Ansley Almonor – \u00a9 Andrew Nelles \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Ansley Almonor<\/a> wasn\u2019t away from Lexington for long before making his return ahead of this year\u2019s The Basketball Tournament.<\/p>\n Almonor, who finished his final college season with the Kentucky Wildcats just a few months ago, is teaming up with La Famila, UK\u2019s alumni team in TBT. Practice began on Monday with the opening round game of the 64-team tournament set for Friday night inside Memorial Coliseum. After a semifinal finish in La Familia\u2019s debut last summer, dreams of winning it all are on everyone\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n There\u2019s obviously plenty at stake for Almonor and the rest of La Familia in this event (a $1 million winner-takes-all grand prize, for one), but the former \u2018Cat is also excited for the chance to play in front of the Big Blue Nation at least one more time.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point, it felt like I never left,\u201d Almonor told reporters during Monday\u2019s Media Day session. \u201cI went away for a couple of weeks and now I\u2019m back here. Going through the practice facility, I know everything like the back of my hand. Seeing my teammates like Otega (Oweh)<\/a>, BG (Brandon Garrison)<\/a>, Collin (Chandler)<\/a>, and all my guys. It\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n The first thing I noticed upon entering the Joe Craft Center practice gym was Almonor chopping it up in the back corner with Oweh and Garrison. He still has group chats with his former Kentucky teammates, both the ones on the current roster and the ones currently fighting for spots in the NBA at the Las Vegas Summer League.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s great seeing my guys, my teammates,\u201d Almonor added. \u201cIt\u2019s good being back here and just feeling love from all the community.\u201d<\/p>\n Almonor spent his first three college seasons at Fairleigh Dickinson, but elected to take a bit of a risk by hopping into the transfer portal last offseason. He mostly received interest from mid-major schools until Mark Pope<\/a> called and took a chance on the sharpshooting forward. The move paid off for both parties \u2014 Almonor was the perfect rotational piece off the bench, averaging 5.3 points in 14.3 minutes per outing on 42.4 percent shooting from deep for Kentucky.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t long after Almonor\u2019s final college season came to an end that Twany Beckham<\/a>, La Familia\u2019s general manager, began recruiting him to this summer\u2019s roster. Almonor has goals of playing professional basketball \u2014 performing well at TBT could help him get there.<\/p>\n \u201cThe week after we lost (to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament), he reached out pretty early,\u201d Almonor said of Beckham. \u201cI was kinda hesitant a little bit at first. I didn\u2019t know what I was gonna do next or how everything was going to shape out. I was hesitant, but at the end of the day I felt like this was going to be a great opportunity, a great privilege to be able to play with these guys, and showcase my skills on this level. I definitely felt like it was a good opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Almonor will gain valuable experience playing alongside longtime pros such as the Harrison twins, Archie Goodwin<\/a>, DeAndre Liggins<\/a>, Willie Cauley-Stein<\/a>, and the rest of La Familia\u2019s deep and talented roster. He even remembers watching those guys play at Kentucky when he was coming up in the basketball world on his own. But now he\u2019s on the same team as them. Not bad for someone who was playing in the Northeast Conference during the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n \u201cA year ago we was playing them, scrimmaging them, so now I\u2019m on the other side, which is crazy,\u201d Almonor said. \u201cA year ago, I didn\u2019t even think I would be here. It\u2019s just a great experience. Seeing how the BBN reacted last year and seeing the reception we received from the fan base and everybody in the community, it definitely makes it cool that I get to be a part of it this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Almonor is one of two players on this year\u2019s La Familia roster fresh out of college (Missouri\u2019s Marques Warrick<\/a> being the other). While he hasn\u2019t gone up against pros in this setting, a year of battling in the SEC should help him. As one of the younger and fresher pieces, he\u2019ll be expected to play an important role in La Familia\u2019s hopeful run to the grand prize.<\/p>\n He wants to suit up in front of the Big Blue Nation again and help win games, but landing a professional contract is equally important.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about both,\u201d Almonor said. \u201cRepresenting BBN, trying to win this whole thing, prove why Kentucky is the best basketball tradition in general. But obviously I want to go out there and showcase my skills and earn myself an opportunity, wherever that may be.\u201d<\/p>\n Almonor and La Familia open this year\u2019s TBT on Friday night at 9:00 p.m. ET (FS1) against Stroh\u2019s Squad.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.<\/a><\/p>\n The post Ansley Almonor excited to represent Kentucky again in TBT, but also has pro contract on his mind<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ansley Almonor – \u00a9 Andrew Nelles \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Ansley Almonor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-10945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-basketball","11":"tag-ncaabasketball","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}