There was a lot of noise in Jasper Johnson’s recruitment. The UK commit explains the truth.

There was one constant in the recruitment of five-star class of 2025 guard Jasper Johnson.

Noise.

The 6-foot-4, 178-pound Central Kentucky native made his college commitment earlier this month, picking Kentucky from a group of finalists that also included Alabama and North Carolina during an event at Woodford County High School in Versailles, where Johnson began his high school career.

But the lead-up to that decision was anything but straightforward, even by modern recruiting standards.

Johnson began his prep career at Woodford County, where his father Dennis Johnson — a former Harrodsburg, UK and NFL football player — currently serves as the head football coach and athletics director. Jasper Johnson then spent his junior season at Link Academy, a Missouri prep school bursting with five-star talent.

Now, Johnson is at the Atlanta-based Overtime Elite (OTE) program.

“I feel good about (my commitment). I know it was a long journey, a lot of different schools recruited me, and it really came down to the wire, at the end of the decision,” Johnson told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday following OTE’s annual fall combine, which took place in front of around 90 college coaches and NBA scouts, along with media members.

“I’m very happy that I’m committed to the University of Kentucky.”

From rumors about the NIL package required to land Johnson, to navigating the seismic development of UK’s offseason coaching change from John Calipari to Mark Pope, there were plenty of twists and turns in the recruitment of Johnson, who is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 14 overall prospect in the 2025 class.

The end result — a Central Kentucky native and UK legacy recruit opting to play basketball for the Wildcats — seems routine.

The process of getting there was not.

Now, secure in both his college choice and development plan at OTE, Johnson can look back on all that’s unfolded over the last few years. What has he learned about himself during the recruiting process?

“Just really to be patient,” Johnson said. “Really just relying on my faith and my family. Talking to them about it. Praying. And just being patient with my decision. (My decision) really just came down to where my heart was, and I feel like it was at Kentucky.”

Jasper Johnson reflects on college recruitment, UK’s efforts

Kentucky basketball fans became familiar with Johnson early in his recruitment, and not just because he’s part of perhaps the most famous family in UK athletics history.

As a sophomore, Johnson led Woodford County to its first Sweet 16 state basketball tournament appearance since 1986. The Yellow Jackets made it all the way to the state semifinals in 2023 powered by Johnson, who averaged 20.1 points per game during the 2022-23 season.

This confirmed Johnson’s five-star status as a recruit and put him in a place where just about every major school was pursuing him.

The majority of Johnson’s recruitment by the hometown Wildcats came when Calipari and his coaching staff were in place. This included a strong UK presence when Johnson came back to Versailles in January for a homecoming game with Link Academy. Johnson scored 37 points in front of Calipari and last season’s UK team.

Several major events in Johnson’s UK recruitment — from visiting for Big Blue Madness to his February official visit — came with Calipari at the helm and during a time when Johnson was still sorting through a long list of college offers.

Johnson specifically said he was close with Calipari and ex-UK assistants Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman during that period of his recruitment.

“They were still in contact with me, before the change. They were telling me they were probably going to make the move,” Johnson said. “Just having a question mark on who the new staff was going to be at Kentucky. As a little kid, I always had the thought of playing for the University of Kentucky. And then with the coaching change, not knowing who was going to be there, it was something that was big and it impacted my decision.”

Pope was hired by Kentucky on April 12 to replace Calipari after he left for conference-rival Arkansas.

Just five months later, Pope has landed a pair of top-25 prospects in the 2025 class with Johnson joining in-state center Malachi Moreno.

How’d he do it? Let’s start with the people who are now alongside Pope as part of UK’s new coaching staff.

Assistant coach Jason Hart previously recruited Johnson when Hart led the NBA’s now-shuttered G League Ignite team. Associate head coach Alvin Brooks III, known as a recruiting wizard, previously recruited Johnson during Brooks’ most recent coaching stop at Baylor.

“Seeing that (Pope) had some familiar faces on campus with him, on staff, it helped me,” Johnson said.

This laid the ground work for several key meetings this summer that included Johnson and his family, Pope and the rest of the UK basketball coaching staff. These visits got Johnson familiar with this new era of Kentucky basketball, while also reassuring him of the direction his hometown school was heading.

“Just telling me that (Pope) is going all in on me, that I’m the number one priority in (the 2025) class,” Johnson said. “… It meant a lot to me that he was putting all that trust into me.”

Jasper Johnson discusses role of NIL in college recruitment

NIL-related discourse was a prominent part of Johnson’s recruitment.

With his college decision ultimately coming down to Alabama, North Carolina and UK, Johnson was choosing between a trio of deep-pocketed programs.

While both Johnson and his father have downplayed the role of NIL in Johnson’s decision to pick UK, it’s hard to believe that Kentucky’s ability to put together a substantial NIL package wasn’t a factor in Johnson’s decision-making process.

Prior to Johnson’s commitment to the Cats, Rivals basketball analyst David Sisk told the Herald-Leader that UK’s NIL offer to Johnson was “probably a big issue” in Johnson going from an Alabama lean to an eventual UK commit.

“I didn’t really look into the NIL side of it. My agent and my parents really handled all that,” Johnson said when asked by the Herald-Leader about the role NIL played in his commitment.

“They really didn’t tell me that much about any numbers. They just told me to pray on it and wherever my heart was, just staying on that and be committed. ‘It’s your choice.’ So that’s what I did.”

When Johnson committed to the Wildcats during that ceremony inside the Woodford County gym, it was an NIL-laden affair.

Johnson wore a T-shirt promoting national law firm Morgan & Morgan, which has multiple offices and advertises heavily in Kentucky. The law firm — along with Paul Miller Motor Company, Court XIV (a “basketball solutions” company that offers NIL consulting and representation, among other services) and Johnson’s own logo — was plastered on a backdrop for the commitment ceremony.

When it came time for Johnson to commit, he did so by pretending to order a delivery from Donatos Pizza, the same company that was promoted in last season’s viral Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard commercial.

The two pizza boxes that were “delivered” to Johnson included his father’s old UK basketball and football jerseys, with the former being used by Johnson to signal his Kentucky commitment.

“My agent Nate Conley (the CEO and founder of Court XIV), he had a couple plans to make my commitment as big as possible,” Johnson said. “I know it was a special day and a special moment that he wanted to (make) the most fulfilling for me. Seeing that he did those, with a couple sponsors and different brands and stuff like that, it was good. It was fun.”

Jasper Johnson looks forward to Overtime Elite season

Only months remain before Johnson returns to his home state for what is expected to be a one-and-done college season at UK. Johnson is already projected as a first-round selection in the 2026 NBA draft.

But first comes several months of development at OTE.

What is the message from Pope and the UK coaching staff to Johnson as he continues his college prep, now with the end destination known?

“Coach Pope always tells me I’m a dynamic scorer. So, really just him trying to use me as many ways as possible to create for myself or to create for others,” Johnson said. “He knows I’m a dynamic offensive player, and just working on my defense. … Get stronger, work on my decision-making and making different reads.”

“It’s about making sure that we’re tapping into the things that (Pope) wants and how they’re going to play (Johnson) there,” added Corey Frazier, Johnson’s coach at OTE and someone who has been in communication with Pope as recently as Monday. “We’re taking notes, writing it down, so that we can make him aware of what that’s going to look like, but more importantly, have (Johnson) prepared when he gets there.”

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