Pope’s UK players vs. former Cats? It’s happening this summer. Both sides are excited.
The Basketball Tournament — or TBT, as it’s more popularly known — is coming to Lexington this summer. And Mark Pope is excited.
The new University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach has publicly embraced the winner-take-all, $1 million tournament that will feature one team — called “La Familia” — consisting entirely of former Wildcats.
Pope has expressed hope that UK fans will rally around the squad of ex-Cats, who will play their first game in the single-elimination event July 19 in Rupp Arena. In his first press conference of the summer Tuesday, the Kentucky coach revealed another wrinkle related to the tournament.
“One of the great things for us is that former players are allowed to come be on the court with our current players,” Pope said. “It’s an NCAA rule that that’s legal, and so these guys are preparing for a tournament where they have a chance to represent Kentucky and themselves in a brilliant way this summer. And we’re trying to prepare for a huge season, and so we’re going to try and do that together a little bit.”
The La Familia roster, as it stands now, includes Eric Bledsoe, Willie Cauley-Stein, Kellan Grady, Andrew Harrison, Doron Lamb, Daniel Orton, Nate Sestina, Marquis Teague, Reid Travis and James Young, with Tyler Ulis as the head coach and fellow ex-Cats Jon Hood, Darius Miller and Sean Woods as assistants.
All 12 of the scholarship players on Pope’s first Kentucky team are newcomers to the program, with every Wildcat from John Calipari’s final squad moving on to the NBA draft or hitting the transfer portal this offseason.
Pope is racing this summer to get his team up to speed, and having his guys share the gym with former players who have been through the UK basketball experience before is something that both sides are looking forward to.
Twany Beckham, another former Kentucky player, is the GM of the UK TBT team. He said Wednesday that he approached Pope during his introductory press conference in Rupp Arena in April to ask about the possibilities. Calipari had been supportive of the initiative before his departure for Arkansas, but Beckham wasn’t sure what it would look like after his exit.
“Can I get two seconds?” Beckham asked Pope on that dizzying day. “I said, ‘We’re putting together this TBT team. We’re playing in Rupp. Can I have a meeting with you?’”
Pope immediately agreed.
“And at that point, I said, ‘Man, this guy gets it,” Beckham said. “And so we got on the phone, and he was like, ‘Man, I want to support you. You let me know what I can do to support you.’ So … he’s been trying to just figure out how he can support us, and we’re still figuring that out right now.”
The details aren’t hashed out just yet, but both sides have made it clear that the ex-Cats and the current UK players will be sharing the same gym next month, including for at least one organized scrimmage. The full La Familia roster is scheduled to arrive in Lexington on July 12, a week before their first game in Rupp Arena.
Beckham was joined at a press event for the TBT on Wednesday by Miller, Orton and Sestina, who are already in town. Beckham said that once he learned that former players could actually compete against the current Cats, he worked it into his recruiting pitch as he put together this La Familia roster that features several NBA draft picks.
“They were like, ‘Man, we’re gonna get the scrimmage with the current team? Like, that’s incredible.’ We don’t think, outside of playing pickup — that in our 15 years with Coach Cal — that we were able to experience anything like that. Professionals coming back to play in like an organized scrimmage,” Beckham said. “... And so I was excited. It was another way to be like, ‘Hey guys, listen, we gotta do this.’”
Orton, who played for Calipari’s first UK team and was a 2010 draft pick, sees this as a valuable experience for the current team.
“I think it is a great opportunity, you know, for us older guys to impart wisdom on guys who will potentially have the opportunity to go play overseas or in the NBA,” he said. “... It’s great to ask questions and get kind of a scouting report of what to expect. You know, how to take care of your body, because I talk to a lot of the guys, ‘Listen, rest and recovery is the most important part of it,’ because you come up against guys who are skilled, talented. You’re pretty much all the same height. You can pretty much all do the same things. But what are the main things that you can do to separate yourself — to show scouts, GMs, assistant GMs, that I’m different?”
Miller, a former Kentucky Mr. Basketball who was a senior on the 2012 national title team and played six seasons in the NBA, thinks it will be a great experience for both sides.
“I’m super excited about that,” he said. “One, just to see Coach Pope in action. I’ve done a little bit of research. But just to see the philosophy behind it, how he approaches the game. I think that’ll be a ton of fun.”
As far as the current UK players, Miller agreed with Orton.
“I think it’s a huge opportunity,” he said. “Even if they just asked a couple of questions on the side, just in between the scrimmages. I think it could help them a lot, for sure. …
“I’m an open book. And I’ve been fortunate to have some great experiences — play for some great teams — so I feel like I have a lot of knowledge of the game. So, I’m an open book. If they have any questions, I’m here to deliver the information.”
Orton played parts of three seasons in the NBA before a lengthy professional career overseas and has been actively mentoring younger players in the Lexington area for the past few years.
One of his messages to the current guys will be to take advantage of what they have this season. Seven of UK’s 12 scholarship players are entering their final year of college eligibility, and a few on the team — Jaxson Robinson, Brandon Garrison, Collin Chandler, among possibly others — are viewed as potential NBA draft picks in the future.
“We have the best facilities here by far. So these kids here have better facilities than most, probably, pro organizations — a lot better than what I’ve seen in most organizations overseas,” Orton said. “This is spoiled here. So, I mean, they have to take full opportunity of it. And I feel like that’s one thing that we can do.
“You know, they’re going to play against great people in the summertime. They go to Miami, L.A., whatever — they’re going to play against pros. But to be able to have that conversation with guys who have done it before, guys who are in position in their lives to impart wisdom, I feel like that’s a step up that they should take full opportunity of.”
This story was originally published June 26, 2024 at 12:42 PM.
