Tag: Jasper Johnson

Jasper Johnson is helping to recruit another high-profile Kentucky target

Kentucky recruit Jasper Johnson is trying to help lure another top recruit to Lexington.

Recruiting is an often a team effort, and one that Kentucky basketball recruit Jasper Johnson is taking to heart. He is making an effort to recruit another high profile recruit: Caleb Wilson.

Wilson is a five-star power forward recruit out of Atlanta, Georgia. Per On3’s recruiting metric, the 6’9″ wing has a 99.12 overall grade and is consensus five-star prospect. He’s the fifth-ranked player overall in the 2025 recruiting class.

While Wilson is still unsigned,  On3 projects that he’s leaning towards Kentucky, and maybe Johnson had a bit to do with that.

Related: Kentucky stays at number nine in coaches poll

“I’ve been trying to talk to him, try and recruit him, pick his brain on where he’s going, but I know he’ll make the best decision for himself,” Johnson said.

Hailing from Lexington, Johnson is a five-star recruit himself. The shooting guard committed to the Wildcats back in September over Alabama and North Carolina, with the Tar Heels being the other favorite to land Wilson.

“Coach Pope, I feel like he made a big commitment, took a lot of time and spoke a lot with me, so I feel like the trust was there between me and him and the coaching staff,” said Johnson at his own commitment. “Being from Lexington, Kentucky, I feel like that was an easy decision. I feel like I’m K.Y. till I die.”

Kentucky recruit Jasper Johnson was named top player at the Wootten 150 camp

Kentucky basketball recruit Jasper Johnson was named the top player at the Wootten 150 camp.

Kentucky basketball has jumped out to a nice start in recruiting for the 2025 class. Four star center Malachi Moreno was the first to commit, followed by five star rated Jasper Johnson.

Both players are top recruits in the 2025 class, and are hopefully the first pieces in a top recruiting class. Coach Mark Pope is working hard to add several other elite players, including some of the top guys.

Related: Kentucky offers class of 2026 guard Ikenna Alozie

Johnson is already in the fold, but he has been showing what he can do. He recently was at the Wootten 150 camp, which was in Las Vegas, and only invited players could attend. Once there, the future Wildcat put on a show, and was named the top player at the camp.

There is no doubting that Johnson is talented, and he will be one of the building blocks for Pope and his staff. His performance at the Wootten 150 camp is just further proof of how good he can be.

A Kentucky football coach may have helped Jasper Johnson choose the Wildcats

Kentucky basketball landed recruit Jasper Johnson, and may have gotten some help from a football assistant.

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.

Related: Tounde Yessoufou puts Kentucky in his final six

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.

Kentucky basketball gets huge commitment, lands elite five-star guard Jasper Johnson

5-star guard Jasper Johnson officially commits to Kentucky Basketball!

Five-star guard Jasper Johnson officially announced his intention to play for Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats Thursday.

Johnson made the announcement in a live stream carried by 247Sports and CBS Sports. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Atlanta’s Overtime Elite chose Kentucky over offers from Alabama and North Carolina. He is ranked the No. 12 player in the class of 2025 by both On3 and 247Sports.

“Coach Pope, I feel like he made a big commitment, took a lot of time and spoke a lot with me, so I feel like the trust was there between me and him and the coaching staff,” Johnson said at the live event where he announced his commitment. “Being from Lexington, Kentucky, I feel like that was an easy decision. I feel like I’m K.Y. till I die.”

With his commitment, Johnson becomes the second player in the 2025 recruiting class to commit to the Wildcats. Malachi Moreno, a four-star center from Great Crossing High School in Georgetown (Ky.), committed to Kentucky back on Aug. 16.

Johnson is the son of former Kentucky football player Dennis Johnson, a defensive end who played for the Wildcats from 1998-2001 and was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the 2002 NFL Draft.

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5-star shooting guard commits to SEC program over Alabama, others

The five-star is going to play elsewhere in the SEC.

Jasper Johnson, one of the Alabama Crimson Tide’s top basketball targets in the 2025 recruiting class, officially made a decision as to where he will play college basketball Thursday afternoon, as the highly-touted guard officially committed to the Kentucky Wildcats.

Johnson made the decision to play for the Wildcats over a list of finalists that also included the Crimson Tide, Arkansas Razorbacks, Louisville Cardinals, and North Carolina Tar Heels.

One of the top players in the 2025 class, Johnson is considered as the nation’s No. 10 overall prospect according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, as well as the No. 2 shooting guard nationally. Johnson also ranks as the No. 3 player in the state of Georgia where he plays at Overtime Elite.

A five-star prospect, Johnson had previously been one of the Crimson Tide’s top targets in the 2025 cycle, but now heads to play for another SEC foe.

https://twitter.com/TiptonEdits/status/1831764071357743563

With the commitment of Johnson to Kentucky, Alabama’s 2025 class still sits with no current commitments.

UNC recruit announces commitment to blue-blood rival

The five-star guard, who had UNC in his final five, announced his decision today.

Class of 2025 recruit Jasper Johnson was one of the top that UNC basketball had targeted in the class. Not only was he a top target, Johnson also had UNC in his sights as well naming them to his final five schools.

However, as his decision day approached, the crystal ball started aiming in a way opposite the Tar Heels’ direction. Today, Johnson made the decision official in a verbal announcement with his family and in front of his school to commit to play at the University of Kentucky.

He will join his friend, Malachi Moreno, and head to his home state of Kentucky.

This continues to add to the recruiting woes that UNC is experiencing in this 2025 class. However, there is still hope with a chance at the No. 1 overall recruit of the class in AJ Dybantsa.

UNC will now shift its recruiting focus to those players where they are still in the running. The Heels have yet to get a verbal commitment from anyone in the Class of 2025, and fans are still wondering who that first one will be.

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Tar Heels behind in race for a big five-star recruit

The UNC basketball program is on the outside looking in for a big five-star recruit.

North Carolina recruiting target Jasper Johnson is set to make his decision in a few days, ending his recruitment. The shooting guard has a total of 22 offers in his recruitment and is down to a final five.

But this recruitment has really been between three teams for a few months now. Going into decision day, the top three teams in the recruitment are Kentucky, Alabama, and North Carolina, battling it out to land him.

And it feels like a blue blood program is the clear favorite for Thursday’s decision.

Rivals reporter Rob Cassidy ranked the contenders to land Johnson, and at the top of the list he has the Kentucky Wildcats as the favorites. Behind them, he has Alabama and then in third North Carolina:

The last team in Johnson’s final six with any semblance of realistic chance to land the five-star guard, North Carolina was once seen as a serious threat to extract Johnson from the Bluegrass State. Head coach Hubert Davis and staff got Johnson on campus for multiple visits and hosted him for an official on Feb. 4 for a rivalry game with Duke.

The Tar Heels are not likely to be the pick, but it’s impossible to rule them out completely.

Johnson has been a priority recruit for North Carolina in this process but it’s tough to tell if they were ever really in the lead at any point. It was Alabama that was rumored to be the favorite but recently, Kentucky has pulled ahead and it helped that four-star center Malachi Moreno was actively recruiting him.

It’s unlikely that UNC will land Johnson and now, they turn their attention to other targets as they seek their first commitment in the 2025 class still.

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Jasper Johnson has set his official college commitment date

Guard Jasper Johnson will make his commitment on September 5th.

On Monday, Overtime Elite (GA) senior guard Jasper Johnson officially locked in a date for his announcement according to On3’s Joe Tipton

Johnson will reveal his college choice next month on September 5th it’s between Arkansas, Louisville, Kentucky, North Carolina and Alabama.

He will announce that decision at his former stomping grounds, Woodford County High School, located less than 15 miles from Kentucky’s Rupp Arena in Lexington.

Johnson, is a 6-foot-4 combo guard and the No. 12 overall recruit in the 2025 class by 247 Sports Composite.

This is what Johnson had to say about Kentucky basketball and Mark Pope:

Coach Pope gives me the good message of being the hometown kid. He is consistent with me. He tells me what he wants me to do and how I can fit in his offense. He really wants to coach me and he wants to start his 2025 recruiting class with me. I met the staff and got to see them practice, so it was good. He likes to take three (point shots) in the offense and he wants me to come in and score the ball.

Big Blue Nation will be closely, and excitedly, awaiting this announcement.

Kentucky basketball is predicted to land a five-star 2025 recruit

Kentucky basketball has received a prediction to land 2025 top 10 player Jasper Johnson.

The recruitment of Jasper Johnson by Kentucky basketball has been an epic journey that Tolkien couldn’t have written better. The story has twists and turns, and maybe now, a surprise ending.

Johnson was originally offered a scholarship by Kentucky by John Calipari over a year ago. It was nearly a foregone conclusion that he would be a Wildcat, and he even took a few more visits to Lexington.

Then, earlier this year, Coach Cal left Kentucky for Arkansas and Mark Pope was hired. Pope had to start the recruitment process all over again, and teams like Alabama and North Carolina pulled ahead according to analysts.

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However, recently things appear to have swung again. On Thursday, the Wildcats gained a prediction to land the five-star guard by 247sports.

Johnson is ranked as a top 10 player in the class, and has ties to the Wildcats. His dad played football for Kentucky, and fans hoped that would influence his decision.

A decision is set to be made next week by Johnson, and the end of his recruiting tale is in sight. Big Blue Nation is hoping for a happy ending.

Former UNC target attempting to recruit Jasper Johnson in final days

UK-commit Malachi Moreno attempted to sweet-talk Jasper Johnson into joining the blue-blood rival.

Over the past couple of weeks, UNC basketball has lost several four or five-star recruits to blue-blood rivals. One of those lost recruits was Malachi Moreno, one of the top center recruits in the class.

His hometown of Kentucky and their new coach were able to lure him in and away from North Carolina. What seemed like just days after that announcement, fellow star, Jasper Johnson, announced that his decision would come down next week.

The 6-foot-4, five-star guard has been dominant in high school, and it has shown from analysts’ views of him. 247sports Adam Finkelstein had this to say about the scoring ability of the Overtime Elite guard.

He has a super soft natural touch and is very crafty around the lane with a deep bag of runners, floaters, and other types of finishes, in addition to the jumpers and step-backs he’s capable of making from the perimeter.

While he is playing ball in Georgia right now, Johnson’s hometown is in Versailles, Kentucky. On top of that, Moreno has outspokenly tried to recruit Johnson to the Wildcats himself.

The cards might be stacked against UNC basketball, but we will see next week where the five-star wants to take his talents.

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