The prime of summer is right around the corner, and that means that La Familia will grace the Big Blue Nation’s eyes as they wait for the college football and the 2026-27 basketball seasons to begin. Backed by a roster of Kentucky alumni, general manager Twany Beckham will look to pack Historic Memorial Coliseum and go far in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) come July.
In an exclusive interview with KY Insider, Beckham opened up on a plethora of topics, starting first with his love for the fanbase and everyone who has showed out for La Familia.
“I’m very appreciative and thankful for the support that this community has given us, and to see where it’s grown in year three is awesome,” said Beckham. “There was no blueprint on how to grow it, on how to recruit guys and how to convince guys to come back and play…so to see where it’s gone and to see the level of excitement that we have had the past two summers has been awesome.”
Beckham jumped into some potential names joining this year’s roster, one being a beloved paint-beast forward from my younger years that the GM wanted to remain nameless until officially announced. He mentioned that he reached out to multiple G-League players, but due to their obligations at the professional level, the schedules couldn’t align.
I asked the former Wildcat if he anticipated to scrimmage the 2026-27 men’s basketball team, like previous seasons, and the optimism for it to happen yet again is there.
“We haven’t had any conversations around that yet, which I’m sure we will,” said Beckham. “If we do, that’s something that I’d definitely be looking forward to doing again…that’s awesome too, you know, you get to see the team up close and personal and then allow the current team to kind of jive and mesh with former players. Hopefully we’re allowed to do that again.”
Shifting to how the returning players feel about last year’s elimination, and with an assumption that former Wildcats such as Willie Cauley-Stein, Aaron Harrison and Andrew Harrison will be back on this year’s team, Beckham opened up on the conversations he’s had thus far with some of them and it’s been revealed to him how much they care about Kentucky basketball.
“Guys have expressed, even last year when we lost, returning guys were like ‘Hell yeah, I’m coming back,’” said Beckham. “It was good to hear that the guys really take it seriously and are extremely competitive. We got several guys coming back that are excited and that kind of want to get that revenge.”
A new development taking place was discussed next, with a round-robin series between The Ville, Louisville’s TBT team, and La Familia taking place to open the season. The first game will be played on July 18 at Kentucky, with the second taking place at Louisville on July 20.
Game three will be decided ultimately by ticket sales, with the fanbase whose home court produces the most overall amount of tickets gaining home-court advantage. Beckham stressed that BBN will have only 24 hours upon announcement to reserve their spot at Historic Memorial Coliseum.
With emphasis, it’s important for the home feel and for fans that even if you’re a Kentucky supporter in Louisville or vice versa that you attend your favorite team’s home event so that they can be credited with the ticket sale.
I asked Beckham some fun questions to close out the interview, one being if there was a player they tried reaching out to but couldn’t get it to work – he named Kentucky great John Wall.
“Sometimes it’s kind of tough to make it work,” said Beckham. “He’s who everybody always writes us in the comments, and I just want people to know that year in and year out we are trying.”
I asked him if he could create his own La Familia starting lineup with no restrictions, meaning current NBA players or retired legends could play together and he listed the following:
Point Guard: John Wall, Shooting Guard: Derek Anderson, Small Forward: Tayshaun Prince, Power Forward: Anthony Davis, Center: DeMarcus Cousins
Certainly would be a killer lineup by any means, but Beckham’s closing comments showed how important it is for the guys who do take time out of their schedule to do this every summer.
“I’m very appreciative of the guys that do commit, because it’s a commitment,” said Beckham. “It’s three weeks away from these guys’ families, most of the guys are still playing so this cuts in their break, so I’m thankful for the guys that we are able to get to commit and come to play.”
La Familia opens up the season with a game against The Ville on July 18 at Historic Memorial Coliseum, so go buy those tickets BBN!
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