BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK (1/8): Willis' surge, Monk's off night, a testy game

Malik Monk has been good all season for Kentucky, but in recent games, leading up to Arkansas' trip to Rupp Arena, he had been stellar. Even counting his 6 of 17 performance against Louisville, Monk was 42 of 73 from the floor over the previous four games.

But Monk finished with an uncharacteristic 12 points on just 4 of 10 shooting. He did have three assists, but Monk also struggled with foul trouble for much of the game.

Before the game one of the obvious storylines was Monk's opportunity to play against his home state team. That was a given because of the animosity Monk faced in Arkansas when he committed to Kentucky.

He started the game with a make on a contested long two-pointer, but Monk promptly missed three consecutive shots from deep. He seemed to be pressing things too much.

After the game Calipari didn't dwell too much on Monk's performance, pointing out that it's "really hard playing your hometown team."

"It's just hard. How you played, you played good. You got a tough foul, and it was on him, and it was a foul. He had no discipline. He went and got a second one in the first half," Calipari said. "But I said, look, we took Tony Barbie home when I was at UMass. Tony was a heck of a player. He went 1 for 12 at Purdue. It's hard to play those kind of games. You can say it's not hard, but it's really hard. He did good, though."

Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said, after the loss, that it's time to move beyond the talk about Monk against Arkansas. He praised Monk's talent and said there was no satisfaction in keeping him in check when his team walked off the court with a 26-point defeat.

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Dealing with a heated contest

At several moments throughout the game there seemed to be some ill-will between the two teams. The referees had a quick whistle throughout the contest and did their best to keep things under control.

At one point, Isaiah Briscoe found himself on the floor under the basket. Arkansas' Jaylen Barford (who scored 14 points in 17 minutes of foul-plagued action) got his feet tangled up with Briscoe's body. Barford took one step, and then another. And that "other" step became a point of contention, because it was unclear whether Barford had stumbled or if he might have intentionally stepped on Briscoe's leg.

Either way, De'Aaron Fox came to Briscoe's aid. In practical terms that meant getting in Barford's face.

Later in the game Bam Adebayo tried to take the ball through Moses Kingsley en route to another dunk, but he took a hard foul that included a hand to his head. Adebayo didn't take too kindly to that. Calipari rushed out to discourage his team from throwing gasoline on the fire.

Calipari said it's not a surprise that the game got heated. That often happens.

"They're going to get testy ... and we do not respond. That's how we are. And these kids are so young, their first reaction is they get bumped or pushed and they want to push back. You can't. You put your arms up and you walk away. It was a great lesson," Calipari said.

But that doesn't mean he expects his team to be a pushover.

"My team won't be bullied," he added. This isn't that kind of team. The issue is it gets you more focused, sharper, and more disciplined. That's what good teams are. You're not going to bully us into a loss. That's not how these kids -- you think about who is on this team. So they'll fight back."

After the game Adebayo said Arkansas was just playing physical basketball. But he pointed out that Kentucky's players rallied in such a game because, "We're like brothers so we take up for each other. It brings us closer because nobody is going to come between us."

Willis enjoys a breakout game

Kentucky had managed to put together one of the better resumes of any team in the country this year even without Derek Willis playing up to the level most expected to see him at. The senior forward scored 15 points and stuffed the stat sheet in UK's season opener against Stephen F. Austin, but for the most part his contributions in the 2016-17 season have been sporadic and less than expected.

That could be changing.

Slowly but surely Willis has been finding his footing. Calipari has said, recently, that Willis is playing better defensively and on the boards, and on Saturday night Willis finished with 15 points (6-8 FG, 3-5 3-ptrs) with five rebounds. He didn't turn the ball over once.

"I thought Derek Willis was outstanding, getting better defensively, getting better rebounding the ball," Calipari said.

Calipari also said that the staff is doing something different with Willis and fellow forward Wenyen Gabriel.

"They're with Kenny and the big guys when we're doing all the pick-and-roll and rotating and scheming defensively bigs. I'm bringing them down with the guards and letting them do all the shooting stuff. So they're getting even more shots in," Calipari said. "I think it's helping both he and Wenyen."

De'Aaron Fox said it helps the team and individuals on it when Willis can stretch the floor like that.

"I feel like all shooters go through a slump of some sort," Willis said. "That's just where I was trying to play better defense and rebound and focus on that while I came out of it. Tonight I felt comfortable shooting. I've been doing different things -- getting in the gym more, trying to get more shots up, and try not to fall back."

Arkansas coach Mike Anderson pointed out that Derek Willis is "the guy who keeps haunting" his Razorbacks.

Other notes

- After the game Calipari said earlier in the season there wasn't much of a focus on free throws. Now, Calipari says, that has changed. "I can't begin to tell you how many foul shots we've shot here through what you guys would call Camp Cal. There's been, you know, they're shooting a ton of free throws, and they'll start shooting them better. Now shooting free throws takes time. So you can either go two times in a day plus class, plus tutors, or you've got to give up something.

"We didn't have time," Calipari said. "We didn't practice situational basketball before Christmas. We didn't have time. Now we get to where we have the time. We're zeroing in on defensively how we're playing. We're playing with more discipline. We're shooting more free throws. You know, we're back in the weight room doing stuff."

- Calipari was quick to point out that when Isaiah Briscoe shot the ball higher, Kentucky had more success converting those opportunities into points - one way or another. "Okay, he's so mad at me. When I said, you know, we've been working, making him shoot it higher. So what happened to his first two shots? They got blocked. And I said, you get another shot blocked, I'm taking you out. So now he shot them high. He missed them. But we rebounded them and dunked them. Then he made two, shooting them high."