Kentucky Basketball Recruiting: E.J. Montgomery trending heavily toward Duke Blue Devils

From the looks of it, the Duke Blue Devils could be adding another piece to their superb 2018 recruiting class.

E.J. Montgomery, ranked as highly as #6 in the 2018 class by 247 Sports and coming in at #12 in their composite rankings, is heavily projected to land with the Blue Devils over Kentucky, North Carolina, and a few other schools.

The 247 Crystal Ball has the last seven picks going toward the Blue Devils. The only other selection is an old Auburn pick from July 2016.

Among those picks include 247 Sports Director of Basketball Scouting Jerry Meyer and Chris Fisher of CatsPause, among others.

Montgomery’s only scheduled visit is in two weeks to visit Durham, though no information was available about other visits.

Montgomery has become a hot commodity on the recruiting trail lately, as he is enjoying a strong senior season and as teams look to add final pieces to their classes.

The former Auburn Tigers commit has been recruited by some of the nation’s top schools after he decommitted from Auburn in the wake of the FBI scandal.

Montgomery could fit in to the Blue Devils’ lineup for next year in the frontcourt or could be a sixth man if he is willing to accept that role. Obviously by so highly favoring the Blue Devils, he knows that minutes will not come easily based on players returning and the freshman class coming in.

As for what this means for Kentucky, they obviously will make a pitch to Montgomery but if he does indeed decide to join the Blue Devils, Kentucky will probably continue to try to talk to James Wiseman about reclassifying, even though Wiseman has made several statements saying that he has no plans to reclassify.

Or, another likely scenario will be that Kentucky will take a heavy look at the graduate transfer market to see if any players exist there that could bolster the frontcourt next season.

Then again, if Nick Richards, Sacha Killeya-Jones, PJ Washington, and Wenyen Gabriel return, Calipari may feel comfortable with his frontcourt options. A lot will depend on what those four players do in the offseason.

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