Mark Pope said Monday he believes Jasper Johnson is "ready" for a bigger role. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Pope projected Jasper Johnson as a future “superstar” even before the freshman guard got on campus last summer.
He’s not really had a chance to live up to that expectation yet, but he may find himself in a bigger role for the Cats now that point guard Jaland Lowe is out for the season. Lowe will have surgery to repair his right shoulder, which he first dislocated in June, and then did it for the fourth time early in UK’s win over Mississippi State Saturday.
Pope has seemed to prefer using Denzel Aberdeen and Collin Chandler at point guard, mainly when Lowe has been out, but Johnson is a combo guard with the skills to play the point as well as off the ball. He has 37 assists in only 223 minutes — one assist per six minutes — in his limited play this season. Chandler has played 126 more minutes but has only 38 assists, and Aberdeen averages an assist for every eight minutes played.
Johnson is averaging 14.9 minutes per game in the 15 games he has played, but his playing time against major competition has been minimal. He did not play against Missouri in UK’s loss and got only 10 minutes against Mississippi State, even with Lowe out.
Pope said Monday that Johnson is “ready” to shine and make a “huge contribution.”
He’s had three double-figure scoring games with a career-high 22 against North Carolina Central and has six games with four or more assists. However, he has scored only 20 points total against Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Indiana, St. John’s, and Alabama.
“He’s gone through a non-conference season. He’s worked really hard every single day,” Pope said. “He’s showing on the court. He was another guy whose numbers didn’t jump out and grab you in the game (against Mississippi State), but the force and the decisiveness that he played with in the game, both on the offensive and defensive end, I was really pleased with it.
“He’s ready to go make a contribution, and we need him to. Regardless of the health of our team, we need him to be there because he brings a unique skill set. He’s improving and growing in a great way.”
Johnson has always been a player who plays a high volume of minutes but has stayed engaged with teammates and coaches, waiting for his chance to play like a five-star, top 25 recruit.
“One of the things I’ve been really proud of Jasper with is that he’s been pretty relentless. The key is — listen, the game tries to do the same thing to everybody. It tries to distract you from the only thing that really matters, which is getting better every day,” the Kentucky coach said.
“The truth is, every single day you get distracted by anything, by wins and losses or by minutes or points or praise or accolades or criticism, right? Every minute that you get distracted is a minute that you’re not growing, and that you’re falling behind, and that you don’t have the opportunity to actually put yourself in a position to win.
“I’ve been proud of Jasper. This has been a little bit of a zig-zag road for him, like it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be for a freshman, but he’s done a really solid job about staying focused on getting better.”
Now, according to what Pope said Monday, Johnson is going to get his chance to show what he has learned.
“He clearly has a huge ceiling. He’s grown a lot this season, so he’s going to get an increased chance to have a massive impact on this team. We’re excited about it,” Pope said. “He’s a special young man, a gifted, talented player, and we’re going to get to see him grow in front of the whole world.”
3 Responses
Like most of them on this team, he just needs to improve on defense more than anywhere else.
He likes lobbing to Moreno. That's a great combo that we might get a couple of years out of.
He will need to play more minutes as Aberdeen's relief at the point or as his replacement if Aberdeen goes into his hero ball mode again.
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