LEXINGTON - Kentucky’s alumni team, La Familia, is one win away from reaching the title game of The Basketball Tournament and keeping alive a run that has already carried it into the semifinals.
Standing in the way tonight at Memorial Coliseum is JHX Hoops, Kansas’ alumni squad. A victory would give the former Wildcats the Alumni Bracket crown and send them into the TBT championship game, where the winner takes home a $2 million prize.
La Familia got here after a 70-66 win over Boeheim’s Army, the Syracuse alumni team, and one of the biggest voices afterward was Willie Cauley-Stein. He made a point of crediting coach Jon Hood, who played for Kentucky from 2009-14 and is in his first head-coaching role.
"I think he just keeps it simple. Like, he knows us.
He's played with half of us," said Cauley-Stein, referring to Hood's time suiting up for UK from 2009-14. "He knows how to put us in positions."
Cauley-Stein said Hood has found the right balance between pushing players and keeping them confident.
"As much as he can get on you," Cauley-Stein said, "he also instills a confidence in you in a way that makes you want to compete and want to go harder for the team."
He also praised Hood’s flexibility.
"He's not like a selfish coach. He doesn't think he knows it all.
He knows he doesn't know it all," Cauley-Stein said. "Some of these coaches out here think they know everything, and that's how you lose games - when the coach isn't adaptable.
I think Jon is very adaptable. (If) something's working, he'll run it 10 times in a row.
"He doesn't get bored of success. I think that's why we're in position to keep doing what we're doing."
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Memorial Coliseum, and the game will air nationally on FS1. Tickets start at $30.40. The Courier Journal is providing live updates, scores and highlights from the matchup.
In Other News...
Kentucky Is Ahead Of Rivals But Big Blue Nation Wants One More Move
Mark Pope has Kentucky in a better place than it was a year ago, at least on paper, as he heads into his third season with a roster that already has the Wildcats sitting No. 15 in Jon Rothsteins preseason top 45. More importantly for Big Blue Nation, Kentucky is currently positioned ahead of several familiar measuring-stick programs, including Louisville, Indiana, North Carolina and Kansas, which is the kind of early footing that tends to get attention in Lexington.
Still, the roster may not be finished, and that is where the intrigue lives for Kentucky fans. Pope is continuing to explore one more addition, with the conversation centered on a couple of very different possibilities, including a highly regarded young forward who would need to make a notable leap in class and a veteran wing whose path depends on an eligibility fight under NCAA rules. For a team already drawing respect in the preseason, the last move could be the one that determines whether Kentucky merely looks solid or starts looking like a true threat. [Read more 🡒]
La Familia Faces A Massive Memorial Coliseum Test With Everything Still Alive
Memorial Coliseum is about to get a postseason feel that fits the moment, with La Familia set for a high-stakes meeting against Kansas alumni team JHX Hoops in the TBT 2026 Alumni Championship. For Kentuckys basketball alumni, the setting and the opponent both bring extra weight, and the reward is simple enough to understand: win here and the path stays open toward the tournament final and the $2 million prize.
The matchup also carries a familiar edge for Kentucky fans, since this is a Kentucky-Kansas showdown that echoes a national title meeting from 2012. TBTs Elam Ending only adds to the tension, turning the finish into a target-score chase once the clock goes away in the fourth quarter, so every possession figures to matter long before the final horn. [Read more 🡒]
Kahlil Whitney Saw Something Kentucky Fans Needed From This Young Roster
A recent scrimmage between Kentuckys current roster and the alumni group La Familia offered a useful early look at where this young team stands, and Kahlil Whitney came away impressed with several players who could matter once the season starts. Whitney, who has stayed close enough to the program to watch the new group up close, pointed to noticeable growth from the kind of names Kentucky fans have been eager to track, including Malachi Moreno, Zoom Diallo and Braydon Hawthorne.
The setting itself came with a few roster quirks, as both sides were missing pieces and the lineups shifted enough to make the run more about evaluation than final answers. Even so, Whitneys read suggested there is real upside in this group, with Moreno drawing praise for his improvement and Diallo showing the kind of speed and downhill burst that can change the feel of a game. For a Kentucky team trying to sort out its identity early, those are the kinds of observations that tend to stick. [Read more 🡒]