'It just got scary': Five-star power forward EJ Montgomery commits to Kentucky

A few weeks ago, John Calipari made it clear that he wanted to add EJ Montgomery to his 2018 recruiting class regardless of who came back from this past season’s team.

On Monday morning, Calipari got his wish.

That’s when Montgomery — a 6-foot-11 power forward from Marietta, Ga. — announced his commitment to the University of Kentucky, one day after meeting with the Wildcats’ head coach.

The timing was a surprise, coming before Montgomery had even taken any of his five official visits, something that he said at the recent McDonald’s All-American Game he planned to do.

That plan called for return trips to UK, Duke and North Carolina — three schools that hosted him for unofficial visits in February — and possible trips to several other campuses.

It turns out Montgomery saw what he needed to see on that first visit to Lexington and heard what he needed to hear during his most recent talk with Calipari.

“Just the coaches and their track record with their players,” he told 247Sports. “I can go get developed and be the best that I can be.”

Montgomery said recently that UK had been selling him on coming in as a “versatile ‘4’ guy,” an offensively skilled post player who could stretch the floor, shoot jumpers and impact the game around the basket with his energy.

When Montgomery and his family visited UK for the Wildcats’ game against Missouri in February, the sat courtside for about an hour and watched the team warm up with assistant coach Kenny Payne, who has a reputation as one of the best coaches of post players in college basketball.

Montgomery and his father both told the Herald-Leader that Payne was a plus in UK’s recruitment.

The Cats’ current commits also helped out. Montgomery joins a 2018 class that already included five-star backcourt players Immanuel Quickley, Keldon Johnson and Tyler Herro, moving that group to No. 2 nationally in the recruiting rankings behind Duke’s highly touted four-man class.

Quickley, one of the top-ranked point guards in the 2018 class, recruited Montgomery throughout McDonald’s All-American Game week and told the Herald-Leader he’s watched the big man evolve over the last couple of years at various Adidas events.

“He’s really getting better,” Quickley said. “He’s obviously 6-11, and you can never teach size. He’s a really versatile forward. He can step out and shoot it — make shots. And he can get to the rim and rebound.”

Johnson was also on Montgomery at the McDonald’s Game in Atlanta, predicting there that he would end up at Kentucky eventually.

“He’s a smooth lefty,” Johnson said. “He’s tough, and we would love to have him.”

Herro wasn’t at the McDonald’s Game, but he, too, had been recruiting Montgomery.

“It just got scary,” Herro tweeted Monday morning.

247Sports ranks Montgomery as the No. 6 overall prospect in the class of 2018, and he was the top uncommitted post player in the group until Monday.

He’ll join a UK frontcourt that could once again be loaded.

Expected back from last season’s team are freshman center Nick Richards, sophomores Sacha Killeya-Jones and Wenyen Gabriel, and possibly freshman power forwards PJ Washington and Jarred Vanderbilt, who are both still assessing their NBA Draft stock and have until May 30 to make a final decision on where they’ll play next season.

Rivals.com analyst Eric Bossi evaluated Montgomery at the McDonald’s week practices and noted his skill away from the basket for a player of his size, but he also said the new UK commitment could be much more than that in the future.

“That’s what he does. That’s what he wants to do,” Bossi told the Herald-Leader in Atlanta. “He’s a face-up guy. He wants to face up and either shoot a mid-range to deep jump shot or drive you.

“It’s funny, because when they started doing the one-on-one stuff in the post, it’s like, ‘Oh, wow. This guy has post game.’ So that’s going to be the key… ‘How do we get him to go and play in the post while still doing what he wants to do?’ Because he can do some of that. I always feel like guys with that game — if you get a couple of easy baskets in the post, then that other game opens up for you.”

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