La Familia leaning into defense-first mentality as TBT run continues

After running out of gas in last year’s The Basketball Tournament semifinals, La Familia built this summer’s roster with a defense-first approach.

Bringing back Willie Cauley-Stein, who was named TBT Defensive Player of the Year during the Kentucky alum’s debut run in this event, certainly helped create that identity, but head coach Sean Woods and general manager Twany Beckham wanted even more defense and athleticism this time around. In came guys such as DeAndre Liggins (one of the best perimeter defenders to ever come through the Kentucky men’s basketball program), DJ Burns, Kahlil Whitney, Archie Goodwin, Marques Warrick, and more.

Not all of them might be considered top-end defenders, but against this level of competition, effort, athleticism, and experience go a long way. In La Familia’s opening-round TBT win over Stroh’s Squad on Friday, the former Wildcats allowed just 52 points — the third-fewest amount of points scored by any team in the first round. La Familia forced 16 turnovers with at least five players recording a steal.

Stroh’s Squad, although admittedly not nearly as talented as their opposition, shot just 27.7 percent from the field and only 5-25 from deep. Even on the defensive glass, La Familia scooped up 14 more rebounds on that end of the floor.

“That’s the roster that Twany put together,” Woods said about La Familia’s defense following Friday’s win. “We knew what we needed from last year, and man, when you bring in two guys like this (Whitney and Goodwin) who are known for being great defenders, two-way players, then you add a couple more pieces. You add (Doron) Lamb, who is a great defender, and you add DeAndre Liggins, who is known as one of the nation’s best defenders, and then you put Willie Cauley-Stein in, and he makes everything that much better defensively.

“From a roster standpoint and a mental standpoint, that’s who we are, but now, we can receive the fruits of our labor by causing a lot of turnovers, tough shots, and pushing it back in transition like we like to do.”

That was the exact recipe for success against Stroh’s Squad. Outside of a lull in the middle of the second quarter, La Familia was all about causing turnovers and sprinting down the floor. The third and fourth quarters were especially rough for Stroh’s Squad — La Familia was essentially running a layup line, forcing turnovers before the opponent could even cross halfcourt. The UK alums were credited with 18 fastbreak points and 23 points off turnovers en route to scoring 105 points, the most among any first-round team.

The games will only get tougher from here, though. Up next is War Ready (2:30 p.m. ET | FOX), a team made up mostly of Auburn alums. The former Tigers narrowly escaped X-Rayted in their first-round matchup, winning 61-55, but struggled at times offensively: 35.3 percent from the field while turning the ball over 10 times. If La Familia can hold War Ready to similar numbers in round two — while keeping up the offensive attack in transition — we could be in for another blowout victory on the way to a Sweet 16 appearance.

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.