Kentucky basketball got a big boost this past week when top ten recruit Jasper Johnson committed to the Wildcats. He joined top 25 recruit Malachi Moreno in the 2025 class, giving Kentucky an early lead as a top overall class.
Coach Mark Pope joined the race late, after the coaching change in Lexington, and it looked like Johnson was going to wind up elsewhere. However, Pope was relentless in his pursuit, and wound up getting his guy. He might have had some unexpected help though.
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On WLAP’s Sunday Morning Sports Talk, Johnson said that he got some sound advice from Kentucky football assistant Vince Marrow, a longtime family friend.
Vince — you know, he’s family to me. He made a couple of jokes and stuff here and there early on about coming to Kentucky, but he wasn’t pressuring me or anything. He always told me to go where I feel like I can develop the most and get to the next level. He never really pressured me or anything, but Vince is family, so he just told me to keep basketball the main focus and the people around me will take care of the rest of it. He wanted me to just go somewhere where my heart was and Kentucky ended up being that place.
Johnson certainly credited Pope for getting him to commit to the Cats, but Morrow’s message to go where his heart led him may have helped.