Jasper Johnson Was Once Again the Spark UK Needed

Jasper Johnson (Vicky Graff Photo)

Once Jasper Johnson signed with Kentucky to become Mark Pope’s highest rated high school signee, the UK coach immediately placed huge expectations on Johnson.

When Johnson did not open the season as a starter or got only limited minutes in many games, especially against UK’s best opponents, the doubters came out.

However, in two of UK’s last three games the 6-foot-5 freshman guard has been the spark UK needed after sluggish offensive play in the first half to secure a win. He did it a week ago at Tennessee with 12 points in the first half and did it again Saturday in Rupp Arena when he had eight first-half points in a win over Ole Miss.

“It’s only a matter of time for Jasper. He’s so confident. It’s just a matter of who is messing with him that day. He came in, and really was the spark for us,” said senior Otega Oweh who had 20 of his 23 points in the second half of the 72-67 win.

Johnson had a magical 94-second stretch after coming into the game.

— He banked in a 3-pointer with 8:56 left in the half.

— He banked in a jumper in the paint with 7:54 left.

— He got out on the fast break and hit a 3 at 7:22.

“It was good just staying ready, still being consistent with my work,” Johnson said about his scoring spree. “I know I haven’t really played much in some games but always being ready for the game. My teammates are all uplifting me, telling me to be aggressive when I get in the game.”

Pope said he was not surprised by Johnson’s heroics — which UK needs more and more with guards Jaland Lowe and Kam Williams out with injuries.

“That’s who Jasper Johnson is. We keep saying, he’s coming. And he’s getting better and better and better.  Sometimes we get … sometimes I guess it’s what we have to do as fans.  We have to make a permanent evaluation on something in a moment,” Pope said. “It’s fun sometimes to see commentary, for us especially last month.  To see the commentary on the first half of our games and the second half.  

“Because as a fan, whatever just happened right now is like eternal. You make all of your judgments based on what happened right now and as coaches, we have this beautiful opportunity to chart the growth and actually that’s what I love about this game and Jasper is in it, man.  I’m so proud of him.  

“I keep saying it every single game. He’s playing more and more and playing better and better and better and getting more and more confident.  He’s making some mistakes, but he’s learning from them and he’s a really talented player and he’s on his way.”

Pope couldn’t resist responding to those who had been critical of Johnson’s play and the way he has used his freshman guard.

“You know, Shai Gilgeous Alexander didn’t start his first 10 games of his freshman season. He actually turned out to be a really good player,” Pope said.

Gilgeous-Alexander was the backup point guard to Quade Greene for the first half of the season before becoming the starter. Now he’s the reigning NBA Player of the Year and won a NBA title last season.

“Shame on those people that by game seven said, ‘He’s no good,’ because they were wrong. Jasper has got a huge future in this game.”

Johnson is averaging only 14.4 minutes per game. He is hitting 39.3 percent (22 of 56) from 3-point range and 89.5 percent (17 of 19) at the foul line. He’s averaging 6.7 points, 2.1 assists and 1.5 rebounds per game.

While it’s obvious he would like to be playing more and have had a bigger role, he’s never let that impact his demeanor on or off the court. He admits being in and out of the playing rotation is hard because he’s never had to do that, but he also knows that is out of his control.

“It happens to people at the next level (NBA). So, I mean, it’s good that I’m getting the experience now, but I’m always staying prepared, being consistent in my workouts. Whenever I get in the game, just do what I can to impact the team,” he said.

Kentucky has now won five straight SEC games going into games next week at Vanderbilt and Arkansas. Johnson believes the players are all “buying in” to what coach Mark Pope wants and what they have to do to compensate for injuries to Lowe, Williams and Jayden Quaintance, who has not played during the five-game win streak.

“Even though guys are injured, they’re still all being very vocal for us and helping us on the sidelines,” Johnson said. “We talked to them in the locker room after the game, and they’re always positive and happy that we got the win. So everybody’s starting to buy in.

“We have great guys on the team. It can be anybody’s night, so just doing whatever I can to impact the game whether that’s scoring, passing, playing good defense, just doing whatever I can to impact everyone.”

ESPN analyst Dennis Scott expects Johnson will get more chances to do what he did against Tennessee and Ole Miss.

“You see the first one (shot) go down and it is like throwing a rock in the ocean. Don’t care who is guarding you because you get it going like he did and can,” Smith said. “If gets more opportunities, Jasper will take full advantage of it and be the spark like he was today.”