Recruiting Roundup: Latest on AJ Johnson, timeline for DJ Wagner

In this week’s Recruiting Roundup, Rivals.com basketball recruiting analyst Travis Graf discusses the top options for five-star guard AJ Johnson and a rumored timeline for five-star DJ Wagner’s commitment.

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2023 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position

2024 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team

2025 Rankings: Top 40

Transfer Portal: Latest news

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Five-star guard AJ Johnson is the third-highest ranked uncommitted prospect left in the 2023 class. Things have been quiet in recent weeks after he had to cancel his official visit to Louisville due to an illness in the family, but here’s where I believe things stand at this time. As of today, Texas can be seen as the leader among the college options. Chris Beard has done a great job of recruiting him and has put the Longhorns in a good spot, but work still needs to be done as Johnson and the people around him would like to see Texas play with more pace this season.

It will be very interesting to see if Johnson reschedules his Louisville visit or adds any other official visits to programs that may have been in the background up until this point. Another significant route for Johnson would be to pursue pro options, and I believe those will be in play until the very end — G-League Ignite and overseas options specifically.

There’s been rumored commitment timelines for DJ Wagner come and go over the last few months, so it’s probably important to not take any of them as gospel. However, the current timeline being thrown around is for him to commit within the next week and sign during the Early Signing Period. If it plays out this way, it’s hard to imagine that he ends up anywhere other than Kentucky. If he makes it through the early period without committing to a school, Kentucky should still be seen as the favorite, but that would surely raise a lot of questions.