Malik Monk is one of the most explosive basketball players from the 2016 recruiting class that you will find.
A consensus five-star recruit from Lepanto in northeast Arkansas, Monk, with his athletic exploits, can fly all over the hardwood floor with his electrifying slam dunks along with his long-range downtown jumpers.
Needless to say, Monk will be one of the more exciting UK players to watch this winter. His coach, John Calipari, has said he is the “wow” type of player who will stun or entertain the crowd wherever he plays. And it is expected the 6-3, 200-pound freshman guard — a McDonald’s All-American who was considered the top shooting guard in the 2016 class – will see his name in the Kentucky starting lineup this winter.
According to Calipari, Monk often makes his hoops moves look very simple.
“The hardest thing for a basketball player to do is dribble two really hard dribbles,” added Calipari last week. “You are flying, and then pull up and shoot a ball from 15, 17 feet. It’s the hardest thing in the game and he can do that easily.
“The best players I’ve coached make really hard things look easy. Like you may say, ‘Well, that was easy.’ Well, go try it. You think it’s so easy, go ahead and do it. Then you say, ‘Wow, he makes this like it’s nothing.’ So there are (difficult) things that he does.”
Instead of attending UK, Monk could have stayed home and play for coach Mike Anderson at Arkansas. Why didn’t Monk sign with his hometown Razorbacks where his older brother, Marcus, also played basketball and football?
Interestingly, the entire Razorbacks squad also came to watch Monk play while in high school. While the gesture by the team was nice, it apparently wasn’t good enough as he moved on to UK.
“I think it’s (Kentucky) the best fit for me,’ said Monk during last week’s UK men basketball media day festivities at Joe Craft Center. “I felt more at home. I felt like if I came here I will play (against) the best talent and get pushed every day at practice to become what I want to be.”
But that would mean his parents and family would have to make many long trips to Lexington to watch Monk play.
“She will probably go to every game she can,” he said of his mother, Jackie Monk. “It won’t be a problem.”
By the way, the family affair obviously will get emotional when Arkansas visits the Wildcats on Saturday night, Jan. 7 at Rupp Arena.
“I think it will be a crazy game,” said Monk. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Monk said he has been practicing against the team’s older players.
“It’s the freshmen versus the upperclassmen every day in practice,” he said. “We kill the upperclassmen every day. Us going against the upperclassmen helps us a lot because we don’t know much of anything and they know all of the plays and what to expect.”
Monk also commented he was surprised to see lots of running at UK practice so far this season.
“With every drill Coach Cal does, we’re out running so I can tell that we’re faster than a lot of our opponents,” said the product from Arkansas. “Our guards are fast so I think the guards will push everyone else to run even more.”
Asked what aspect of his basketball game, if any, that needs work or improvement, Monk replied, “I don’t think my game needs any more improvement. I just think I need to tighten a couple of things up but probably just being more active in both ends.”
Even though he was labeled as a shooting guard at Bentonville (Ark.) High School and for AAU teams, Monk has said he can play both positions in the backcourt.
A preseason All-SEC choice, Monk – who is already listed at No. 18 in the 2017 NBA Mock Draft (behind teammates No. 10 Bam Adebayo and No. 12 De’Aaron Fox) as of early October — will be wearing No. 5 on his Wildcat jersey. The rookie guard picked that jersey number because of his love for animals. “On the fifth day of the Creation, God made the animals,” he explained.
With the presidential election just around the corner, Monk was asked if he run for president, which one of his teammates would be his vice presidential choice.
He named Isaiah Briscoe, a 6-3 sophomore guard from Newark, New Jersey, because of their friendship.
“He is my best friend,” Monk said of Briscoe. “I knew him since I was in the ninth grade. I’ve seen him play all the time. I know him personally so I didn’t get my first impression (of him) while being in Kentucky. We met at the LeBron (James) camp when was in the ninth grade. He was the same as he is now, super confident.”
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime columnist in Kentucky, is the author of four books about UK basketball. He is the editor of KySportsStyle.com online magazine and a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via e-mail at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.