Woodford County's own Jasper Johnson making a name for himself at Peach Jam

By now, you’ve probably heard of class of 2025 point guard Jasper Johnson. His father, Dennis Johnson, was a star defensive end for the Kentucky football program in the late 90s and early 2000s and is now the head football coach for the Woodford County Yellow Jackets. Dennis wound up as a third-round NFL Draft selection and played a few years in the league before turning to coaching.

But Jasper has a chance to be an even better athlete than dad in his respective sport. Just a rising high school junior, the 6-foot-2 phenom is beginning to make a name for himself on the national stage. Jasper Johnson is considered the No. 17 overall player in the country from the 2025 class according to the On3 Industry Ranking and holds offers from many of the country’s top programs, the Kentucky Wildcats among them.

Johnson hails from Versailles, KY, and played his first two seasons of high school ball at Woodford County. But as his stock continued to rise and his talent level increased, moving to more a challenging environment was the right call. Johnson recently transferred to basketball powerhouse prep school Link Academy in Missouri and will suit up for them this fall.

But right now, in early July, Johnson is already showcasing just how special of a prospect he can be. Playing up a year in the Nike EYBL circuit for Team Thad (U17), the Bluegrass native has put together an excellent run this AAU season. Coming into the Peach Jam Tournament, the biggest grassroots event of the year which began earlier this week, Johnson has been impressive.

Through 16 games for Team Thad, Johnson averaged 12.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per outing on a shooting split of 51.0/40.3/83.3. Team Thad finished posted a record of 13-3 during that stretch with Johnson running the show. Although he’s had an up-and-down stretch so far at Peach Jam, he turned plenty of heads on Thursday afternoon in a high-profile matchup against five-star small forward Karter Knox (who also holds a Kentucky offer) and the Florida Rebels.

In that contest, Johnson was nothing short of special. He finished with 24 points (in 25 minutes) and six rebounds while shooting 10-16 from the field, finishing multiple acrobatic looks along the way. But none were more impressive than the highlight play that landed him on the official NBA Twitter account’s page, where he sauced up his defender and finished it with a filthy lefty scoop layup off the glass.

This dribble combo by Jasper Johnson 🔥

Peach Jam live on the NBA App: https://t.co/ZqXBMFs2OF pic.twitter.com/4lADOw8cee

— NBA (@NBA) July 6, 2023

The above move came against another five-star prospect in small forward Liam McNeeley, a top-10 recruit in the class of 2024. It also came in front of a couple of Kentucky staff members, head coach John Calipari and assistant Chin Coleman. That wasn’t the only highlight play from Johnson throughout the contest, but it was certainly his nastiest. He was in takeover mode for most of the game, although Team Thad came up just short in an 86-80 loss.

Putting that aside, the fact that Johnson — a homegrown product from right outside of Lexington — is making waves online is nothing to scoff at. How many people from the state of Kentucky can say they’ve had their highlight tweeted out by the official NBA account? Our guess is Johnson would be the first.