New Kentucky commit Jasper Johnson is "KY 'til I die"

The North Carolinas and Alabamas of the world tried their very best to pull a Bluegrass boy out of his home state, but Jasper Johnson ultimately knew he wanted to stay home.

Johnson, the No. 12 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class by the On3 Industry Ranking, committed to Kentucky on Thursday. A native of Lexington who grew up in nearby Versailles, Johnson held his ceremony at Woodford County — the same high school he attended before transferring to prep school ahead of his junior season. Friends, family, and former classmates were all in attendance — it felt like a reunion.

There was no other place he wanted to make the biggest announcement of his life at.

“Being from Lexington, Kentucky, I feel like that was an easy decision right there,” Johnson told Travis Branham of 247Sports. “I feel like I’m KY ’til I die.“

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The decision for Johnson to hold his commitment ceremony at Woodford County was a bit of a giveaway as to which school he was going to choose. The Paul Miller Ford and Morgan & Morgan ads scattered throughout the gym spoiled some of the surprise, too.

But even without those factors, just consider that Johnson’s dad and uncle both played football at Kentucky; that his late grandfather was a local legend and was an administrator for UK; and that his mom is a member of the Yeast family. When Johnson says he’s UK until he dies, it’s not hyperbole — he was born in a Kentucky household, raised by a Kentucky family, and surrounded by Kentucky basketball nearly all his life.

In the end, this is where he wanted to be.

“He wanted to be a Wildcat,” Dennis Johnson, Jasper’s dad, told KSR. “And deep down in his heart, he bleeds blue.”

Next season, he’ll get to wear that blue in front of the Big Blue Nation at Rupp Arena, a gym where he’s spent plenty of time since he was a little boy. There’s extra pressure that comes with being a Kentucky kid playing at Kentucky (just ask Reed Sheppard, Travis Perry, Trent Noah, and soon Malachi Moreno), but that’s part of the reason he chose the Wildcats. This is the pressure talented hoopers want, because the benefits aren’t the same anywhere else.

After all, what could be better than succeeding at the school where your family did the same thing?

“Main goal is hopefully hang a banner,” Johnson said. “That’s what I really want to do. Just create excitement. Bluegrass kid, being able to play for his hometown. That’s a great feeling.“

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