Nick Richards and E.J. Montgomery
As of now, I fully expect Nick Richards to be back in Lexington for a junior season. I believe he is smartly exercising his ability to go through the pre-draft process and get some helpful information from scouts and executives and will return to Kentucky.
Montgomery is another story. Let me be clear: it is more than likely that Montgomery returns, but far from a sure thing. Montgomery, from an NBA standpoint, is a superior prospect to Richards. He’s a year younger, is long (6’11) and has terrific instincts around the rim, flashing a few moments or brilliance in 2019. Still, though, he’s far, far away from a first-round pick (his claimed goal in his announcement letter), and could improve tremendously in his second year at UK, a la P.J. Washington. Rumblings around campus indicate he’s probably coming back, but a jump the professional ranks is a viable possibility, especially as Kentucky moves to recruit over him in the coming weeks.
A quick aside: I actually played a pickup game with E.J. and Ashton last week on an outside court next to Kentucky’s dorms. I assure you, this was not a newsworthy experience, although it was fun to test my skills against high-level athletes. I must report that Hagans and Montgomery both need to work on their jumpshot. Hagans, who obviously wasn’t operating at real-game intensity air-balled probably half a dozen threes and E.J. wasn’t much better, bricking seemingly every single one of his outside shots.
They had their people there and man did they trash talk poor E.J. After a missed shot, one of his buddies taunted him by hollering (I’m trying to quote this ver batum), “Bruh he aint a prospect! He told coach Cal he going pro and he just laugh at him.” Lol. College kids are funny man. And when E.J. actually did make a shot, the whole crowd playing with him started screaming “he’s a prospect!”
A fun experience overall. But, get into the gym you guys!
Those are the remaining options for Kentucky to close out the 2020 roster and I’m sure there will be heavy movement throughout the rest pf the month. Stay tuned and I’ll try to update you all on everything important on the Kentucky side of things!