'I have hope in Pope.' La Familia players excited for Mark Pope era at Kentucky

The bridging of two eras is currently underway in Lexington. With La Familia — Kentucky’s alumni team for this week’s The Basketball Tournament — setting up shop in the Joe Craft Center for practice, it’s created a unique situation for the state of the program.

Of course, John Calipari, who coached nine of the 10 players on La Familia’s roster, is now at Arkansas after 15 seasons in Lexington. In came Mark Pope, a 1996 national champion with the Wildcats who has injected new life into Kentucky men’s basketball. Although none of the La Familia players ever had the chance to learn under Pope, all of them are excited to see what he can do in the future.

On Monday, La Familia held its Media Day where every player and staff member spoke with reporters to talk about TBT and plenty of other topics. A common theme throughout the conversations was their thoughts on Pope. Even though they all committed to and played for Calipari, they still wore Kentucky across their jerseys during college — and that makes them eager to see what’s in store moving forward with their alma mater.

Eric Bledsoe: “Like in the NBA, ain’t nothing forever, everything comes to an end. Nothing but respect to (Calipari), I love him to death. But I’m also excited to see the new coach come in and put his stamp on Kentucky basketball… He got a lot of energy, a lot of energy. And that’s what you need.”

James Young: “I think he’s going to do a lot of great things here. I know the Kentucky fan base is gonna back him up and he knows what he’s doing. I think he’s gonna do a lot of great things for this team.”

Andrew Harrison: “He actually greeted us when we walked into the building. Seems like a great guy. Taller than I thought he was. But he seems like a good guy, seems like he’s got the program going in a different direction but a good direction.”

Daniel Orton: “Adversity is different for everybody. Change is inevitable. I have hope in Pope. I’m looking forward to a future that I believe is gonna be bright. Of course, a big fan of Cal, but I committed to Kentucky so I’m really looking forward to what we have going in the future.”

Kellan Grady: “I haven’t (met him), I am excited to though. I think Kentucky is in really good hands with Mark Pope. I’m really looking forward to meeting him.”

The current Kentucky team will actually get to practice with La Familia this week in preparation for TBT where the old-school group will get a first-hand look at what Pope is all about.

La Familia will start its TBT run on Friday, July 19 at 8:00 p.m. EST with a first-round matchup against the 305 Ballers. Tickets for the opener are still on sale at thetournament.com/tbt/tickets where a portion of ticket sales will go towards Kentucky’s NIL efforts. All games will be broadcast on FS1.

For a chance to meet the La Familia players in person later this week, click here for details.

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