By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
Malik Monk is starting over. So is Kentucky.
Coming off his worse performance of the season, Monk, who scored a season-low six points in a 71-63 win over Texas A&M last Saturday, said he’s not looking back as the ninth-ranked Wildcats shift their attention to the postseason.
Monk said his poor outing in the regular-season finale is “bad news” for future opponents in both the conference and NCAA Tournament.
“I think our team is focused,” said Monk, who was named Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year Tuesday. “We’re all focused and we’re coming in focused from the jump. I think it’s going to be a new team the whole tournament.”
Kentucky, the top seed in this week’s SEC Tournament, has a double bye and will take on the winner of Thursday’s Tennessee-Georgia contest at 1 p.m. Friday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The Wildcats (26-5, 16-2) have won the past two conference tournaments in Nashville and four overall in John Calipari’s eight-year tenure as coach of the Wildcats.
The Wildcats have won six in a row at Bridgestone Arena and are 13-6 overall in the tourney under Calipari. To go along with four conference tournament titles, Kentucky has posted two runner-up finishes and had one first-round exit four years ago.
Kentucky takes an eight-game winning streak into the tourney but had to rally from double digits to win their past three games. Monk said Calipari has been emphasizing the importance of not playing from behind in practice this week. Unlike the regular-season, comebacks are harder to garner in the postseason.
“The SEC Tournament and tournament time you always have to tighten stuff up,” Monk said. “Cal told me if you’re down 15-2 in the SEC Tournament or the NCAA Tournament we’re not coming back because that’s a team that grinds the ball out, knows how to stall. We just gotta come in there focused.”
In the win over the Aggies, Monk said he didn’t “have any kind of energy” which led to his lackluster outing. Four days removed from the contest, Monk says that will change starting Thursday.
“I was not engaged,” Monk said. “But young players, every player has up-and-down games, so I just gotta move from that, learn from the mistakes and try to get better.”
On order to move past the finale, Monk said patience is the key, especially when it comes to making outside shoots and developing early confidence. The freshman guard added preparation behind the scenes also will be a factor.
“I think being patient is the biggest key,” he said. “If you’re patient, you’ll see the open play. So me being patient, I just try to make the best play all the time. That’s all I try to do. … I just gotta take way more game shots. I think that’s the biggest key, and focusing in warmups, too.”
Kentucky has struggled with early tip-offs this season, but Monk doesn’t think the 1 p.m. starting time will be an issue this week. The afternoon starts give the Wildcats at least 24 hours to recover following a victory, a small reward for the regular-season champion.
“Our personal preparation will be the same,” Monk said. “We’ll just get up even earlier than we’re used to, have shoot-around and stuff like that earlier. I think we’ll just do the same things.”
Gametracker: Kentucky vs. Georgia or Tennessee, 1 p.m. Friday. TV/Radio: SEC Network, 1530 WSAI AM.
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on Twitter