What does the Big Blue Nation do over the summer? Well, in addition to speculating about lineups and scouting tickets for the next year’s final four, last year, the Kentucky faithful came together to cheer on LaFamilia.

If you’re unfamiliar with the name, LaFamilia is an alumni basketball team comprised of former Kentucky players, who play against other similar teams from adjacent programs. The competition takes place in “The Basketball Tournament” (TBT), an independent hoops league that has begun to bridge the gap between spring and fall basketball.

Last season, LaFamilia made headlines with a win over Louisville’s alumni team in the tournament; just like any other UK/UL rivalry game, no love was lost. Words were said, players shoved, and one player even spit at another in a particularly heated moment towards the end of the game… and he wasn’t wearing blue.

Anywho, that team, consisting of the likes of Willie Cauley-Stein, Andrew Harrison, Nate Sestina and more, electrified Kentucky fans who had nothing better to do and, despite coming up short of the TBT title, turned all eyes to the next time they’d take the floor.

The first two players confirmed for this year’s LaFamilia unit were Doron Lamb, former sharpshooter and crucial member of the 2012 national championship team and DeAndre Liggins, who was a Wildcat from 2008-11′. The announcement went up today on the LaFamilia X (Twitter).

With the summer season drawing closer, these two Wildcats are likely the first in a string of additional alumni set to join the roster soon. Once a ‘Cat, always a ‘Cat.

Kenny Brooks and the Wildcats have landed their second transfer of the offseason, this time featuring Liberty guard Asia Boone. 

The 5-foot-8 guard averaged 10.2 points per game last season and shows promise to become a knockdown shooter for the Cats. 

Boone announced via her Instagram that she had committed to the University of Kentucky on the afternoon of April 10.

The soon to be junior didn’t see much of a jump in her averages from her 2023-24 campaign, where she won the CUSA Freshman of the Year award, to this past season, but she’s still a promising talent. 

Brooks, with the addition of Boone, seems to be filling his roster out with shooters and experienced players. The San Diego native has started in every single one of her college games thus far. 

Again, it’ll be interesting to see exactly where she “fits in” on next year’s team. However, one can assume that the starting guards will be Jordan Obi and Dominika Paurová, who both were planned to be big pieces on last year’s team, but ultimately faced sidelining injuries. 

It’s been a focal point in women’s college basketball that you have to have depth on your roster to make it far come March. There’s not a case where you can have “too many players” in today’s game, so adding one more piece makes this team seem so much scarier. 

In hindsight, the offseason is still somewhat young and Brooks is likely far from over when it comes to recruiting more players to put on that Kentucky jersey. 

It seems like every single time the Bat Cats take the field, you’re in for a treat of a game that will be down to the wire. Well, that’s because more often than not, the Wildcats are in one score games going into the later innings. 

On seven different occasions this season, Kentucky’s games have been decided by one run. Also, since the start of conference play, the Wildcats have gone into extra innings three times.

This weekend’s past series against one of the top SEC teams was the biggest indicator on how close every Kentucky game can be. 

In a doubleheader against No. 10 Ole Miss on Friday, April 4, Kentucky won game one on the day by a score of 5-4 in the tenth inning.

Kentucky jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead through three, and thanks to a solid outing from Nate Harris, would keep the Rebels off of the board until the fifth inning. 

Ole Miss tallied four runs before the ninth, tying the game and taking advantage of Kentucky’s poor offense. Finally, with the sixth hit of the game, Devin Burkes would laser a ball over the shortstop, winning the game for the Bat Cats.

Game two was a pitchers duel, where the Wildcats would only record four hits. Until the ninth inning, however, the game was tied 1-1. Ole Miss would win 3-1, with 20 of Kentucky’s last 21 batters being retired. 

After playing 19 innings over seven hours of baseball, the Wildcats would take the field the next day, going 12 innings in yet another long, close game. It took over four hours. 

Both teams would score a run each in the eleventh after being tied 2-2, where Ole Miss would rally and take the series in Lexington. 

Kentucky, with a not so impressive 18-11 record, will face No. 11 Louisville on Tuesday, April 8 in one that’s gearing up to be yet another close one that the Cats cannot lose.

Don’t be surprised if these two rivals inch close to midnight under the bright lights.