The TBT Tournament has always been known for its electrifying atmosphere, with passionate fans filling the stands and creating an incredible atmosphere. The game between The Ville and LaFamilia is expected to draw a large crowd, with fans from both teams eagerly cheering on their favorites.

This will be the first time in TBT that the University of Louisville-based “The Ville” team will face off against the University of Kentucky-based team “La Familia”. The teams in this game have a long history of rivalry and the players have all squared off against each other in the college version of the rivalry.

Thru 3 game The Ville is averaging 77.7 points a game shooting 47.8% from the field, 32.9% from the 3, 67.3% from the free throw line, 36.3 rebounds and 15.7 assist.

Leading the guys in red is David Johnson averaging 16.7 points shooting 50.0% from the field (59th overall), MontrezL Harrell averaging 13.0 points a game shooting 50.0% from the field with 8 blocks a game, Russ Smith averaging 13.0 points a game shooting 43.3% from the field (105th overall), and Chris Jones averaging 12.7 points a game shooting 43.3% from the field (123rd overall).

Leading Defensively for the Louisville team MontrezL Harrell has 3 blocked shots (16th overall) and Chris Jones with 3 steals (55th overall).

Thru 3 games La Familia is averaging 86 points a game shooting 47.3% from the field, 36.7% from 3, 77% from the free throw line, 40.7 rebounds and 14.3 assist.

Leading the blue team is Kerem Kanter averaging 22.3 points a game shooting 76.9% from the field (9th overall), Eric Bledsoe averaging 17.7 points per game shooting 41.0% from the field (44th overall), Nate Sestina averaging 12.7 points per game shooting 48.1% from the field and Andrew Harrison averaging 11 points a game shooting 34.8% from the field.

Leading Defensively for the Kentucky team Willie Cauley Stein has 13 blocked shots (1st overall) and Andrew Harrison has 5 steals (16th overall).

For The Ville its been more of a team and collaborative effort thru the first three games. With MontrezL being the standout emotional and more physical presence on the team. You can tell by watching these guys that they are all still very capable basketball players but some of them have lost a step with age.

For La Familia it has been hard for anyone to stay in front of Eric Bledsoe defensively and he has been a force to be reckoned with and him along with Kerem Kanter have done most of the damage for the team scoring-wise. While Cauley Stein has been an emotional leader on the defensive end.

We haven’t seen our Louisville Cardinals have much success in the rivalry game against Kentucky in the last 10 years besides a win in 2016 and in 2020 it has been all blue. John Calipari always has teams full of elite talent and this TBT is just a small sample size of the talent they produced during his run in Lexington. It will be nice not to have to deal with that anymore.

This Louisville TBT team has guys on the roster that did see some success against Kentucky during their college matchups. Russ, Peyton, MontrezL and David all have wins against the cayuts. And I know that Peyton, Russ along with assistant coach Luke Hancock still have a bitter taste in their mouths about how their college carreers came to an end at the hands of Kentucky in the Sweet 16.

The matchup between The Ville and LaFamilia promises to be an exciting and intense game. Both teams have a history of success and are hungry for a shot at the championship title. The game is expected to showcase a high level of skill, athleticism, and strategic play on both sides. Throw in some bad blood and you’ve got the making for a great summer basketball game.

As far as the outcome goes I think that if The Ville can come up with a way to stop or at least slow down Eric Bledsoe while neutralizing Kanter and Cauley Stein they’ll have a good shot at moving on. That will be a tall task but I think that there is still some old last-minute magic left in Freedom Hall and we’ll see some of it Monday night.