Consensus top-10 2025 recruit Jasper Johnson is continuing his college tour as he has two upcoming visits. Joe Tipton of On3 recently reported that Johnson will visit Alabama (June 22-23) and Illinois on June (24-25).
Consensus Top 10 Recruit Has A Couple Of Important Visits
Johnson visited his hometown school, Kentucky Wildcats, on an unofficial visit this week. The Lexington (KY) native watched the Wildcats practice and met Mark Pope on Tuesday.
“I liked it a lot. Pope gave me a message that he really is prioritizing me and he wants to coach me,” Johnson said in an appearance on KSR on Wednesday. “I really liked seeing their offense in practice, seeing a lot of new faces. They’ve got a whole new team. I’ll be very interested to see how they do this season, but I really enjoyed my visit.”
“I mean, I’ve talked to all of the coaches there. Each one has reached out to me, they’ve texted or called me individually,” Johnson continued. “Coach Pope is really putting in the effort to recruit me himself. He calls and FaceTimes me a lot. He actually came to Argentina to watch the games and see me play so to see him putting in that effort, it really means a lot. It shows a lot.”
Johnson was also at UK practice on Today.
Kentucky has been recruiting Johnson for the past two seasons, and Pope and his staff are prioritizing Johnson, per Zach Geoghegan of On3.
Who Is Jasper Johnson
Johnson has significant ties to Kentucky other than being from Lexington. His father, Dennis Johnson, played football at Kentucky in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Dennis Johnson, a 2021 All-SEC first-team selection, was drafted in the third round of the 2022 NFL by the Arizona Cardinals and spent three seasons in the league.
But Johnson’s ties to UK are even more profound than his father’s association with the Wildcats. His mother, Nyoaka, a standout basketball player in her own right, is related to Kentucky star Craig Yeast. Yeast, a wide receiver and punt returner at UK, was a fourth round of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1999 and played a couple of seasons in the NFL and the CFL.
While from Lexington, Johnson played his prep ball at Link Academy (Branson, MO) this past campaign. Johnson led Branson to a 21-8 record, which included an appearance in the Chipotle national championship semifinals.
Johnson has garnered several accolades during his prep career. He was also a Team USA U18 FIBA AmeriCup gold medal-winning squad member earlier this summer. He averaged 10.0 points and 2.7 assists in just 16 minutes a game over six appearances, making 1.3 treys and compiling shooting splits of 51.1/42.3/37.5%.
Johnson scored in double figures three times. His best game came in the gold medal contest against Argentina, where he totaled 19 on 7 of 11 shooting from the field, including 4 of 8 from deep.
Johnson is a consensus top-10 and five-star recruit. All the major recruiting services have graded him as a five-star prospect, though ESPN has him rated the highest at No.8. 247Sports and Rivals have him at No. 13 on their boards, while On3 has him as the 16th-best prospect in the class of 2025.
Johnson has a fan in ESPN’s college basketball analyst Fran Frischilla.
“The thing that stands out about him is that he scores the ball easily,” Fraschilla recently said. “I was really impressed with his outside shooting and ability to get to the basket and be very creative when he gets there. His strength is putting the ball in the basket and every team needs that kind of player.”
Johnson’s Recruiting
Johnson holds 27 offers. He previously announced a top 10 list that included Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Missouri, North Carolina, USC, and West Virginia. However, Illinois might be an addition to those 10 teams or perhaps a replacement for someone. The Illini offered Johnson a scholarship on Wednesday.
Johnson previously said Louisville, North Carolina, Alabama, Baylor, Kentucky, Auburn, and Ohio State have been recruiting him the hardest.
In addition to officially and unofficially visiting Kentucky, Johnson has also visited West Virginia, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Missouri, and Auburn. He’s also unofficially visited programs like Ohio State, Alabama, Louisville, Arkansas, and more.
Here is Johnson’s scouting report from 247Sports Adam Finkelstein:
“Jasper Johnson is a southpaw scoring guard who has spurts of extreme tough shot-making when he gets hot. He has a super soft natural touch and is very crafty around the lane with a deep bag of runners, floaters, and other types of finishes, in addition to the jumpers and step-backs he’s capable of making from the perimeter. Physically, Johnson is lean, but he’s very long with a recorded +5 wingspan. In addition to building up his body, he also needs to learn to impact the game more when the ball isn’t in his hands, or more specifically, when he’s not on one of his scoring sprees.”
