Mark Pope beats out Alabama and North Carolina for an elite five-star guard

Mark Pope is silencing those who said he can't recruit.

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

The second newly hired Kentucky Coach Mark Pope took the job one of the first players he targeted in the 2025 recruiting class was five-star guard Jasper Johnson. The 6'4 guard is a perfect fit for Coach Pope's system as he is a knockdown shooter and can make some really tough shots.

For a while, it looked like Johnson was Alabama bound, but Coach Pope and his staff were able to get back in the race and eventually get the job done landing Johnson. The sharpshooting guard chose the Wildcats over Alabama and North Carolina. Knowing Johnson is from just outside of Lexington in Woodford County, it would have been painful to watch him play for another school, especially in the SEC. Johnson's father also played football at Kentucky which would have made losing him even tougher. But there is no need for Big Blue Nation to worry about this any longer, as Johnson is a Wildcat.

Johnson is going to be a star in Lexington, and now he has teamed up with another in-state recruit, Malachi Moreno, giving the Wildcats two elite 2025 commits. Recruiting starts in state and Coach Pope has knocked that out of the park early into his time as Kentucky's head coach.

Let's take a look at the scouting report on Johnson from Adam Finkelstein of 247Sports.

"Johnson is a southpaw scoring guard with solid positional size at 6-foot-4, a long 6-foot-8-inch wingspan, and a still lean frame. He’s smooth, slippery, and has extremely soft natural touch in all aspects of his individual offense. He’s a shot-maker first and foremost with a high-arching ball and great rotation. He’s capable of making some very tough shots off the catch and the dribble, including deep step-backs, and will also have a ton of gravity as a floor-spacing threat. He made 41% of his threes during his junior year at Link Academy and while that number decreased to 28% during the recent EYBL season, that was more a reflection of his shot-selection, with close to 8 attempts per game. He’s very crafty in the mid-range area, with a deep bag of runners, floaters, and wrong-footed finishes. He's capable of making some plays off the bounce and being a secondary pick-and-roll threat, but often angled off the line of his drive because of his lack of physical strength. He can similarly show some legit bounce in the open court, but rarely among bodies at this point. He can also get lackadaisical with his decision-making and motor at times, leading to some inefficient metrics (38% FG and 3.4 assists vs. 3.8 turnovers in EYBL). When Johnson gets going, he can be a microwave type scorer who can get buckets in bunches. The key for him, in addition to building up his body, is being able to impact the game when the ball isn’t in his hands or he’s not in the midst of a scoring outburst."

- Adam Finkelstein on Jasper Johnson

Where do you want to see 5-star Jasper Johnson commit to? Tomorrow he’s deciding between Kentucky, Alabama, UNC, Arkansas and Louisville @BruhJasperJ pic.twitter.com/W5J10fINlq

— Courtside Films (@CourtsideFilms) September 4, 2024