Landing E.J. Montgomery a Huge Win for Kentucky in Recruiting Arms Race vs. Duke

Big Blue Nation woke up to some fantastic news Monday morning when E.J. Montgomery announced his decision to sign with Kentucky, as first reported by Evan Daniels of 247Sports.

Montgomery—who decommitted from Auburn in September when the FBI hit college basketball like a wrecking ball—joins Immanuel Quickley and Keldon Johnson as the third top-15 recruit in Kentucky's 2018 recruiting class. Factor in Tyler Herro at No. 32, and the Wildcats are bringing in (at least) four high-caliber reinforcements, per usual.

For most of the 2017-18 season, it seemed Montgomery was leaning toward choosing Duke. His high school coach, Larry Thompson, told Kyle Tucker of SEC Country on Monday:

"Duke was his leader for a long time. I think it kind of changed after the McDonald's [All-American] game, after just being around the guys. E.J. had a little concern about the Zion [Williamson] situation: Is he a four? Where's he going to play? Is he a five? So that was one of the concerns, and I think ultimately the relationship that was built with Coach [Kenny] Payne and Coach Cal since January kind of helped seal the deal."

Montgomery is rated by 247Sports as the 12th-best player in this year's class, and he is the first of the five major dominoes to fall in this super-late recruiting period. We're still waiting on Romeo Langford (No. 5 overall), Jordan Brown (No. 16), Brandon Williams (No. 31) and Courtney Ramey (No. 40). Those guys could shake up the team recruiting rankings when they make their decisions, but for the time being, the teams in the top two spots are the same as always:

Duke and Kentucky.

If it holds, it'll be the fifth consecutive year in which those one-and-done factories ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in one order or the other. And because of that, you can already take it to the bank that both the Blue Devils and the Wildcats will be ranked in the Top Five of the preseason AP Top 25 for a sixth straight season.

Ben McKeown/Associated Press

Despite failing to get Montgomery, Duke still has the best class on paper, and it's not that close. R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish and Zion Williamson are rated as the top three freshmen in the country, and they have all committed to Mike Krzyzewski. Duke also has No. 9 overall recruit Tre Jones—younger brother of Tyus Jones and the top-rated point guard in the country—"joining the brotherhood."

When the Blue Devils got Williamson's commitment in late January, I wrote about this being the best class in the modern-day era of recruiting services and websites.

Barrett is an exceptionally smooth two-way, left-handed operator. Reddish fits perfectly into the wing-forward/small-ball 4 spot from which Duke has churned out lottery picks like Jayson Tatum, Jabari Parker, Brandon Ingram and Justise Winslow. And Williamson is a freight train who will be one of the biggest matchup nightmares in recent memory. With an elite distributor and facilitator in Jones, Duke's freshman quartet should be all but unstoppable.

As good as Montgomery may be for Kentucky, he is not nearly enough to bump Duke from the top spot.

However, Kentucky's recruiting class is now head and shoulders above all teams not named Duke, and as a result, the Wildcats should have the better overall team.

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

Focusing first on the freshmen, Johnson and Herro should be the biggest difference-makers for a team that was desperately lacking a knock-down three-point shooter this past season. Kevin Knox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander were OK from downtown but nothing compared to Malik Monk, Jamal Murray, Tyler Ulis or Devin Booker. Johnson and Herro ought to change the narrative for a squad that didn't hit a single three-pointer in its 2018 NCAA tournament debut against Davidson.

Quickley will help those lethal shooters get open looks. He doesn't have quite the same natural court vision that Jones will display at Duke, but he's an explosive lead guard who could be just about as good as De'Aaron Fox was two seasons ago. Even when he's not getting assists, he'll be opening the floor for his teammates with his ability to drive the lane and draw attention.

And then there's Montgomery, who will immediately vie for a starting job in a loaded frontcourt. A left-handed stretch 4 who has become more of a force in the paint over the past six months, his versatility could be the glue that holds everything together.

Where Kentucky has the clear edge, though, is in returning talent.

Duke was already guaranteed to lose Grayson Allen as a senior. The Blue Devils have also already lost Marvin Bagley III, Gary Trent Jr. and Trevon Duval as guys who have declared for the draft and either signed with an agent or announced the intention to do so. And while we have not yet heard anything about what Wendell Carter Jr. is planning to do, he's a projected lottery pick, so it seems likely that Duke will lose its entire starting five.

Kentucky, on the other hand, should get most of its talent back for another year. Knox is definitely gone. Gilgeous-Alexander announced on SportsCenter Monday night that he's leaving for the draft, too. Sacha Killeya-Jones also announced on Monday that he will be transferring. As far as we know, everyone else could/should be returning to Lexington.

Otto Kitsinger/Associated Press

But even if Hamidou Diallo, PJ Washington and Jarred Vanderbilt all decide to declare for the draft, Kentucky would still have a solid core of Quade Green, Wenyen Gabriel and Nick Richards—which is a good deal better than Duke's projected top three returnees: Alex O'Connell, Marques Bolden and Javin DeLaurier.

Don't forget about Jemarl Baker, either. A top-75 recruit in last year's class, the shooting guard missed the entire season while recovering from knee surgery. He could be a significant contributor as a redshirt freshman.

Despite the inexplicably reanimated narrative that the one-and-done model isn't a viable method for winning a national championship, you best believe that Duke and Kentucky will be among the favorites—if not the top two favorites—to win it all in 2019. Kentucky probably should be the slightly better team, but both freshman-laden rosters figure to be special.

Recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @kerrancejames.