A current Kentucky player has a message for one of the Wildcats top 2025 targets

Mark Pope has to land this elite player in the 2025 class.

Team Thad’s Jasper Johnson (2) dunks the ball on a fast break during a game against Team Bradley Beal Elite during the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League session one on Friday, April 26, 2024 at the Memphis Sports & Event Center in Memphis, Tenn. / Stu Boyd II-The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK

Mark Pope and the Kentucky coaching staff have yet to land a recruit in the 2025 class, but they are in the mix with a few elite recruits who are close to making a decision.

One of those recruits is five-star guard Jasper Johnson, who has a ton of ties to Kentucky. Johnson's dad played football at Kentucky, and the elite guard grew up just half an hour away from Rupp Arena.

Coach Pope and the current Kentucky players badly want Johnson to be a Wildcat. Kentucky point guard Lamont Butler was recently on Instagram live and said, "Jasper (Johnson) commit to UK."

Johnson is a perfect fit for Coach Pope's system thanks to his ability to shoot the basketball. The 6'4 guard is close to a decision, and it seems to be between Kentucky, North Carolina, and Alabama.

This recruitment is going to come down to the wire, but the Wildcats are still in the race to land a top-ten player in the 2025 class.

Lamont Butler tells in-state recruit Jasper Johnson to commit to Mark Pope and the Wildcats recently on an Instagram Live 📲👀🐾 pic.twitter.com/FhnGnjfFLo

— Kentucky Hoops (@kentuckyhoopsig) August 7, 2024

Here is the scouting report on Johnson from Adam Finkelstein of 247Sports, "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."