Kentucky basketball recruiting: 5-star SG Jasper Johnson’s dedication strikes Wildcats’ class as much as No. 2

Class of 2025 five-star prospect Jasper Johnson, the No. 2-ranked taking pictures guard within the nation and the No. 12 general recruit, introduced his dedication to Kentucky and new Wildcats coach Mark Pope on Thursday in a ceremony at Woodford County Excessive College in Versailles, Kentucky, on CBS Sports activities HQ and the 247Sports YouTube Channel. 

Johnson selected UK over a prolonged record of suitors that included finalists Louisville, North Carolina, Arkansas and Alabama.

Johnson is a 6-foot-4 prospect at Time beyond regulation Elite, the professional league based in 2021 that has produced the likes of Amen and Ausar Thompson, amongst others. He spent his junior season at prolific Hyperlink Academy in Missouri earlier than transferring to OTE forward of his senior season, the place he has constructed up a popularity as some of the well-rounded and versatile guards within the nation.

Here is Johnson’s scouting report from 247Sports Director of Scouting, Adam Finkelstein:

Jasper Johnson is a southpaw scoring guard who has spurts of maximum robust shot-making when he will get sizzling. He has an excellent smooth pure contact and may be very artful across the lane with a deep bag of runners, floaters, and different varieties of finishes, along with the jumpers and step-backs he is able to making from the perimeter. Bodily, Johnson is lean, however he is very lengthy with a recorded +5 wingspan. Along with build up his physique, he additionally must study to impression the sport extra when the ball is not in his fingers, or extra particularly, when he isn’t on considered one of his scoring sprees.

Johnson, who’s initially from the Bluegrass State, offers UK its second dedication from a top-25 prospect within the 2025 class – each of whom are Kentucky natives. 4-star middle prospect Malachi Moreno selected UK a number of weeks in the past and publicly pitched this week for Johnson to hitch him.

“He is a type of guys that I actually wanna play with,” Moreno mentioned of Johnson in a podcast this week. “I’ve performed towards him my complete life and now it is time we develop into teammates.”

Kentucky with the dedication will transfer from No. 13 within the 247Sports nationwide recruiting rankings to No. 2, trailing solely Iowa State. Pope and his employees might not be carried out looking large names within the 2025 cycle, both, with five-star Koa Peat and Caleb Wilson amongst a number of large names nonetheless uncommitted and contemplating the Wildcats.