4-Point Play: Yes, Dan Issel is alive
Words I never thought I’d type, fortunately true. Why is this even a thing? We talk about it tonight on 4-Point Play while also sharing some practice footage from the Joe Craft Center as summer workouts come to a close this week for the Kentucky Wildcats. Oh, and how about some excitement for La Familia running it back in 2025?
Let’s dive right in.
Reports of The Horse’s death are greatly exaggerated
Imagine picking up the phone and someone asking if your husband was still alive with him sitting right next to you. That was the case for Cheri Issel, wife of Kentucky basketball legend Dan Issel, back in late July when a rumor of The Horse’s death went viral on Facebook. Friends and family rushed to check on the program’s all-time leading scorer begging for the news to be proven false, only for the Issels to have no idea what was going on — no deaths to report on their end.
Mark Story of the Herald-Leader interviewed both to get their side of the story in what the former Wildcat describes as “a strange couple of hours, that’s for sure.”
The likes of Jimmy Dan Conner and Goose Givens called, the latter delivering the perfect one-liner once Issel picked up his phone.
“(Givens said), ‘I’m glad you answered the phone. I wanted to get it straight from The Horse’s mouth,’” Issel said. “I thought that was pretty good.”
Then he played a prank on Artis Gilmore, Issel’s teammate with the Kentucky Colonels, telling him he was answering his phone call from the afterlife. The Naismith Hall of Famer was not amused.
“I said, ‘Artis, it’s Dan talking from the other side,’” Issel told him. “Artis said, ‘Don’t do that to me.’ That was the funniest call.”
Long story short, yes, Dan Issel is very much alive. And no, you should not believe everything you read on Facebook.
Kentucky is raining threes in practice
Mark Pope has stressed that Kentucky will shoot 35 threes per contest in 2024-25. It will be a run-and-gun style of play that prioritizes transition opportunities and spacing to maximize both volume and efficiency. That’s how the staff built the roster and that’s what fans should expect when the ball is tipped this winter.
If things go as planned, the offense could be poetry in motion with shooting threats up and down the roster. Among them? Koby Brea, Kerr Kriisa, Andrew Carr, Jaxson Robinson, Ansley Almonor, Collin Chandler, Travis Perry and Trent Noah — all guys coming in with strong reputations from deep coming in.
Kentucky showed off some of that firepower in a new short clip titled ‘Raining Threes’ — one deserving of an Oscar, if you ask me.
Raining threes 🏀☔️ pic.twitter.com/rf3Fyk7dye
— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) August 6, 2024
The Cats have some athletes, too
Sure, the shooting is a work of art. That’s going to be the program’s bread and butter under Coach Pope, at least for the foreseeable future.
But that doesn’t mean this team is one-dimensional. In fact, the Cats have some pretty phenomenal athletes, a few showing off their bounce inside the Joe Craft Center.
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Lamont Butler captured a mini dunk contest between Collin Chandler and Otega Oweh, one featuring a pair of nasty throwdowns for both. He shared the head-to-head battle on his Instagram story while the Kentucky men’s basketball account also posted a few more shooting clips for fans to consume — never too much content, right?
Who won the friendly dunk contest between Chandler and Oweh?
La Familia an early favorite to win TBT 2025
If you didn’t enjoy La Familia, Kentucky’s alumni team in The Basketball Tournament, you don’t have a pulse. It was a chance to see all-time Wildcats back in blue and white, competing inside Rupp Arena, in enemy territory at Freedom Hall and on the national stage in the event semifinals in Philadelphia.
You got the likes of Willie Cauley-Stein, Aaron and Andrew Harrison, Eric Bledsoe, Nate Sestina and Kellan Grady, all coached by an all-timer himself in Tyler Ulis. If you like nostalgia, you loved this summer in Lexington with the former Cats in town.
The best part? They’re running it back next year with all of your favorite players and maybe even a few new additions to close the gap on that championship trophy and the $1 million prize that comes with it.
“The great thing about life is….. in defeat, you get to evaluate the process, make adjustments & come back stronger!” GM Twany Beckham wrote on social media. “(La Familia) we just getting started!”
Who could join the squad next go-round? How about Enes Kanter, brother of Kerem Kanter, who earned TBT 2024 All-Tournament Team honors in his first run with La Familia? Beckham has already hinted that “one of the most dominant bigs” he’s ever played with or seen is a possibility.
“Just maybe just maybe…” he added.
May we also recommend, say, John Wall and/or DeMarcus Cousins? Maybe figure out a way to get Marquis Teague, Doron Lamb and Reid Travis back on the roster (preferably with their pro contracts figured out)?
No matter how things unfold, La Familia is among the early betting favorites to win TBT 2025, the event announced on Tuesday. The Kentucky alumni squad comes in at No. 2 overall in the way-too-early rankings behind only Carmen’s Crew, who defeated La Familia in the national semifinals.
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