La Familia may have given us a preview of Kentucky's style of play

Kentucky alumni made their Ali-like return to the ring on Friday night, as La Familia dominated the 305 Ballers in the first game of The Basketball Tournament, 82-56, on the hollowed hardwood of Rupp Arena. It was a nostalgic atmosphere all night with former players feeling the love from Big Blue Nation and relishing being in the Kentucky spotlight once again.

But beyond the warm and fuzzy feelings from seeing the likes of the Harrison twins, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Eric Bledsoe play meaningful basketball in the Bluegrass, fans may have gotten a glimpse of the style of play the next batch of Kentucky players under head coach Mark Pope will employ, at least when it comes to the number of 3-pointers taken.

Mark Pope loves him some analytics, and in short, that means his team is going to take a lot of 3s. Various summer practice leaks confirm the Wildcats’ affinity for the deep ball and some blog boys expect this team to shatter the school’s single-season 3-point record.

La Familia launched a barrage of 3-pointers

On Friday, La Familia put up 57 field goal attempts in the game, but over half of them, 32 to be exact, came from behind the arc. This is exactly the type of ratio we could see when the college season begins. Hopefully, the college version of the Wildcats will shoot a better clip than the 31.3 percent the alumni shot on Friday, but the philosophy will be the same.

To be fair, the number of 3s La Familia launched might be a little misleading because once the Kentucky alumni built a comfortable lead, the game morphed into a bit of an exhibition, with guys launching 30-footers for the sake of the crowd’s enjoyment. Also, the team drew a lot of fouls around the rim.

Andrew Harrison shot 10 free throws, most of which came off aggressive drives down the lane, and Enes’s brother, Kerem Kanter shot 11 free throws, as he battled down low and showed the type of YMCA-style hustle a team needs to win in games when most players aren’t exactly in pique shape.

One of the reasons Harrison and others were able to get to the rim so often was due to the spread offense head coach Tyler Ulis implemented. On most possessions, four and sometimes five guys were behind the 3-point line, opening up the floor for drives, a modern style of offense that we will likely see a lot this season from Kentucky.

It is a long time before the season starts, but The Basketball Tournament is providing Big Blue Nation a nice hit of basketball euphoria to hold us over until October.