BASKETBALL
Monk’s UK pledge makes Hog fans blue
Malik Monk’s decision Wednesday to play college basketball at Kentucky angered many in Razorback Nation but didn’t surprise others.
“The days of state loyalty keeping a kid at home are a relic of the past,” said Little Rock sports writer and TV contributor Jim Harris after Monk, a Bentonville High 6-5 shooting guard, made his college choice. “This is a different era than when The Triplets [Ron Brewer, Sidney Moncrief and Marvin Delph] signed with Eddie Sutton.”
Monk paid official visits to Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon before tweeting his decision Wednesday morning, the last day of the November early-signing period.
“Peace, it’s been a tough process,” Monk told Henry Apple, Bentonville High beat writer for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and formerly at The Sentinel-Record, after his decision.
Reaction statewide on sports talk-shows and Internet sites was swift and immediate, many in Arkansas criticizing the state’s most coveted highschool basketball prospect for not choosing the Razorbacks.
Ex-Razorback Bobby Portis, Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 2014-2015 before declaring for the NBA draft and going to the Chicago Bulls, tweeted his displeasure. Portis played two years at Arkansas, leading the Razorbacks to the SEC tournament finals and second round of the NCAA tournament last year after starring for Little Rock Hall.
“I didn’t need Kentucky to make it to the NBA but thats none of my business,” said Portis.
The younger Monk played at East Poinsett County High (Lepanto) as a freshman before transferring to Bentonville, leading the Tigers to the Class 7A championship last year. Before an overflow crowd of 6,500 at Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs, North Little Rock defeated Bentonville 66-59, the Charging Wildcats’ roster including top prospects in two sports (Kevaughn Allen, basketball, to Florida and K.J. Hill, football, to Ohio State) who chose out-of-state schools.
Although Arkansas has recruited a three-star small forward from a Louisiana high school and three junior-college transfers rated four stars for the 2016-17 season, Harris thinks Razorback coach Mike Anderson will feel heat for not landing Allen and Monk.
“If he wins, no,” Harris said. “But he’s got to win with the players he’s bringing in. The three junior-college guys he’s bringing in are highly regarded, but that should tell you something, that’s he’s not able to wedge in” against out-of-state schools for top in-state prospects.
Kentucky won an NCAA championship as recently as 2012, winning its first 38 games last season before losing to Wisconsin in the national semifi-
nals. Monk committed to the Wildcats the day after No. 2 Kentucky beat No. 5 Duke, the defending NCAA champion, in an early-season game in Chicago.
Monk pledged to the Wildcats one day after coach John Calipari landed 6-10 power forward Edrice Adebayo. whom many consider the second-best power forward in the senior class. Last week, Kentucky landed Texan De’Aaron Fox, one of the top-rated point guards in the class of 2016.
Arkansas, meanwhile, has not advanced to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen [with two tournament victories] since 1996, two years after Nolan Richardson coached the Razorbaccks to the school’s only national championship.
The chance to play for a possible national champion and for a coach (Calipari) who routinely sends his best players to the NBA, many after just one college season, weighed heavily in his decision, Monk said.
“Every (college) coach and his staff treated myself and family with the utmost respect throughout the process and I’m very appreciative of this,” Monk said on Twitter. “This has been the toughest decision I have made in my life. With so many great coaches and historical programs recruting me, it has really been a tough but fun process. … Having the opportunity to win a national championship with my friends and the relationship I have with the coaching staff was very impactful in my decision.”
Said Harris: “He’s only going to play one year (at Kentucky) in all likelihood and he didn’t want to come to Arkansas and it become the Bentonville of the SEC where he has to shoulder the whole load. He’s competed with a bunch of his former teammates already.”
One Arkansas high-school athlete supports Monk’s decision. “Everyone needs to get off of Malik’s back,” tweeted Malvern High senior Amari Reed. “He obviously made the best choice for him and his family.”