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Monk's return to basketball is well-received
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| Marcus Monk had brief stints with two NFL teams before returning to school and suiting up for the Razorbacks in basketball. (Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images) |
Ten games and a total of 10 points all coming way back as a freshman in 2004-05.
Monk had come to Fayetteville with the intent of playing both basketball and football, but a shoulder injury after his freshman season turned the 6-foot-5 wide receiver/swingman solely into a football player — an all-SEC wide receiver who left Fayetteville without peer in terms of touchdown catches. He finished with 27 to go along with 138 receptions and more than 2,100 yards.
Following his junior campaign in which he caught 11 touchdown passes, Monk was projected as a second-round NFL draft pick. A 6-foot-5 wide receiver blessed with a combination of size, speed and hands, Monk opted to return for his senior season.
It didn't work out the way he anticipated.
A preseason knee injury suffered in practice limited Monk to seven games and a season in which he didn't look like the same player.
Monk was drafted in the seventh round by the Chicago Bears, but understood the chances of making the roster were slim so he had limited discussions with Arkansas basketball coach John Pelphrey and the staff about taking classes and joining the basketball team for this season.
Arkansas assistant Tom Ostrom recalled watching Monk back when he was Mr. Basketball in high school and gave Pelphrey a seal of approval. Pelphrey also spoke to former Razorbacks coach Nolan Richardson.
"He told me that he was a better basketball player than a football player," Pelphrey said.
Sold.
But there was only one problem.
After Monk was cut by the Bears, the Super Bowl champion New York Giants picked him up for the first week of the regular season. Then he was cut again.
"If the Giants didn't pick him up, he probably would have been playing with us the entire year," Ostrom said.
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In just a matter of months, Monk found himself going from catching passes from Eli Manning to having to defend potential No. 1 pick Blake Griffin.
When Monk was introduced late in the first half against Stephen F. Austin on Dec. 20 after just two practices, the Arkansas crowd went nuts.
"You would have thought Sidney Moncrief came back," Pelphrey half-joked.
Monk played just three minutes.
"`It was tiring," he laughed.
Pelphrey, in desperate need of toughness up front and overall leadership, tossed Monk in for nine minutes against Northwestern State and then threw him on the court for 20 minutes against No. 4 Oklahoma earlier in the week.
The 215-pound Monk responded with 12 points and six rebounds and also did a nice job preventing Griffin, who is about five inches taller and 35 pounds heavier, from exploding as the young Razorbacks pulled out a major shocker in a 96-88 upset.
Monk hasn't ruled out another attempt at the NFL, but he's just expanding his options. A 3.3 GPA student and former high school valedictorian who graduated in 3½ years with a degree in marketing, he'll start classes later this month with a focus on finance and/or real estate.
"I love sports, but I also know my body can only take so much," Monk said. "Playing basketball and going to school gives me another opportunity, another route, other options."
"It's school," he added. "It's not torture."
However, Monk hasn't ruled out a career on the gridiron in the NFL. He said his knee still isn't at full strength and he may give it another shot after four more classes and a semester trying to lead the Razorbacks to the NCAA tournament.
"We're hoping he can be an NFL wide receiver," Pelphrey said. "But for now, we're just happy to have him."
And instead of sulking about what could have been, Monk is ecstatic for his latest opportunity.
"You just have to keep moving on and play the cards you were dealt," Monk said.
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