De'Shayne Montgomery commits to Georgia out of transfer portal

Georgia Basketball has its first commitment of the offseason, landing Mount St. Mary’s guard De’Shayne Montgomery out of the transfer portal. Montgomery made a visit to check out the Bulldogs earlier this week and chose Mike White’s program over Mississippi State, Ole Miss and USC, among others.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound native of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. who prepped post-grad at Hargrave Military Academy (Virginia) spent one year with the Mountaineers, averaging 13.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 27.8 minutes per game. Defensively, he ranked sixth in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for steals with 54. Montgomery won MAAC Rookie of the Year and was a unanimous selection to the All-Rookie Team for his performance this past season. He has three years of eligibility remaining.

“I chose to go to UGA because I feel like I will have the best opportunity to showcase myself at the next level, on and off the court,” Montgomery told On3’s Joe Tipton. “There are a limitless amount of resources academically and athletically that I can use to my advantage to reach my next goal. I’m glad to call them my next home.”

“We played them, so I got to see what all they do up close. I like their play style,” he added about Georgia earlier this month. “It’s a good system for guards and there is an opportunity to play there. He (Mike White) lets his young guys play through mistakes. They have good facilities. The coaches told me they liked how I got downhill and that I could play-make. They want me as a combo, to play the one and the two.”

Montgomery reached double figures in eight of his final nine games of the season, six times topping the 20-point mark. In total, he hit double-figures 18 times with nine 20-point nights including the 23 he poured in on 10-of-16 shooting against Georgia in December. His lone double-double came against American with 14 points and 10 rebounds in Mount St. Mary’s third game of the season. He scored a season-high 27 pints in early December against Siena, following it up with 22 against an SEC opponent, Ole Miss.

Montgomery did most of his damage coming off the bench, starting just 10 of the 32 games in which he played. Overall, he made 53.8% of his shots from the field (156-of-290) and 41.2% from 3-point range (28-of-68). He was also 72.8% from the free throw stripe.

“I’m fun to watch,” Montgomery told On3 about his game. “I’m very energetic, get the crowd involved. I like to keep it fun. I’ll watch a lot of Brandon Ingram and Kevin Durant. I watch how they get to their shots and set up their defenders, their hesi-pull-ups.”

“On the court, I want to be able to push in transition and then flow into the offense. Player development is big for me,” he added. “I was late to basketball because I played soccer until my freshman year of high school. My goal is to make it to the NBA, so I want to go somewhere that can help me get there. I also want to win, go somewhere that is set up to make the Tournament.”

Montgomery joins a Georgia team that returns three sophomores that started down the stretch for the Bulldogs (Silas Demary, Blue Cain, Dylan James) and two other key contributors (RJ Melendez, Frank Anselem-Ibe). UGA signed five-star plus+ forward Asa Newell in the Class of 2024, leaving just six spots open after the addition of Montgomery to the 2024-25 roster.

Georgia finished the 2023-24 campaign with 20 wins for the first time in eight seasons, advancing to the semifinals of the NIT in the program’s first postseason appearance since 2017. Five players (Jalen DeLoach, Justin Hill, M.A. Moncrieffe, Jabri Abdur-Rahim, Mari Jordan) from the squad have entered the transfer portal while another three (Noah Thomasson, Russel Tchewa, RJ Sunahara) have exhausted eligibility. The Freshman All-SEC point guard Demary announced a return for his sophomore season in Athens just last week.