Monk Earns Consensus All-America Second Team Status with AP Honor

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky freshman guard Malik Monk has secured NCAA consensus All-America status with his selection to the Associated Press All-America Second Team on Tuesday. Monk is the eighth player during John Calipari’s tenure to earn consensus All-America distinction in his eight seasons as head coach. 

Monk was tabbed to the second team of each of the NCAA’s four recognized organizations (AP, National Association of Basketball Coaches, United States Basketball Writers Association, Sporting News) it uses to determine consensus status.

The Lepanto, Arkansas, native is joined on the AP All-America Second Team by Nigel Williams-Goss (Gonzaga), Dillon Brooks (Oregon), Johnathan Motley (Baylor) and Luke Kennard (Duke). The same four players also joined Monk as consensus All-America Second Team selections. Freshman teammate De’Aaron Fox was tabbed AP honorable mention.

Monk is the eighth player under Calipari to earn consensus All-America status. He joins John Wall (2010, first team), DeMarcus Cousins (2010, second team), Anthony Davis (2012, first team), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (2012, second team), Willie Cauley-Stein (2015, first team) Karl-Anthony Towns (2015, second team) and Tyler Ulis (2016, first team) as the others to achieve the feat. 

A total of 38 Wildcats have achieved NCAA consensus All-America honors 49 times in school history. Monk is the 10th Wildcat under Calipari to be named to one of the AP All-America teams. 

The NCAA consensus All-America teams are compiled using a point system computed from the aforementioned four All-America teams named by coaches associations or media sources. The point system consists of three points for first team, two points for second team and one point for third team. No honorable mention, fourth team or lower selections are used in the computation.

In men’s basketball, the teams are not compiled by position so the top five players in points are named first team consensus All-American and the next five are named second team consensus All-American. If there is a tie for the final player on the first or second team in basketball, then the players who are tied shall be named to that team. Both the first and second teams shall consist of at least five players each. 

Monk’s AP honor on Tuesday are just the latest in a long list of awards this postseason. Monk’s honors include:

About Monk: Monk electrified crowds with his prolific scoring outbursts and high-flying violent dunks throughout the season. He finished his freshman season averaging 19.8 points per game, second among all freshman nationally, and reached double-figure scoring in all but two games this season.   

 

With 14 points in the second-round game vs. Wichita State, he became UK’s all-time leading freshman scorer with 721 points, passing Jamal Murray’s output of 720 from a season ago. His record-breaking season ends with 754 points scored. That’s fourth all-time in UK’s history books regardless of class, trailing only Dan Issel (948; 1970), Jodie Meeks (854; 2009) and Jamal Mashburn (767; 1992).

He produced 18 games of 20 points or more, including a Kentucky freshman record 47 points vs. North Carolina in December. Monk is the only freshman in program history with four 30-point games, and six times this season he scored at least 20 points in a half.

Monk made 104 3-pointers on the season, not far behind Jodie Meeks’ school record of 117.

For the latest on the Kentucky men’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyMBB on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, and on the web at UKathletics.com.