A late rally pushed Kentucky head coach John Calipari to beat Duke on and off the court.
ESPN crowned the Wildcats with the top class ranking, besting the Blue Devils. It was quantity over quality as Kentucky had 6 recruits as opposed to four for Duke even though Duke had the top two players.
What pushed the Kentucky to the top was the surprise signing of Malik Monk, who was the subject of a heated tug-of -war between Kentucky and home-state school Arkansas.
Monk was ranked no.5 on the ESPN 100 list (of top senior high school students in the country) and he joins four recruits in the list: Bam Adebayo (6th in ESPN), De'Aaron Fox (7th), Wenyen Gabriel (23rd) and Sascha Killeya-Jones (no.31).
Monk is one of the most spectacular high school players in the country. At 6'3" he is a combo guard who can light it up. He's very athletic and definitely fits in with the Kentucky national TV showcase.
Monk took a big hit from his hometown fans when he chose the Kentucky juggernaut over Arkansas. Fans are blaming Marcus Monk, who allegedly stopped his younger brother from choosing his alma mater because of "distractions."
Razorbackers' Matt Jenkins had a strong message to Marcus: "Really Marcus? You've been treated as royalty by the University, thanks to your time as an Arkansas Razorback. Monk stands as one of the most exciting Razorbacks of all time, playing the wide receiver position for Houston Nutt."
He adds that the Monk's will lose the entire states' support: "Hopefully for Malik (and Marcus) his career goes as swimmingly as they're banking on. Because there's no coming home from this. Hog fans won't have it. That's the Monk Brand, I guess."