After a summer of change, Jasper Johnson settles in as a five-star prep basketball star

Change has been the theme for Jasper Johnson in recent months.

Most Kentucky basketball fans can recall his heroic exploits in the spring, when Johnson was the driving force behind a historic postseason run for Woodford County High School.

Not only did Johnson help lead the Yellow Jackets to the UK HealthCare Boys’ Sweet 16 state basketball tournament for the first time since 1986, but once there, Woodford County reached the semifinals.

It was a showcase moment for Johnson, who cemented his status as the best basketball prospect in Kentucky in the 2025 recruiting class.

Then, he left all of this behind to try and get even better.

Johnson made the move this offseason from Woodford County to Link Academy, a relatively new prep basketball powerhouse based in Missouri that won the 2023 GEICO Nationals championship in April.

“The move from Woodford to Link Academy has really helped me a lot in my development,” Johnson told the Herald-Leader on Saturday evening at the USA Basketball junior national team minicamp.

“Definitely the level of competition, each and every day, not only in games, but practices. That was one of the big pushes for me to go to Link.”

Johnson referenced conversations with Link Academy head coach Bill Armstrong — who has more than 20 years of college basketball coaching experience — as something that helped reassure Johnson that Link was the right move for his basketball career.

And he’s already noticed improvements in his game thanks to this basketball-first environment.

Defensive intensity and off-ball effectiveness, on both ends of the floor, were two areas that Johnson specifically said he’s improved at since making the move to Link.

Just as the 6-foot-3 Johnson has taken the next step in his own basketball development, so has the national focus on him.

Johnson is ranked by the 247Sports Composite as a five-star recruit as the No. 12 player overall in the 2025 recruiting class.

A quick glance at Johnson’s social media channels reveals a strong list of high-major scholarship offers as well: Offers from North Carolina and Southern California arrived last month, and Johnson recently took visits to both Georgia Tech and West Virginia.

Baylor, Kentucky (with Orlando Antigua and John Calipari) and Missouri, among other schools, have stopped into Link Academy to visit Johnson recently.

Of course, no discussion about Johnson’s recruitment can be had without discussing his preexisting connections to UK.

Johnson’s father is Dennis Johnson, the former Harrodsburg, UK and NFL football player who currently serves as the head football coach and athletics director at Woodford County.

So while plenty of schools are interested in landing the left-handed backcourt talent, he’s more familiar with the Wildcats than most.

Johnson will be getting yet another look at the hometown school later this week: He’s on the visitor list for Big Blue Madness.

While there’s no specific timetable set, Johnson told the Herald-Leader that he soon plans to announce a list of the schools that he will be considering going forward.

“I plan on maybe committing around the end of the year, early AAU (season), after Peach Jam, I’m not sure yet,” said Johnson, who described his approach to the recruiting process as “patient.”

What will separate schools in the recruiting process for Johnson?

“I plan on being (at college) one year at most, hopefully. So going to a college where I know I can develop, go through failure and my coaching staff still trusts me,” Johnson said. “… Somewhere where I know I can make mistakes and still be able to push through and help win games.”

Jasper Johnson making early impact at Link Academy

Johnson’s move to Link Academy was based around increasing his focus on basketball and building up his skill level as best he can before moving on to the next level.

But Link is also giving Johnson a crash course in how to share the attention, and the ball, with other elite players.

This year’s Link Academy roster is stacked, in particular with backcourt players. Some of Johnson’s teammates at the guard spot include Tre Johnson (a five-star, top UK recruit in the 2024 class) and Labaron Philon (a class of 2024 Kansas commit).

All three players made the move from their respective high schools to Link Academy this offseason, which means all three are still adjusting to their new environment.

But one thing is clear: Jasper Johnson is making his presence felt with these other talented players.

When asked by the Herald-Leader who has stuck out to him so far at Link Academy, Tre Johnson — the former No. 1 player in the 2024 recruiting class who has UK in his top six schools — singled out Jasper Johnson, along with Jalen Shelley (an Arkansas commit), Aaron Rowe (a five-star prospect in the 2025 class) and the aforementioned Philon.

“They’re just all good guards,” Tre Johnson told the Herald-Leader. “So we figured it out: how to share the ball, move the ball, play with each other.”

All of this — the strong end to his Woodford County career, a breakout grassroots season playing up an age level on the Nike EYBL circuit and the move to Link — helped earn Johnson an invite to last weekend’s USA Basketball minicamp.

Johnson was joined there by class of 2026 forward Tyran Stokes (who is from Louisville but plays at Prolific Prep in California) as the only two players from Kentucky at the minicamp, which featured more than 80 players in total.

It was Johnson’s first trip to Colorado, and one he hopes to use as a springboard to continue his basketball growth.

“Definitely to show people I can compete at a high level,” Johnson said. “I feel like I’m one of the best guards in the country, regardless of class.”

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Kentucky recruit Jasper Johnson started slow at Peach Jam. It didn’t stay that way.