Kentucky will practice against La Familia ahead of The Basketball Tournament

Kentucky men’s basketball won’t have to leave the country this summer to get some quality runs in. In fact, the Wildcats won’t have to go far at all.

Ahead of next week’s The Basketball Tournament, in which Rupp Arena will host one of eight regional sites for the annual winner-takes-all $1 million grand prize event, Mark Pope‘s debut squad will go head-to-head against a talented group of former ‘Cats. La Familia, Kentucky’s TBT alumni team coached by Tyler Ulis, will take on the 2024-25 Kentucky team as part of a closed practice set for next week.

During a media session on Tuesday, Ulis confirmed the practice is locked in, but could not offer much additional detail. However, he did say he’s eager to see how both his La Familia squad (comprised of former players such as the Harrison Twins, Willie Cauley-Stein, Eric Bledsoe, Kellan Grady, and many more) and the current Wildcats will look against each other.

It should be an excellent opportunity for both groups to learn more about who they are as teams while also allowing the past and the present eras to connect on a deeper level.

“This is the same thing we always do when Kentucky guys come back during the summer; get up and down with guys, helps connect former players with current players,” Ulis told reporters. “But these guys are excited to play against these guys and I’m excited just to see these guys play, try to get prepared for these games we have coming.”

😵 rumor is true https://t.co/tyaoQF5Igy

— LaFamilia – Kentucky’s TBT Team (@LaFamiliaTBT) July 9, 2024

Ulis is no stranger to these types of offseason runs. You might remember the famous story from roughly a decade ago when the 5-foot-9 Ulis — only 17 years old and still in high school at the time — refused to back down from a 6-foot-11, NBA-playing DeMarcus Cousins during a pickup run on one of his recruiting visits to UK.

The Big Blue Nation knew right then they had something special in the undersized point guard from Illinois.

During his meeting with the media, Ulis briefly dove back in time and recalled how special that experience was for him and the recruits (Jahlil Okafor and Devin Booker, he says) who joined him on the visit. He remembers going up against the likes of Cousins, John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, and Brandon Knight during those summer pickup games at UK.

Those runs sure seemed to help Ulis and his Kentucky teams once the season finally came around. Could we see a similar result with this current group against La Familia?

La Familia begins its TBT run a couple of days after the practice on Friday, July 19 at 8:00 p.m. EST inside Rupp Arena against the 305 Ballers. Since this is a single elimination, 64-team tournament, it’s win or go home from the opening tip.

Tickets for the Lexington Regional are on sale at thetournament.com/tbt/tickets. La Familia is also hosting a charity game at Tates Creek High School this Saturday from 6-8 p.m. EST where fans are encouraged to attend. Tickets are available through the link here.