Kentucky basketball won just one NCAA title under John Calipari, but now a team that consists mostly of former Wildcats who played for the coach now at Arkansas are the favorites to win a championship in another hoops tourney.
La Familia is the favorite to win The Basketball Tournament, according to FanDuel Kentucky, which gives the squad odds of +160 to do so. The team plays a semifinal game in Philadelphia Friday night against Carmen’s Crew, a team consisting of former Ohio State players.
They reached the semis after beating The Ville, a team filled with mostly former Louisville players, 70-61 in a highly charged quarterfinal game on Monday night.
Lines are available across Kentucky sports betting for Friday’s game. At DraftKings, La Familia is a 2.5-point favorite with odds of -110, with Carmen’s Crew getting the points at odds of -120. On the moneyline, La Familia is listed at -145, compared to +114 for their opponents.
A win on Friday puts La Familia in Sunday’s championship game against the winner of Eberlein Drive and Forever Coogs. Whichever team prevails Sunday will claim the $1 million winner-take-all prize.
What Is TBT?
TBT is a summer basketball tournament that consists of former college players, including several who have gone on to pro leagues here or abroad. This year’s edition featured 64 teams placed in eight regions – Louisville and Lexington both served as hosts – in a single-elimination tournament.
Where it stands out among other basketball leagues is in how TBT ends its games. Games feature four nine-minute quarters. However, the clock stops for good after the first whistle with less than four minutes remaining in the game. Rather than play out the clock, the teams finish playing to a set score, which is the current total of the winning team plus eight points. The first team to get to that mark wins, meaning each game ends on a made basket.
Known as the Elam Ending, after its inventor, Ball State professor and hoops fan Nick Elam, it’s designed to make the ending of games more exciting. Rather than watching the losing team foul to extend the game, it requires teams to buckle down on defense if they want to mount a comeback.
Tournament Provides Needed Spark For UofL Fans
This year was the first year for La Familia to play in TBT, and it was the second for The Ville, which also hosted a regional last year. Based on the attendance figures posted in both Louisville and Lexington, both of Kentucky’s major cities will be in the running to host TBT games for the foreseeable future.
More than 13,000 fans packed Louisville’s Freedom Hall to watch the highly charged contest, a figure that nearly doubled the previous record for attendance at a TBT game. Tournament officials noted that the record was broken just one hour after tickets became available, as more than 7,250 were sold. The previous record for a game was 7,202 in Wichita.
The games themselves typically aren’t aesthetically pleasing, but there are stretches where it can be, such as when La Familia’s Nate Sestina went 5-for-7 from the 3-point arc in the third quarter to help the team pull away from The Ville. And what it lacked at times in smoothness, Monday’s game more than made up for it due to the rivalry between UK and UofL players and their fans, reaffirming that the schools have one of the best – if not the best – rivalry in college hoops. Something Kentucky betting apps know all too well.
Although The Ville failed in its quest to win a title, the TBT allowed UofL fans to watch some of their favorite players from the past decade, and the games themselves served as an escape for those same fans who had to endure the two worst seasons in the program's history under Kenny Payne, who was fired after the season.
There is hope, though, for the future. New coach Pat Kelsey completely overhauled the Cardinals roster. After winning just 12 games the past two seasons, Louisville is expected to compete for an NCAA tournament berth. Contention for a title may still take a couple years as Caesars Kentucky Sportsbook offers UofL at +8000.
The Wildcats, under first-year Mark Pope, have odds of +3000 to win it all.
Also of interest: Louisville Cardinals Men’s Basketball Team of the Last Decade.
