Monk makes right choice for himself
The last time Razorback fans got this angry at Kentucky, an Arkansas basketball coach changing jobs said he would “crawl all the way to Lexington.”
Let’s hope that Malik Monk’s sojourn to the Bluegrass State, even if for only one year, is more rewarding than Eddie Sutton’s, the curly-haired coach leaving the University of Kentucky in disgrace after four seasons.
Monk, the five-star shooting guard from Bentonville High, along with older brother Marcus, a former Razorback football player, became persona non grata in their home state after Malik’s decision Wednesday to attend Kentucky and play for the Wildcats in the 2016-17 season.
Whether through the player’s proximity to the Fayetteville campus (migrating westward from Lepanto after playing as a freshman at East Poinsett County) or his brother’s presumably strong Razorback ties or other factors, Monk to Arkansas seemed a natural choice to many. Without a moment’s hesitation, the 6-5 player would pledge to Arkansas as surely as the Triplets did for Sutton in the 1970s and Corliss Williamson for Nolan Richardson in the 1990s.
Mike Anderson, the current Razorback coach, would win the most important recruiting battle of his career, if for no other reason than anyone of sound mind in Monk’s shoes would want to play in his home state before adoring fans, right?
That sort of thinking prevailed in the 1970s, when Sutton, selling Razorback basketball in all corners of the state, landed Ron Brewer from Fort Smith Northside and Marvin Delph from Conway in 1974 and brought in Sidney Moncrief a year later from Little Rock Hall, thus forming what coach-turned-broadcaster Al McGuire called “the Triplets” and setting Arkansas on fire about what had been a second sport in a football-crazy state. By 1978, Brewer and Delph played as seniors and Moncrief as a junior on an NCAA Final Four team.
Arkansas high schools seldom produce one player of Triplet quality, much less three in two years, but a can’t-miss prospect from Russellville signed with Arkansas in the wake of the Razorbacks’ 1990 Final Four advance. Corliss Williamson was
named Final Four MVP in 1994, Arkansas beating Duke 76-72 in the championship game on Scotty Thurman’s rainbow jumper over Antonio Lang on an April Monday night in Charlotte, N.C.
In a sense, the Razorbacks have sought another Williamson for the last 20 years. Joe Johnson, a brilliant prospect from Little Rock Central, stayed two seasons at Arkansas before turning pro. Richardson, tired of the recruiting rat race and at odds with school officials, let recruiting slide before his enforced exit late in the 2002 season.
Arkansas then paid big salaries to Stan Heath and John Pelphrey for what amounted to on-the-job training as head coaches at a former top-10 (or close) program. Heath was fired after five years and Pelphrey after four.
Anderson, Richardson’s top aide at Arkansas and his former player at Tulsa, returned from Missouri in 2013 with hopes of reviving Nolan’s “40 Minutes of Hell,” or a reasonable facsimile. It’s now branded as “The Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball,” but the growth rate has been too slow for many Razorback fans who attend once-packed Walton Arena now only when a marquee opponent (Kentucky, Florida) comes to town.
Hoping to quiet any unrest, Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long in January extended Anderson’s contract for another two years, keeping him with the Razorbacks until 2020 if he chooses. That’s encouraging news to any highschool player wanting an extended career with the Razorbacks. It is of little to no importance to the “one-and-done” player Kentucky recruits, John Calipari conducting a finishing school for basketball’s gifted and talented before sending them off to the pros.
If Monk’s freshman season at Kentucky goes according to form, he will be in the NBA in the 2017-18 season, perhaps with an NCAA-championship ring on his finger. Call Calipari a mercenary if you wish but a hypocrite he is not. Previously at Massachusetts and Memphis, and now at Kentucky, Calipari sends NBA-ready players into the work force. Promises from an Anderson don’t stack up against Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans as NBA Rookies of the Year after playing college ball for Calipari.
Don’t underestimate the importance also of Monk being surrounded by players he has competed with or against at different youth levels. He is the whole show at Bentonville High and might appreciate the chance to be a fish of average size in the largest pond of all.
Twenty years since its last NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance, Arkansas should be flattered to be among Monk’s top three choices. Kentucky, as always, can pick and choose, its recruiting net larger than any a Wildcat stuffs through at Rupp Arena. Consider Monk disloyal if you like, but in the biggest decision of his young life, the Arkansas youth acted logically.