KSR Today: La Familia takes Game 1, Peach Jam championships, and the World Cup Final

Good morning, folks! It sure is a great day to be a Wildcat, isn’t it? The air just feels crisper whenever Kentucky beats Louisville in any sporting event. Today, we’re celebrating a big game one victory for La Familia over The Ville in the opening game of The Basketball Tournament. The Kentucky alums jumped out to a huge lead over the Louisville alums in front of a jam-packed Memorial Coliseum crowd, but nearly coughed it up down the stretch. UL even had a couple of chances to steal the win in the Elam Ending, but a game-winning dunk by one of the non-alums, Darryl Morsell, helped La Familia take the first of a three-game series, 72-68. Shoutout to The Ville’s coaching staff for forgetting to guard the guy running right toward the basket on the BLOB play. Andrew Harrison led all former ‘Cats with 14 points, but it was the likes of Morsell and the other non-UK alums that helped take down the Dirty Birds. Morsell fueled La Familia with a team-high 17 points while Sean McNeil chipped in 12 points and James Mainor-Bell another 10. But the highlight of the day came from one DeAndre Liggins, who pulled off a sweet behind-the-back pass for a Kahlil Whitney three. Boy, do we love to see it. Leading 1-0, La Familia can sweep the series on Monday. Game 2 will take place that night in Freedom Hall at 7:00 p.m. ET on FOX. If necessary, a Game 3 will take place on Wednesday back in Lexington. The UK alums were without Archie Goodwin and Marcus Lee in Game 1 — we’ll be hoping to see them in action on Monday night. KSR’s final day at Peach Jam It’s almost closing time at the Riverview Park Activities Center in North Augusta, SC. The Nike Peach Jam has reached its final day. After an exciting week of watching the best high school players in the country, it all comes down to Sunday’s championships. Three Peach Jam titles will be awarded throughout the day. We’ll be back in the gym one more time to check out the action before heading back to the Bluegrass State. 17U: Florida Rebels (Cayden Daughtry) vs. Drive Nation | 10:30 a.m. ET 16U: Team Final vs. CP3 | 9:00 a.m. ET 15U: Arizona Unity vs. MOKAN Elite | 12:00 p.m. ET Our attention will be focused on that 17U matchup, headlined by five-star point guard Cayden Daughtry, who will look to cap off his legendary Peach Jam run with one final magical performance. Ranked No. 9 overall in the 2027 class, Daughtry has been putting together one of the strongest weeks of hoops you’ll ever see at this level. Through seven games, he’s averaging 32.1 points, 6.1 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.3 steals with just 2.1 turnovers on shooting splits of 58.9/47.2/91.2. Kentucky is recruiting him (along with most schools in the country). Unfortunately, Ryan Hampton‘s run at Peach Jam came to a disappointing end. His Nightrydas squad was eliminated in the semifinal last night in a game against Drive Nation that was never really close. The Kentucky commit looked great all week, but struggled in the quarterfinal and semifinal matchups. If you need a quick refresher on everything we’ve seen so far at Peach Jam, dive into our nightly takeaways below. As a reminder, you can watch today’s games for FREE through this link. KSR’s top takeaways from Saturday at Peach Jam KSR’s top takeaways from Friday at Peach Jam KSR’s top takeaways from Thursday at Peach Jam KSR’s top takeaways from our first day at Peach Jam A new basketball offer went out yesterday After dropping 16 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in front of Mo Williams on Saturday, elite 2029 recruit RJ Evans (the son of former NBA player Reggie Evans) picked up a Kentucky offer. Evans, a 6-foot-7 guard, has spent the week at the adidas 3SSB Championships, confidently playing up two age groups for Austin Rivers Elite. He’s now the third 2029 recruit with a UK offer. Here is what KSR’s Brandon Ramsey, who has spent the last two days in Rock Hill watching Evans and other adidas prospects, had to say about Kentucky’s newest target. “Evans is a two-way star that has as much upside as any prospect in the Class of 2029. He is a 6’7” guard who served as Austin Rivers SE Elite 17U’s (he plays up two age divisions) primary ball handler on Saturday. His combination of length, athleticism, and skill is incredibly impressive. The son of former NBA player Reggie Evans, RJ is an absolute star in the making.” Argentina vs. Spain in the World Cup Final It’ll be the battle of the bathtub picture in today’s World Cup Final. Lionel Messi and Argentina will take on Lamine Yamal and Spain at 3:00 p.m. ET on FOX. But only one team can take the golden trophy back to their home country. Argentina is looking to become the first country since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups, while Spain is making just its second-ever finals appearance after winning it all in 2010. It’s gonna be a fun one. Let’s have a great day, BBN.