”I get a chance to take a step forward and have a chance to do something that I’ve been dreaming about since I was 7 years old playing against Tim Duncan and I’m Tim Duncan,” Cauley-Stein said. “I’m playing by myself but I’m pretending that Tim Duncan’s guarding me or something . I remember a day that I was in my driveway playing that to a 50 Cent song. You grow up dreaming that and you get a chance to do it, it’s a wonderful feeling.”Cauley-Stein’s road to realizing that dream has been a winding one. He wouldn’t trade it for anything.”It’s like a weight off your shoulders just because, dang, I worked so hard to get to this point and I never thought it would actually come true the way it did,” Cauley-Stein said. “But I couldn’t ask for any better start to a story than what I have gone through.”