NCAA Basketball: 10 best players from state of Arkansas of last decade

1. Malik Monk – Kentucky

It’s fitting that after a slew of Razorbacks, the top spot in Arkansas belongs to one of John Calipari’s top recruits at Kentucky. A 6-3 guard from Lepanto, Monk was a top 10 recruit, yet another in a long line of blue-chip prospects for the Wildcats. Like many others, he’d spend just a single season in the college game, but Monk certainly came out better than others have in the past.

His only collegiate season saw him average 19.8 points per game on a team that also included freshman studs De’Aaron Fox and Bam Adebayo. He scored a career-high 47 points in an epic win over North Carolina while putting up all kinds of gaudy numbers in SEC play. He helped lead the Wildcats to the Elite Eight, including a 21-point effort against UCLA in the Sweet Sixteen.

Winner of both SEC Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year, Monk led the conference in just a flurry of statistics, including points, 3-pointers, and 3-point percentage. He was a Second Team All-American and played a huge role in Kentucky’s near return to the Final Four. As mentioned earlier, he was done with college ball after just one year and was a lottery pick by the Charlotte Hornets; and his NBA career continues more than five years later.

We have completed our run-through of the ten best players from the state of Arkansas; was there anyone else from this state that you thought deserved to be on the list?