Kentucky won an all-important recruiting battle on Thursday, when five-star guard Jasper Johnson chose the Wildcats over places such as North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas and Louisville. The Lexington-based Johnson’s decision to stay home for college is an absolutely massive victory for UK head coach Mark Pope, who now has a pair of local stars in the fold for 2025. Below, Rivals’ Rob Cassidy explores what Kentucky is getting in Johnson as well as what his commitment means for a program in transition.

A left-handed guard whose defining trait is his scoring ability, Johnson’s calling cards is his otherworldly knack for at-the-rim finishing and his ability to take over games when he’s going well. He’s a true three-level scorer with a game that seems predicated on confidence. Johnson is streaky as a shooter and can sometimes shut down when he gets off to a particularly cold start. That said, when he’s hot, there are few players in the country that are more dangerous. The 6-foot-4 guard gets downhill quickly and has a deep bag that includes floaters, fadeaways and long-range sniping. He has a good enough handle to play the point but could use some polish as a facilitator if he hopes to be capable of playing both guard sports at UK. Johnson has added significant muscle over the last year and has shown some flashes as an engaged and pesky perimeter defender. His frame and motor give potential as a positional rebounder, but his impact on the boards seems to come and go from game to game.

It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of what Mark Pope has done locally in the nearly five months since taking the Kentucky gig. Pope has rallied the fan base and obviously eased the minds of local prospects, as he has now gone 2-for-2 in a pair of high-profile recruiting battles that unfolded in his backyard. Landing Johnson and fellow Lexington-area resident Malachi Moreno didn’t happen by accident and are indicators that confidence in the Kentucky brand has remained strong through a coaching change that sometimes looked rocky. Obviously, what takes place on the floor in the year ahead will be what determines the trajectory of the program, Pope continues to provide reasons for his fan base to be optimistic as he speeds toward his debut.