By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
The past two weeks have been a learning experience for Kentucky.
“It’s weird,” Kentucky freshman Malik Monk said. “We’re a young team, never been in a situation like this. Just have to fight through it. It’s just a weird situation right now.”
The Wildcats (18-5, 8-2 Southeastern Conference) have lost three of their past four games, including an 88-66 setback at Florida. The double-digit setback to the Gators dropped Kentucky out of the Top 10 from No. 8 to 15th in the latest Associated Press poll released Monday.
Despite the recent slide, the Wildcats aren’t concerned going into Tuesday’s contest against struggling LSU. The Tigers (9-13, 1-9) have lost seven straight games, including an 85-63 setback at Texas A&M.
“I think our confidence is still pretty high, but we’ve got a lot of things to work on,” Monk said.
Like Monk, Bam Adebayo has taken a realistic approach to the team’s recent struggles and says the Wildcats will recover.
“We’re just going through a phase right now” Adebayo said. “We’re humans. We’re just going through the phases and we’ll get back on track.”
The coaches and players insist the mood of the team remains upbeat and Adebyao agreed that nothing has changed the team’s overall outlook going into the final month of the season.
“It’s the same as usual,” Adebayo said. “You know, we’re just having a tough time and we’re going to get past it.”
Kentucky assistant coach Tony Barbee agreed and said the Wildcats were “in a good mood” going into Monday’s practice session.
“I think we are in a great mood, but we’re ornery right now,” he said. “Nobody wants to play, perform or have an outcome like we had at Florida, but it’s an opportunity to learn. Every team in the country, whether you’re No. 1 in the country or you’re 356th in the country, every team is going to have an ebb and flow to their season. Every game is a learning opportunity, and that’s how we look at it.”
The Wildcats spent practice time on Monday working on movin past the recent slide and Monk said time is on the team’s side.
“That’s what we have to figure out right now,” he said. “(Monday) we got time for that (and we) play tomorrow. Then we got a couple more practices. We got time to figure it out, so that’s what we gotta figure out.”
Monk’s commitment and desire to win was questioned after television cameras showed Monk smiling in the final minutes of the 22-point loss at Florida. In the heat of the moment, Monk said he was caught off guard as the crowd was singing, “Happy Birthday” to the Kentucky freshman guard who turned 19 last Saturday.
“We played bad,” Monk said. “Winning is on my mind from the jump. So, if anybody took that wrong I’m sorry for that, but that was clever from them to do that. It was funny to me, but I shouldn’t laugh at that moment because I knew cameras were on me.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari said the incident was a learning experience for Monk.
“When I heard it I got on him,” he said. “And what they had done is they were singing happy birthday to him because it was his birthday and that’s why he was – he caught it. But, I said to him, ‘Do you understand you’re at Kentucky? The camera is always on. The mic is always on.’ It’s a lesson for him.”
Gametracker: LSU at Kentucky, 7 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPN, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for NKyTribune, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter