What an up-and-down season it has been for Kentucky Basketball, as shown by just the last two games: A dominating win over Vanderbilt, where the Wildcats led for 38+ minutes, followed by a double-digit loss to Texas A&M just 72 hours later, allowing a 27-3 run.
Kentucky
The Ville vs La Familia score updates: Kentucky vs Louisville TBT game at Freedom Hall
The biggest game in the history of The Basketball Tournament is here.
Former Louisville Cardinals and Kentucky Wildcats are at Freedom Hall and will face off at 9 p.m. for an opportunity to advance to TBT’s Final Four in Philadelphia. The winner of the tournament will claim its $1 million grand prize.
With bragging rights also on the line, the teams representing the Cards (The Ville) and Cats (La Familia) will play in front of a record-breaking TBT crowd of 11,000-plus at the Fairgrounds.
Courier Journal journalists C.L. Brown, Brooks Holton, Ryan Black and Clare Grant are at Freedom Hall and will have updates — here and on X, formerly Twitter — throughout the action and complete coverage after. You can follow them at @clbrownhoops, @brooksHolton, @RyanABlack and @ClareGPhotos.
The Ville went on a 15-6 run to close out the first half and cut La Familia’s lead to three.
Eric Bledsoe and Willie Cauley-Stein have a combined 17 points.
The Ville’s Chinanu Onuaku has eight points and 13 rebounds.
The announced attendance for tonight’s game between The Ville and La Familia at Freedom Hall was 13,506.
The previous TBT attendance record was 7,202.
Twelve-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul will be in the crowd for The Ville vs. La Familia tonight.
Paul is a co-owner of TBE Enterprises; which puts on TBT and The Soccer Tournament.
Paul, 39, is heading into his 20th season in the NBA. He recently signed to play for the San Antonio Spurs.
As of 7:45 p.m. Monday, La Familia was a five-point favorite (-115) over The Ville on DraftKings, which set an over-under line of 149.5 points (-115).
The money-line odds were La Familia (-215), The Ville (+165).
C.L. Brown: Louisville-Kentucky rivalry is unmatched. The Ville vs. La Familia latest example
Cards vs. Cats: Our mock draft using Louisville and Kentucky’s TBT rosters
‘Hungry to win’: Former U of L star Reece Gaines embracing opportunity to lead The Ville
Rivalry showdown set: The Ville wins Louisville regional championship
Column: The Ville is preview of energy Pat Kelsey will bring back to Louisville basketball
Wildcats win: La Familia claims Lexington regional title at Rupp Arena
La Familia vs. The Ville will air on FS1.
The La Familia/The Ville game will be livestreamed on the official TBT website, which can be accessed here.
You also can stream FS1 on Fubo, which offers a free trial here.
- Dillon Avare, a Lexington native who played at Louisville from 2014-16, then transferred to Eastern Kentucky for his final two seasons of eligibility. Avare logged five minutes during last year’s TBT.
- Chane Behanan, a physical forward from Cincinnati whose time with the Cards (2011-13) came to an abrupt end when he was dismissed from the program due to a failed drug test. Behanan finished second on The Ville in points (13.3) and rebounds (seven) per game last summer.
- Chris Dowe, a Louisville native who starred at Eastern High School before playing at Bellarmine from 2009-13. The 6-foot-2 guard played for The Ville last summer and averaged 7.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
- Montrezl Harrell, an eight-year NBA vet who was a freshman during U of L’s national championship run in 2013. Harrell missed the 2023-24 season while recovering from surgery to repair a torn ACL and a meniscus tear in his right knee.
- David Johnson, a Louisville native whom the Toronto Raptors selected 47th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft after his sophomore year with the Cards. The Trinity High School grad spent the 2023-24 season playing for the Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate.
- Chris Jones, who played for the Cards from 2013-15 and torched The Ville for 25 points last summer as a member of the Jackson TN Underdawgs. In May, Jones helped the London Lightning of Ontario win a third consecutive Basketball Super League title and received its Most Valuable Player award.
- Nick Mayo, a four-year starter at EKU from 2015-19 and a four-time member of the All-Ohio Valley Conference first team. The 6-9 forward played for The Ville last summer and won fans over with a thunderous, one-handed dunk worthy of a poster in the team’s first-round victory.
- Chinanu Onuaku, a 6-10 center who left U of L for the NBA after the 2015-16 season; during which he was named to the ACC’s All-Defensive team as a sophomore. Onuaku spent two years with the Houston Rockets and returns to The Ville after another stint with Santeros de Aguada in Puerto Rico.
- Omar Prewitt, a Mount Sterling native who played at William & Mary from 2013-17 and left as a top-five scorer in program history. The 6-7 wing had 13 points in 16 minutes during The Ville’s second-round win last summer.
- Peyton Siva, the point guard who led the Cards to a national title in 2013. This spring, Siva was named to new Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey’s staff as director of player development and alumni relations. A year ago, he amassed 19 points, 12 assists and six steals during TBT.
- Russ Smith, a star of the 2013 national championship team whose No. 2 is hanging in the KFC Yum! Center rafters. The former All-American has been playing in Italy and created limited-edition bottles of his Mr. & Mrs. Bourbon for TBT. He was The Ville’s top scorer in two of its three games last summer.
- Derrick Walker, a 6-9 forward who played for Tennessee (2017-19) and Nebraska (2019-23) and as a senior was a second-team All-Big Ten selection. For his collegiate career, Walker averaged 6.2 points and 4.1 rebounds across 139 appearances. He has been playing professionally in Spain.
Reece Gaines, a U of L Athletics Hall of Famer who ranks fourth among the top scorers in program history, has replaced Mark Lieberman as The Ville’s head coach. Gaines returned to his alma mater in 2021 as Chris Mack’s director of player development and alumni relations, then shifted into a video operations role under Kenny Payne.
Members of Gaines’ staff include Luke Hancock, the Most Outstanding Player of the 2013 Final Four; Keith Oddo, who played for the Cards as a walk-on graduate transfer during the 2019-20 season; Mike Stone, an assistant at Transylvania University; and Terrence Commodore, whose coaching resume includes stints at EKU and Evansville.
Former Kentucky star Tyler Ulis is La Familia’s head coach.
Two more former Wildcats, Jon Hood and Sean Woods, are assistant coaches. Jazz Ferguson, a Louisville native who starred at Moore High, also serves as an assistant.
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While locked in an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats are playing for seeding, likely a 6-7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and anywhere from a 4-10 seed in the SEC Tournament. The last game of the regular season to ultimately decide the latter is the SEC regular-season champion, the Florida Gators.
Already having played once this season, Kentucky trailed by as many as 17 points in the first 10 minutes, but fought back to make it a five-point game in the second half.
Can the Wildcats put together a full 40 minutes together, avoid a season sweep for the first time since 2018, and guarantee themselves a bye in the SEC Tournament?
Here’s what to watch for in Kentucky vs. Florida, Part II.
While Florida has one of the best frontcourts in the country, one of the deciding factors in the first game was the backcourt play, as Xavian Lee and Urban Klavzar, who had two of their best performances of the season and combined for 41 points.
At this point of the season, the correlation of Kentucky’s success and the play of Otega Oweh, Collin Chandler, and Denzel Aberdeen is pretty clear. Coming off a game against Texas A&M, where they combined for 36 points, on 11-30 shooting, they need to outplay Florida’s backcourt for Kentucky to have a shot at the upset.
Given their elite frontcourt, Florida looks to give their big men plenty of touches around the basket and attack the basket for offensive rebounding opportunities. As a result, they draw fouls at one of the highest rates in the nation, nearly 20 a game.
In the first matchup, Kentucky had four players with four or more fouls, including Brandon Garrison, who fouled out. This limited Malachi Moreno to just 21 minutes, still having a team-high 11 rebounds. Backing him up, Garrison had as many fouls (5) as points, rebounds, and blocks combined.
Kentucky will likely face foul trouble again, and with a limited frontcourt, Mark Pope has the option of playing Malachi Moreno through foul trouble or hoping for better production from the other bigs. Pope has shown that he would rather go with the latter. Fortunately, Mo Dioubate is coming off his best game of the season, and Garrison had one of his better performances, albeit against a smaller Texas A&M team. They will need to sustain some level of production to give Kentucky a chance against Florida.
Kentucky played well for the final 30 minutes of the first matchup, outscoring Florida 66-60 during that span. It was the first 10 minutes that were the issue, where they turned the ball over 9 times and put themselves into a 17-point deficit.
Whether it be slow starts, as in the Florida game, or tough mid-game stretches like against Texas A&M, too often Kentucky puts itself in a hole with turnovers. Mark Pope has said it, turnovers are a great indicator for this team. When keeping turnovers in the single digits, Kentucky is 11-2; when that number rises to 10 or more, it is just 3-9 against power opponent teams.
Thomas Haugh 6-9, 215 lbs
- 17.1 PPG
- 6.0 RPG
- 17 points and 8 rebounds vs UK on 2/14/26
Reuben Chinyelu 6-10, 265 lbs
- 11.7 PPG
- 4.1 APG
- 22 points, 4-7 3P vs UK on 2/14/26
- Time: 4:00 PM ET on March 7th
- Location: Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center in Lexington, KY
- TV Channel: ESPN
- Announcers: Karl Ravech, Jimmy Dykes, and Dick Vitale will call the action.
- Online Stream: WatchESPN and the ESPN app.
- Radio: Tom Leach and Jack Givens have the call on the UK Sports Radio Network.
- Replay: WatchESPN and the ESPN network (check local listings)
- Rosters: UK | UF
- Stats to Know: UK | UF
- KenPom: UK | UF
- Team Sheet: UK | UF
- Odds: FanDuel Sportsbook has yet to release the odds for this game, so please check back later for those. The analytics have Kentucky as the underdog, giving them anywhere between a 1-3 and 1-4 chance. ESPN is the most positive in Kentucky’s chances, at a 37.2% chance to win. EvanMiya (32.3%), KenPom (29%), and BartTorvik (27%) trail behind, all within five percent of each other.
- Predictions: The analytics show the most favorable scenario is a five-point loss, with Haslametrics (80-75) and EvanMiya (81-76) projecting that. BartTorvik and KenPom are both in agreement with a seven-point loss, 81-74. Florida is playing like a title contender, riding a 10-game win streak, while Kentucky is struggling to string back-to-back wins. With Florida’s higher level of play, I am taking them to win 85-76.
Sound off in the comments section on how you think this matchup will go.
The legalization of fixed-odds wagering is part of a comprehensive gaming and wagering bill filed March 4 with the Kentucky House of Representatives.
Rep. Matt Koch, a Republican from Paris, and Rep. Michael Meredith, a Republican from Oakland, are sponsors of HB 904, which creates a form of betting that sets the payout odds at the time a wager is placed and those odds do not change.
Wagering on horse racing in Kentucky is now only pari-mutuel, the traditional form for the sport in which gamblers bet against each other and odds are determined based on how much is wagered on a specific bet—for example, win, place, or show—compared with the total money in the wagering pool.
With pari-mutuel wagering, the odds change as money enters the pool and has become a sore spot with many gamblers because these changes can be dramatic due to the introduction of computer-assisted wagering. CAW betting is a form of wagering that uses computer algorithms to formulate selections and then push those bets through to pari-mutuel pools, up to six bets per second in the final minute before pools are closed. This last-minute deluge of wagers can cause a horse’s odds to fall, for example, from 8-1 as they are loading into the gate to 3-1 as the race unfolds and the tote system catches up with calculating the late wagers.
Offering fixed odds is seen as one solution and has already been adopted in New Jersey, Colorado, and in West Virginia last April.
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“This basically puts it in hands of the tracks to test the waters,” said Koch, who is the co-founder of Shawhan Place in Bourbon County. “As the gambling market continues to expand, we’re exploring ways to give tracks the flexibility to introduce new and engaging products. For many who enjoy wagering, consistency is key. They want the confidence of knowing a horse’s odds will remain steady throughout the race, allowing them to enjoy the experience to the fullest. However, we recognize the uncertainty that a new product brings and want to be particularly mindful of its potential impact.”
As part of the legalization of fixed-odds wagering, the bill creates a “purse stabilization fund” that will be supported by excise taxes and fees from fixed-odds wagering. Licensed tracks would pay 15% on the adjusted gross revenue of fixed-odds wagers placed on-track and via advance-deposit wagering websites and mobile applications. This fund will be used to supplement purses at live horse racing meets annually at an amount not to exceed 10% of the fund.
“This is similar to how other states manage the revenue from fixed odds and protects the traditional purse pools,” Koch said.
Additionally, Koch said having outdated totalizator networks contributes to the frustration with CAW, so HB 904 includes a provision for licensed totalizator companies and licensed racetracks to accelerate the adoption of improved technologies for wagering systems and provide “commercially reasonable access to the betting odds for retail bettors by April 1, 2027.”
“Some of these totes are only updating every 30 seconds and that is contributing to the perception and frustration,” he said, referring to bettors seeing late odds changes. “Doing our research, we realize there are things we can do for tracks to update their totes and have those updated odds in seconds. We need to stay on top of the IT and that needs to be an ongoing deal.”
The bill also includes a prohibition against any track or association licensed to conduct horse racing, sports wagering, or fantasy sports being affiliated with or benefiting from any entity that offers prediction market contracts.
Prediction market operators are a growing concern for the gambling industry because they have expanded from taking wagers on the outcome of future events, such as elections or new events, and are now including sporting events, such as horse racing. The prediction markets defend their business by claiming to take “contracts” and not “wagers.”
The threat of the prediction markets was addressed by Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen during a Feb. 26 conference call with investors and analysts and is the subject of a panel discussion this week during the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association’s annual conference being held at Oaklawn Park.
READ: Prediction Markets Have the Racing Industry’s Attention
Other provisions of HB 904 include:
- After Nov. 1 of a calendar year, the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation may authorize additional racing dates or make changes to racing dates awarded if requested by a licensed association, supported by the applicable horsemen’s group and “deemed in the best interest of racing.”
- Creates a new section that legalizes and puts the regulation of fantasy contests under the authority of the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation. Fantasy contests are simulated games or contests with an entry fee and awards or prizes established prior to the contest. Participants compete against each other and manage a fictional roster of actual athletes and obtain scores based on real-life performances. If adopted, all fantasy contest operators must be licensed by the state and adhere to regulations that include preventing fraud and money laundering, prevent underage participation, verify customers are geographically located in jurisdictions allowing fantasy contest participation, and comply with state audits and any complaints or allegations of prohibited conduct.
- Sets the legal age to participate in sports betting, fantasy contests, and charitable gaming at 21 but keeps the legal age for betting on horse racing at 18.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association indoor state track meet rolled on on Wednesday, March 4. One day after Beechwood claimed the Class 1A boys team title, three Northern Kentucky big schools combined for four individual state titles in Class 3A.
Cooper’s Paul Van Laningham won the 3,200-meter run in 9:09.49 and took second place in the 1,600-meter run in 4:07.88. It was a reversal of his results at the 2025 indoor state meet and earned him his fifth overall state title. He scored all of Cooper’s points, good for ninth place in the team standings with 18 points.
Van Laningham’s teammate, Ava Dunn, got the day started with a shot put title, throwing the 8.82-pound ball 39 feet, 3.25 inches.
Simon Kenton’s Alexis Howard won the long jump with an attempt of 18 feet, 7.25 inches, then claimed the triple jump title with a distance of 37 feet, 4.25 inches. It is her second straight indoor long jump title and third overall as she also claimed the 2024 outdoor title. Taking fifth place in the 55-meter dash, she scored all 24 points for SK, finishing in a tie for eighth place. Cooper was right behind with 22 points.
Finally, Conner’s Avery Vanlandingham win the 800-meter run in 2:17.55, out-leaning North Oldham’s Millie Huang at the line.
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