Photo credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
Prime UNC Basketball Target Hears From Kentucky 'Probably Every Day'
Link Academy (Mo.) guard Jasper Johnson, No. 12 overall on the 247Sports 2025 Composite, has held a UNC basketball offer for months and even pointed out that he grew up a fan of the Tar Heels. However, he hails from Lexington, Ky., leading many to believe John Calipari's Kentucky recruiting powerhouse is the frontrunner.
It sounds like the Wildcats have made the 6-foot-4, 170-pound five-star a top priority among current high school juniors.
"[Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua] reaches out to me probably every day," Johnson, who is a candidate to reclassify to 2024 but is staying put in 2025 for now, recently noted to On3's Joe Tipton. "He wants me to come back home for my college season.
"They're planning for me to be there for nine months and then off to the NBA, and that's what I really want to do in college. I feel like if that's the best option, then it could be there. But if it's somewhere else, then it could be somewhere else."
On that note, the potential one-and-done talent, already renowned for his NBA-range 3-pointers, listed UNC among the schools he plans to check out on an official visit in the coming months. The others he mentioned to On3 are Kentucky (he was recently on an unofficial visit with the Wildcats), Southern Cal, Alabama, Auburn, and Baylor.
Thus far, Missouri and West Virginia are the only two programs that have hosted Jasper Johnson for an official visit. He hasn't named finalists or locked in dates for any of his future trips.
Johnson, a Link Academy teammate to a 2024 Tar Heel signee in four-star center James Brown, is among nine on the 2025 UNC basketball offer sheet. None of those targets have decided on a college or eliminated Hubert Davis and his staff from contention.
Stay tuned to All Tar Heels on SI.com for more UNC basketball recruiting news.
