Highly touted freshman Malik Monk leads Kentucky

A year from now, Malik Monk could be a couple of months into his NBA career.

But on Saturday, the latest in a line of high-profile Kentucky recruits will lead his team into Las Vegas for a game against North Carolina at 2:45 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena as part of the CBS Sports Classic. No. 2 UCLA and Ohio State will meet at noon.

No. 6 Kentucky (9-1) and No. 7 North Carolina (10-1), two of college basketball’s storied programs, figure to put on a show, and Monk should be front and center.

Monk, a 6-foot 3-inch shooting guard, was the No. 9 player in ESPN.com’s 2016 recruiting class, and it’s been easy to see why. The freshman leads the Wildcats with 19.4 points per game and is the team’s biggest 3-point threat (38.5 percent).

Although he said he’s still working on getting stronger on offense and in transition and that the college game has been way more difficult than he imagined, Monk has made the adjustment seem easy, flashing the tantalizing athleticism that makes him a potential lottery pick.

On a recent list of the top 30 NBA Draft prospects, CBS Sports had him at No. 7, calling him “probably the bounciest prospect” in the NCAA while projecting him as an “electric combo guard capable of scoring big and competing for dunk contest trophies.”

For now, he’s focused on the college game, where he’s gotten a chance to compete alongside longtime friends and fellow top prospects Bam Adebayo and De’Aaron Fox. They came into this season as ESPN.com’s No. 5 and No. 6 recruits.

“They’re both great players,” Monk said. “Fox is super fast, and he passes the ball well, so he gives me my shot, and Bam rebounds well and just works hard, so he brings more energy to the whole team.”

Fox averages 15.1 points and a team-high 6.9 assists, and Adebayo is averaging 12.6 points and a team-leading 8.0 rebounds.

The idea of playing together came years ago. Monk met Fox in eighth grade and Adebayo two years later. He said it was something he talked to Fox about as sophomores.

“We all knew each other, and we knew we were going to go there all at once, and we were just trying to win a championship there,” Monk said. “I was just trying to compete with my friends. And every day I feel pushed in practice by the best.”

It has worked out. While Monk might be pushed in practice, it’s rare that Kentucky meets a team with as much talent as it has.

Its only loss came to UCLA, and Saturday its next big challenge will be a veteran North Carolina team.

“We can’t underestimate anybody,” Monk said. “We’ve always got to come out prepared.”

Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.