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As expected, Jasper Johnson has narrowed his possible college choices to five just a few days after announcing he would play his final high school season with Overtime Elite after spending last season at Link Academy.
The former Woodford County High School standout cut his list to Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisville and North Carolina Wednesday.
What was not expected was Johnson’s announcement that he would make his college choice in late August. He had previously indicated he would make it before his senior season but not quite as early as August.
The 6-4 Johnson had a terrific season with Link Academy and followed that up with impressive play this summer. He’s a consensus top 12 player in the 2025 recruiting class and he was in Rupp Arena Tuesday night — so was Mark Pope and most of UK’s 2024-25 team — to watch La Familia play in The Basketball Tournament.
Johnson would seem to be a natural priority recruit for Pope. He’s a former high school star and his father, Dennis, the football coach/athletics director at Woodford, is a former all-SEC defensive lineman at Kentucky.
However, Alabama and North Carolina seem to have prioritized him even more. Coaches Nate Oates and Herbert Davis seldom miss a day without contacting Dennis Johnson at least once or maybe more.
Jasper Johnson, who won a gold medal with Team USA in the FIBA U18 Championships in Argentina this summer, has made official visits to Alabama, North Carolina and Kentucky. However, strong NIL offers likely have kept Arkansas and Louisville in the running for the nation’s No. 2 shooting guard in the 2025 recruiting class.
The Tar Heels will lose guard RJ Davis after this season and easily could see guards Elliot Cadeau and Ian Jackson head to the NBA after the upcoming season. That creates a huge need for a player like Johnson and North Carolina certainly would have a seven-figure NIL deal to offer him.
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In what I been reading, Pope got some ground to make up to overtake the Tar Heels which Johnson is leaning on as of now.
Well peeps, it should seem like his UK connections should be enough.
And if he’s a true “one & donner” he can get there from Lexington.
We currently have boo coon 1’s & 2’s – the other schools on the list have PG
and 2G needs. We will see how deep the DNA runs.
Johnson would be a nice get, but he still needs to get better his senior year in high school. This Summer, he shot 38% from the field and 25% from 3…those sound like Andrew Harrison numbers. His range from 3 is impressive but the 25% accuracy needs to improve. He needs to get stronger going to his right and also needs to beef up his defense against straight line drives. Those numbers would be fine with Calipari, but UNC would like to see better numbers too.
38% from the field
25% from 3
12th best player in the land ?!!
A perfect prospect for the fraud. He would get all the minutes instead of Perry (85% of 600 3’s in shooting drills) & Noah, 2 of the all-time greats in KY HS BB.
Imagine how far UK would have gone with a 25% 3-pt shooter instead of the great KY HS BB player Reed Sheppard. Reed only has the 2nd best odds to be the NBA Rookie MVP, behind 7’-5” Edey after the successful debut in the Summer League.
If you can’t shoot bette than that after playing BB every minute possible, then it won’t change much. Leave him for the fraud or anyone else.
Still living in he past
According to the Link Academy website Johnson shot 38% from the field, 37% from 3, and 88% on free throws last year. He’s a Ky kid as much as Perry or Noah. He is not a lock for the Cats so people want to run him down. Looking at Sheppard’s stats, he shot 37% from 3 in high school. He just had a breakout year at Ky. Who knows what Jasper would do? Be careful what you wish for.
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