A few weeks ago, John Calipari made it clear that he wanted to add EJ Montgomery to his 2018 recruiting clbad, regardless of who came back from this season's team.
On Monday morning, Calipari got his wish. [19659002AlsowhenMontgomeryMontgomery's6-foot-and-12-year-oldpivotandmariestrikesheannouncedhispromisetojointheKentuckyUniversitylatertojointhechariotoftheWildcats
The timing was a surprise, before Montgomery had taken any of his five official visits, which he said in the recent McDonald's All-American Game he planned to do.
That plan required trips back to the United Kingdom, Duke and North Carolina – three schools that received it for unofficial visits in February – and possible trips to several other campuses.
It turns out that Montgomery saw what he needed to see on his first visit to Lexington and heard what he needed to hear during his most recent talk with Calipari.
"Only the coaches and their history with their players," he told 247Sports. "I can go develop myself and be the best I can be."
Montgomery recently said that the United Kingdom had been selling him as a "versatile" type, an offensively skilled pole player who could stretch the floor, shoot bridges and impact the game around the basket with His energy.
When Montgomery and his family visited the United Kingdom for the Wildcats game against Missouri in February, they sat on the court for about an hour and watched the team warm up with badistant coach Kenny Payne, who has a reputation as one of the best coaches of post players in college basketball.
Montgomery and his father told the Herald-Leader that Payne was a UK recruiting advantage.
The current commitments of the Cats. They also helped Montgomery join a 2018 clbad that already included five-star back-star players Immanuel Quickley, Keldon Johnson and Tyler Herro, moving that group to number 2 nationwide behind Duke's four-man clbad.
Quickley, one of the best shipowners in the clbad of 2018, recruited Montgomery throughout the week of the McDonald's All-American Game and told the Herald-Leader that he saw the great man evolve in recent years in several Adidas events.
"It's really getting better," Quickley said. "Obviously he's 6-11 years old, and he can never teach the size, he's a very versatile forward, he can go out and shoot, he can shoot and he can get to the edge and bounce."
Johnson was also in Montgomery in the McDonald's Game in Atlanta, predicting there that it would eventually end in Kentucky.
"He's a soft southpaw," Johnson said. "It's hard, and we'd love to have it."
Herro was not at the McDonald's Game, but he had also been recruiting Montgomery.
"It just scared me", Herro tweeted Monday morning .
247Sports ranks Montgomery as the No. 6 overall prospect in the 2018 clbad, and was the group's best unencumbered post player until Monday.
It will join a first-line team from the UK could be reloaded.
Last season's team Nick Richards, second-year students Sacha Killeya-Jones and Wenyen Gabriel, and possibly first-year forward PJ Washington and Jarred Vanderbilt, who are still evaluating their NBA values, are expected. Draft and have until May 30 to make a final decision on where they will play next season.
Rivals.com badyst Eric Bossi evaluated Montgomery at McDonald's week practices and noted his ability away from the basket for a player of his size, but he also said the UK's new commitment It could be much more than that in the future. 19659002] "That's what he does, that's what he wants to do," Bossi told the Herald-Leader in Atlanta. "He's a guy on his back, he wants to face and shoot a mid-range jump shot or drive it."
"It's funny, because when they started doing things one-on-one in the post, it's like ,? Oh, wow. This guy has a pole game. & # 39; So that will be the key … & # 39; How do we get him to go and play in the publication without stopping doing what he wants to do? & # 39; Because he can do some of that. I always feel like men with that game; if you get a couple of easy baskets in the publication, that other game opens up for you. "
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