Bio Blast: Dayton guard De'Shayne Montgomery

With the additions of Washington’s Zoom Diallo and Furman’s Alex Wilkins, Kentucky is on the hunt for backcourt depth. More options at guard for head coach Mark Pope are emerging.

The latest name to know is Dayton’s De’Shayne Montgomery, who has been in contact with the Kentucky coaching staff, reports Jacob Polacheck of KSR+. Listed at 6-foot-4, 190 pounds, Montgomery has played for three schools in three years and will now be looking for his fourth. But he had his best season yet with the Flyers in 2025-26, earning All-Atlantic 10 Third Team honors along the way. Recruiting a Dayton player to Kentucky worked out well for Pope the last time around.

Montgomery is not ranked by On3 in the portal, but 247Sports has him ranked as the No. 133 overall transfer prospect this offseason. Louisville is another team to watch for him — he visited the Cardinals earlier this week. Let’s get to know him a little bit better through another edition of KSR’s Bio Blast.

Three schools in three years

A native of Fort Lauderdale, Montgomery attended multiple prep schools and ultimately graduated from Hargrave Military Academy (VA). He held offers as a high schooler from the likes of Northern Kentucky, UMBC, and NC A&T, but landed at Mount St. Mary’s for his freshman season. That ended up being a wise choice.

Montgomery was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Rookie of the Year in 2023-24 for Mount St. Mary’s, posting per-game averages of 13.2 points, 3.5 rebounds, two assists, and 1.7 steals in 27.8 minutes. He started 10 of his 32 games played with shooting splits of 53.8/41.2/72.8. Montgomery was a full-time starter by the end of the season, scoring at least 21 points in six of his final seven games.

All of that production had him looking for a new challenge. Montgomery entered the portal and was looking at Georgia, Southern California, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. He wound up at Georgia for the 2024-25 campaign, but the same success did not follow. Montgomery appeared in 17 games off the bench for the Bulldogs, averaging 6.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 15.5 minutes per outing as his shooting numbers dipped significantly. But keep in mind that he missed the first 10 games of the season due to injury. He scored nine points on 3-9 shooting in Georgia’s win over Kentucky that season.

Montgomery again went into the portal that offseason, finding a home in Dayton where his game got back on track. He averaged 13.4 points, four rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 2.1 steals in 30.6 minutes per game for the Flyers, starting all 36 games he appeared in. The shooting splits ticked back up, too: 49.0/33.5/78.9. His 77 steals ranked second in the A-10. Notably, Montgomery posted 20 points, four steals, three assists, and two rebounds in a blowout win over Florida State.

What the advanced stats say about his game

The advanced numbers were high on Montgomery’s 2025-26 season with Dayton. His effective field goal percentage of 56.2 ranked him in the 87th percentile among all guards, per CBB Analytics. While proven to be a capable three-point shooter, he excels at scoring in the paint and in transition. 29.7 percent of his points last season came via fast breaks, which ranked in the 97th percentile. He made his two-pointers at an impressive 60.5 percent clip, including a 59.3 percent mark on layups (74th percentile). His shot profile is almost exclusively threes and shots around the rim, even leading Dayton in dunks at 35.

It’s the defensive side of the floor where his numbers stand out, though. Montgomery’s Hakeem percentage (the sum of a player’s block and steal percentage) of 6.6 graded out in the 98th percentile last season. He’s also an above-average defensive rebounder. The all-in-one defensive stats love his impact on that end, ranking in the 97th percentile or better in stats such as DRAPM and Defensive Win Shares. He’s a true two-way threat, one who doesn’t always need the ball in his hands to be effective.

It’s Transfer Portal SZN on KSR+

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