I live in NWA and seen enough of Monk. First double cross of AR then the throat-slash at the end. Of all those who chose not to sign with AR, he’ll be the most infamous.
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Think he serves a full year on campus? Do you think Monk has gone to his last class, perhaps even left campus for his home – back in Arkansas? – to await his fateful draft?
Niels, it sounds like you’re arguing something I’ve been thinking. Monk might have made a mistake going to Kentucky and being featured as a one-dimensional scorer who led the team in minutes and shots taken.
Monk took 35% of the team’s 3-point shots and was second in 2-point attempts. He ranked 46th in Division I for field goal attempts per game. Kentucky relied too heavily on Monk’s shooting, and it weighed on his numbers.
In his last eight games since March 1, Monk made 40% of his twos and 29% of his threes. Monk’s total field goal % was 47% through the end of February, 35% in March.
No assurance Monk would have been more effective in Arkansas’s system, but what Kentucky did with Monk did not maximize his potential. He saved his energy for offense, and that could carry over to his pro game.
We can only hope CFM and SC win it all and rub it in thier face. I guarantee you if SC do win it all the KY fan base will take note and start to get restless.
I like the fact that a senior got POTY and a veteran team (“middle of the pack…”) in the conference have a chance to win it all.
Yeah, that’s the way I see it. Monk got a lot of mileage in publicity out of that 47-point explosion against UNC in the first game. He only scored 12 in the rematch, 6 of those in the last 40 seconds. He grabbed only 2 boards in 30 minutes.
When I watched UK, which admittedly wasn’t often, I sometimes forgot that he was even on the court. Then he would have a burst of jump shots and disappear again. He would have had the rock in his hands a lot more at Arkansas and been asked to create. At UK he couldn’t do that as well as Fox, and driving was Briscoe’s main value on O. Neither were good shooters. Monk settled into a constrained role by necessity. He got some bunnies around the rim thanks to Fox, but I never noticed Monk doing a lot off the dribble except pulling up for jumpers. He also usually took three or four shots a game that were flat out poor shot selection. Some of those may have been out of frustration to get a shot up with the perimeter defense cheating towards him. He probably could have been more selective at Arkansas, which had more perimeter options.
On defense he just didn’t show much. Calipari sometimes subbed him out at the end of games when playing offense-defense. Fatigue may have had something to do with that. At Arkansas CMA would not have been asking him to save anything on D. Quite the opposite. He would have been asked to use that athleticism to anchor the perimeter defense. CMA isn’t afraid to rotate anybody out either. Despite all that athleticism Barford and Macon had higher rebound, steal, and assist rates than Monk.