Jasper Johnson will hold a free meet and greet in Lexington Saturday. (USA Basketball Photo)
Kentucky incoming freshmen Malachi Moreno and Jasper Johnson were two of the 33 athletes invited to participate in the USA Basketball Men’s U19 National Team training camp at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
Training camp begins June 14 with the 12-member roster expected to be announced before the team departs for the 2025 FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup in Switzerland.
“This Malachi Moreno, it seems like every day, college evaluators and NBA evaluators fall more and more in love with him,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said at his press conference earlier this month. “He just keeps getting better. We’re really excited to have him here.”
Pope called the 7-foot center from Great Crossing High School “probably the best center in all of college basketball” when he signed with Kentucky before he led his team to a state title, was named a McDonald’s All-American and was selected as Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball.
The Kentucky coach called Johnson a “superstar” and elite shooter at the same press conference. Johnson played two years at Woodford County before transferring to Link Academy in Missouri for his junior season. He played in Overtime Elite last season to further develop his skills and Pope sees him as an “elite” scorer for the Wildcats. The 6-4 Johnson also drew praise from Pope for his poise and defense.”
Johnson has won a gold medal with Team USA.
LJ Cason, Tony Duckett, Daniel Jacobsen, Morez Johnson Jr., Royce Parham, Tyrone Riley IV and Tyler Tanner all played in college last season and will be vying for spots on the team. The class of 2025 will have Johnson, Moreno, Matt Able, Mikel Brown Jr., Chris Cenac Jr., AJ Dybantsa, Hudson Greer, Isiah Harwell, Nik Khamenia, Nykolas Lewis, JJ Mandaquit, Koa Peat and Sadiq White.
Rising high school seniors invited to the tryout are Tajh Ariza, Christian Collins, Jason Crowe Jr., Caleb Gaskins, Cameron Holmes, Caleb Holt, Taylen Kinney, Brandon McCoy Jr., Jaxon Richardson, Deron Rippey Jr., Jordan Smith Jr., Tyran Stokes and Elijah Williams.
Kinney played at Newport before transferring to Overtime Elite last season and is a major UK recruiting target. So are Crowe and Stokes.
Pope will have a chance to work with all the players at the tryout since he will be a “court coach” during tryouts along with Hubert Davis of North Carolina and Nate Oats of Alabama.
The team’s head coach is Tommy Lloyd of Arizona. His assistants are Grant McCasland of Texas Tech and Micah Shrewsberry of Notre Dame.
The Americans were drawn into Group D at the 2025 FIBA U19 Men’s World Cup and will square off against Australia, France and Cameroon.
* * *
Johnson will host a “meet & greet” at Playa Bowls (3900 Fountaineblue Lane, Suite 120, Lexington, 40512) at 12:30 p.m. There is no cost for fans of any ages who want to meet Johnson.
One Response
JJ is going to be much better than what people think he will. He has been dominating so long that people kind of forgot about how great he really is as a sophomore in high school he was a eye lash away from winning the state championship. If he would have stayed his junior and senior year he might have won back to back state championships. He seen the competition in high school basketball especially not in the bigger cities like Louisville and Lexington which are both small cities isn’t going to make him any better so he started playing against all division 1 guys and completely dominated that whole scene. If you watch OTE on YouTube you will see him completely dominate. Tay Kinney is also very very talented. I think Kinney ends up signing with Kentucky with him as the point and jasper as the 2 guard we will be unstoppable. Both can shoot lights out.