How high school stops, USA Basketball helped Jasper Johnson prepare for Kentucky spotlight

Jasper Johnson isn’t like most local kids, going from small towns of London or Harlan or Eddyville or Falmouth or Richmond or Mount Washington to the big stage as a Kentucky Wildcat. The five-star guard grew up in Lexington as the son of a legacy All-SEC football talent and grandson of a KHSAA Hall of Famer who served as an assistant athletics director at UK. After starting his career at Woodford County, he transferred to Link Academy as a junior, then Overtime Elite as a senior before suiting up for his dad’s alma mater — albeit on the hardwood.

Beyond the prep route with bigger platforms and spotlights, he’s also been a USA Basketball staple, winning two gold medals representing Kentucky on the world stage. He hasn’t just been surrounded by good talent; he’s constantly put himself around the best of the best up to this point, truly letting iron sharpen iron every time he steps on the floor.

All of it was intentional, his father says.

“When Jasper went to Link (Academy) and Overtime (Elite), he got a chance to — and probably even a better example is USA Basketball, trying to have him find your find your space, find your spot,” Dennis Johnson said on WLAP’s Sunday Morning Sports Talk. “You know, trying to get in there and figure out where I can best help the team. I think he has some experience of doing that, which, I think will ultimately help him. We’ve got a lot of great guards this year, so you’ve got to find your place, right?”

It hasn’t been perfect, learning the hard way that small mistakes can not only put him on the bench, but keep him there. If he’s not contributing to winning, the talent he’s been around has been deserving of that playing time — just like he’d eventually experience at Kentucky and the NBA.

You’d rather learn to fight through that adversity now, not against SEC competition playing for the winningest tradition in college basketball or the big leagues as a pro.

“The one thing we talked about before with USA Basketball, which was evident at the (Nike) Hoop Summit — he didn’t get a lot of playing time,” Johnson said. “He came in and I think he missed two shots, they took him right back out, because they had those first five guys that wanted to play. That’s taught him to focus on, when you go into the game, you gotta be an impact player. It’s not gonna happen all the time, but it might be a three-minute stint, and it might give you another minute or two, but it might not. It might put you on the bench, so you gotta be ready for the moment.”

All high-profile players experience it at some point if they want to see their basketball dreams come true. Dennis Johnson has wanted to see his son feel that before his Kentucky career to minimize the learning curve in Lexington.

“It’s a super learning experience, and almost everybody has been through it. Any guy who’s gotten to this level has had to sit and watch and try to figure out your space, because you’ve always been a guy. I think it’s good,” he said. “I think every student-athlete at some point has to go through it, and I’d say it’s better now than later.”

The five-star freshman has put himself in a nice spot, but it’s only going to get harder from here. What happens when he goes ice cold at Rupp Arena for the first time? What happens when he strings together costly turnovers and puts himself on the bench? Those things are normal, but you have to be able to handle the pressure and platform, mentally more than anything.

The hope is that the family’s decisions up to this point have prepared him for the spotlight and potentially taken away that pressure entirely.

If he can be mentally tough, he’s gonna make it as a Wildcat — because the talent is obviously there.

“I tell Jasper all the time, ‘The mental toughness part is going to be huge for you, because you’re from here. People know you. The first game, which is going to happen, you go 1-10 (shooting), it’s going to be bad. How mentally tough can you be?'” Johnson said. “… As a football player, I was coming in with a lot of hype, but UK football is so much different than basketball, man. It’s just magnified that much more. … As a father, I definitely feel a lot of pressure, because pressure comes with the territory. He has a legacy with his grandfather, his uncle, what we’ve been able to accomplish at UK, so he doesn’t have a lot of pressure.

“He’s been able to be in those situations. That’s the reason why me and his mother sent him to Link and Overtime. Those lights have been as bright as they can be, then the Hoop Summit and USA Basketball. It’s been a great experience for him.”