Mark Pope, Jasper Johnson among attendees for La Familia vs. Herd That in Rupp Arena
We’re in for a late Tuesday night inside Rupp Arena, but that didn’t stop the stars from showing up.
During La Familia’s third-round matchup in The Basketball Tournament against Herd That, plenty of familiar faces made an appearance in support of Kentucky’s alumni team. Among the attendees include Kentucky head coach Mark Pope, five-star class of 2025 guard Jasper Johnson, former Kentucky guard Rajon Rondo, and Kentucky football associate head coach Vince Marrow, among others.
Pope even came in a custom-made No. 41 La Familia jersey. As expected, his arrival was met with a chorus of cheers from the Big Blue Nation. Johnson’s appearance was particularly notable, as he’s been a top priority recruit for Pope since taking the job in April. Johnson and Pope met up for a brief moment during halftime.
Pope also hopped on the TBT broadcast to chat it up with Eric Collins and Matt Muehlebach. He hyped up head coach Tyler Ulis, touched on how much he loves the fan base, and told a cool story about current Wildcat Lamont Butler and former Wildcat Eric Bledsoe, the latter playing for La Familia.
“It’s really special,” Pope said of having La Familia around his team. “I’ll tell you on a very personal level, it has been fun to have these guys around campus for the last two weeks. Lamont Butler, one of the most storied active careers in college basketball, we had our guys interview some of the La Familia guys and during the interview, Lamont is interviewing Eric Bledsoe, he pulls out his phone, he has a picture when Lamont was 10 years old and Eric was playing for the Suns, a picture of them together.
“And he was like ‘I can’t believe that I get to interview Eric Bledsoe right now.’ So the connections, this Kentucky family, this brotherhood of players, past and current is really special and it’s been on full display the last couple of weeks.”
Other former Kentucky players such as Marcus Lee (who recently got married) and EJ Floreal made the trip, as well. Most of the 2024-25 Wildcats also showed up in support for the third time in as many games.
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