Dayton's De’Shayne Montgomery -- a former Kentucky target -- commits to Louisville

Well, that day of listing Dayton transfer De’Shayne Montgomery as a Kentucky target sure was something!

Jacob Polacheck of KSR+ reported Thursday that UK assistant coach Cody Fueger had been in contact with the 6-4 shooting guard with a potential visit in the works. On Friday, he announced his commitment to Louisville, coming off a visit with the Cardinals.

Outside of UL, Montgomery also visited NC State with Ole Miss and South Carolina among the others involved.

The Fort Lauderdale, FL native averaged 13.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists this past season at Dayton to go with shooting splits of 49/34/79. He played 36 games as a full-time starter with the Flyers, averaging 30.6 minutes per contest. Prior to his time there, he spent a year at Georgia in 2024-25 and Mount St. Mary’s in 2023-24, averaging 6.5 PPG as a sophomore and 13.2 PPG as a freshman.

He was not rated in the On3 Industry Transfer Portal Rankings this cycle, but the All-A10 Third Team member became the fifth transfer addition for Pat Kelsey and the Cardinals, joining Oregon’s Jackson Shelstad, Kansas’ Flory Bidunga, Arkansas’ Karter Knox and Iowa’s Alvaro Folgueiras.

As for Kentucky, the Wildcats have locked up commitments from Washington’s Zoom Diallo and Furman’s Alex Wilkins out of the transfer portal, along with the announced returns of Malachi Moreno, Kam Williams and Braydon Hawthorne while Mason Williams and Zyon Hawthorne have signed out of the high school ranks. Ousmane N’diaye is the newest international addition for Kentucky, committing late Friday afternoon.

The starting lineup is starting to come together for Pope, but the Wildcats will have to continue looking elsewhere for depth help, as Montgomery will instead play down I-64W from Lexington as a Cardinal.

Oh well. Hardly knew ya, De’Shayne. We’ll see you in the non-conference schedule — this time with Kentucky looking for revenge at Rupp Arena.