Kentucky Basketball Recruiting: EJ Montgomery sets UK visit; John Calipari visits Tyrese Maxey

Kentucky has scored a visit with EJ Montgomery.

According to recruiting ace Evan Daniels, Montgomery has scheduled an unofficial visit to Kentucky for February 24th. That would be the Saturday that Kentucky hosts the Missouri Tigers in Rupp Arena.

Montgomery, who is ranked as high as No. 6 overall by 247 Sports, is considering UK, Duke, Clemson and North Carolina among others. He will visit North Carolina on Monday, followed by Duke on February 14th.

The 6-10 power forward has already hosted John Calipari for a visit in addition to hostin Kenny Payne on a previous occasion. Getting Montgomery on Kentucky’s campus is a big step toward prying him away from Duke, the perceived favorite in this recruitment.

Jon Lopez, Nike

While in Texas to take on the Texas A&M Aggies, John Calipari and Tony Barbee dropped by Garland, Texas on Friday for a recruiting visit. They saw 2019 point guard Tyrese Maxey put up 28 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists to lead his team to victory in their district championship game.

Maxey received an official scholarship offer from Kentucky in October after he visited during Big Blue Madness. He is ranked just behind Jalen Lecque on almost every recruiting website, but is a consensus top 15 recruit across the board. 247 Sports lists Maxey as the No. 13 overall player and the No. 2 point guard (they have Lecque listed as a combo guard) in the 2019 class.

While it is impossible to predict what the needs will be for the Kentucky Wildcats at the point guard position in 2019, Maxey would make an impact whether he has to be the guy or play a role off the bench. Kentucky really could have used his seven three pointers from Friday when they lost to Texas A&M on Saturday.

Many believe the SMU Mustangs are the current leader for Maxey’s services, as they hired his father to serve as an assistant coach there. I do not particularly appreciate that strategy, but it is difficult to argue against its effectiveness. While that does not rule out Kentucky completely, it could be tough to overcome.

Obviously Calipari is not giving up on Maxey since they visited on Friday. To see why Calipari is so excited about the young Texan, check out these highlights of Maxey playing in the NBPA Top 100 camp last summer.

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