Jasper Johnson Ready to Honor His Grandfather's Spirit, Continue Family Legacy at Kentucky

It was the day after Jasper Johnson had won a gold medal with Team USA in the FIBA World Cup. The five-star guard was still in Switzerland, waiting to fly home with his family to join his teammates at summer workouts ahead of his freshman season at Kentucky. There was so much for the 19-year-old to celebrate and look forward to, but all Jasper could think about was the one man who couldn’t be there. He picked up his phone.

“Granddaddy, [I] woke up a gold medalist,” Jasper wrote on social media. “Thank you for all you taught me.” 

Alvis Johnson was the patriarch of the Johnson family. If you’re too young to know that name, you may know his sons, Dennis and Derrick, who spun legends playing for their father at Harrodsburg High School before terrorizing offenses on Kentucky’s defensive line in the late 1990s. You’ve probably also heard of Craig Yeast, another Kentucky Football great who is a cousin of Nyoka, Jasper’s mother. The Johnson family name is synonymous with greatness in Kentucky; when it comes to generational stories, few can compare. Jasper has the potential to write the most compelling chapter yet — and he’s dedicating it to Alvis.

“Knowing a lot of my hard work and being able to be in the places that I am today is because of my grandfather,” Jasper told KSR. “I know he was a great father to my dad, who has taken care of me my whole life. So, just knowing that he’s not here anymore, but he’s still with me in spirit and trying to do whatever I can for him in his name.”

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Alvis Johnson will forever be associated with Harrodsburg, but he was born in Hopkinsville. The son of a sharecropper, Alvis was the first in his family to graduate from high school, Christian County, and the first to go to college, earning his master’s degree from Western Kentucky University while also playing football. After considering law school, Alvis returned to his hometown to teach and coach. He was content to stay there and shape the young minds of his community, but in 1973, he received a phone call that set him on a different path.

Forrest Williamson, the superintendent of the Harrodsburg School System, needed a new high school football coach, and he wanted Alvis. It took some convincing, but Williamson got Alvis to at least come check out Harrodsburg and its campus, selling him on also being the Pioneers’ athletic director. Alvis eventually agreed, the offer too good to refuse.

Thus started Alvis’ 24-year tenure as Harrodsburg’s athletic director, football coach, and track and field coach, a span that included three state football runner-up finishes, over 50 track and field individual state championships, and five track and field team championships. Alvis won numerous state and national coach of the year awards, was the first black president of the National Federation of High School Athletics Board of Directors, and served on the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control with stints as president and vice president. He was inducted into the KHSAA Hall of Fame in 2004.

Over 40 Harrodburg student-athletes went on to play Division I sports during Alvis’ tenure as athletic director, a staggering number for a Class A school in a town whose population didn’t exceed 7,500 at the time; two of those were his sons, Derrick and Dennis, whose feats growing up are still the stuff of legend, and a testament to their father.

While their peers were hanging out at the pool during the summer, Dennis and Derrick were on the field, playing with the tackle dummies and in the bleachers. Soon enough, they became the tackle dummies, pitching in during practice. Even though they were very young, Alvis didn’t cut the boys any slack. They had to be up when their dad left the house at 5:00 a.m., or they’d have to ride their bikes to the practice field. If they did, they pedaled like crazy so they wouldn’t be late.

“It was just something we did, and we enjoyed and loved it, and it wasn’t forced on us,” Dennis told KSR. “We just love football and being around our father, and the guys treated us like little brothers. We thought we were the coolest guys in the world.”

Dennis and Derrick were the coolest guys in the world to a generation of Central Kentuckians. When Harrodsburg needed players due to low enrollment, they dressed for the varsity team. At the time, Derrick was in third grade, Dennis in second – although you wouldn’t know it by his 5’7”, 170 lbs frame. Dennis was so big that when he walked into his classroom for the first day of school, the principal, who was new, thought he was a teacher and sent him to the teacher’s lounge.

Dennis and Derrick played for the Pioneers for two seasons until the KHSAA passed a rule that elementary school students couldn’t be on high school varsity squads. The “Dennis and Derrick Johnson Rule” turned the brothers into the Bo Jacksons of the Bluegrass, their tales spreading across the state like wildfire in a time before social media.

Once they moved on to middle school, the Johnson boys were back on the squad. Dennis became the first eighth-grader in Kentucky history to be named first-team all-state, an honor he earned five straight years. In total, he played eight high school seasons; in the six after grade school, he totaled 521 tackles, 76 sacks, 140 tackles for loss, 42 forced fumbles, 25 fumbles recovered, and 19 blocked kicks. On the offensive line, he had 200 pancake blocks. He even punted the ball, averaging just shy of 40 yards per kick. Video game numbers against teams that fully knew what to expect, given the Johnsons’ reputation.

Everyone who lined up against the brothers has a story to share from it. In one game vs. Bardstown, Dennis blocked a punt, scooped up the ball, returned it for a touchdown, and dunked it over the crossbar. In that same game, he made seven straight tackles, forcing two turnovers in the process. Harrodsburg already had a reputation for being tough; with Dennis and Derrick playing both sides of the ball, the Pioneers were even harder to stop, reaching the state finals in Dennis’ junior and senior seasons.  

The brothers were also standout basketball and track stars, leading Harrodsburg to the Sweet 16 in 1996. Dennis totaled 2,306 points, 1,347 rebounds, 335 blocked shots, 315 assists, and 161 steals on the hardwood for the Pioneers. He also won eight individual track and field state championships, four in the shot put, three in the discus, and one in the triple jump. He gave up baseball early on, but could still throw in the 90-mph range, with a Baltimore Orioles scout calling him the best baseball prospect in Kentucky in a decade.

If there were an award in those three sports in the mid-’90s, the brothers won it. Dennis’ trophy case especially got crowded in 1997, his senior season. He was named Kentucky Mr. Football, National Defensive Player of the Year by USA Today and The Sporting News, and the highest honor of them all, Sports Illustrated National Player of the Year.

A record-setting, All-SEC career at Kentucky followed, which led to Dennis being selected in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals and spending three years in the league. When football was over, he followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming the football coach and athletic director at Woodford County High School in 2015.

Jasper Johnson was born in 2006, a decade removed from his dad’s mythical run. As a kid, he heard all the stories about his famous family – it was impossible not to. However, he didn’t truly understand his dad and uncle’s talent until he saw it for himself. One holiday season, the family was gathered at Alvis and his wife Rosetta’s house. Alvis had dug up some VHS tapes of his sons’ highlights from the basement and set up a viewing station for his grandchildren to see what their dads could do.

“We went into his room, he placed them in the little thing [VCR], and he had some film of a couple of their games, so being able to watch it and see what they were doing, it was a great memory,” Jasper recalled. 

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As hard as Alvis was on Dennis, he was soft on Jasper. He loved to dote on his youngest grandson, giving him new shoes after each good game or tournament. Jasper’s favorites were Nike Foamposites, made famous by Penny Hardaway; Alvis made sure he had plenty. 

“He always made sure I looked the best,” Jasper said of Alvis. “Look good, feel good, play good is what he told me.”

One gift showed Jasper a different side of his grandfather. When Jasper was eight or nine, his grandfather took him to Dick’s Sporting Goods to get him a pair of the knee pads that were starting to become popular on the AAU circuit. He wanted to make sure Jasper had them for a big tournament in Indianapolis. During one of the games, Jasper didn’t chase after a loose ball on the floor. Alvis, always front and center, was in Jasper’s ear during the next timeout.

“He said, in front of eight, nine-year-olds, sitting in front of all these people, ‘When that ball gets on the floor, I bought you doggone two $50 knee braces. Your boom-boom-boom better be on the ground,’” Dennis recalled. “So, the next time, he was on the ground, but that was the first time I think Jasper was like, ‘Dude, granddaddy, like, really, really yelled at me.’”

For Dennis, it was nothing new. There was no separation between Alvis the coach and Alvis the dad growing up. Bad games didn’t just mean quiet car rides home; the silence would sometimes linger until the next week. Instead of praising Dennis and Derrick for the tackles they made, Alvis reminded them of the ones they missed. 

The most vivid example of Alvis’ no-nonsense attitude came on the basketball court. Dennis was an All-District, All-Region, and All-State player for the Pioneers. One game, UK assistant Claude Bassett and Charlie Strong, then the defensive line coach at Notre Dame, came to check out the star defensive end’s basketball skills.

Dennis stole the ball and dunked it on the other end. Glancing over, he realized the coaches were not impressed.

“They kind of looked at me like, man, you’re 6-6. Anybody can do that. Well, the next time I get a steal, I throw off the backboard or something and dunk it, and I’m kind of showboating, and my dad, like, loses it. Like, loses it. ‘We don’t do that!’ I’m like, ‘Man, Coach Bassett and Coach Strong were [there], you know what I’m saying?’ I was like, Dude, I’m gonna be in trouble after this game.”

Dennis was also Jasper’s dad and coach until Jasper gave up football to focus on basketball in 2023. Even though Jasper played defensive back and quarterback, the latter being the most scrutinized position on the team, he said the toughest car rides home came after basketball games.

“It’s kind of weird because playing for my dad, he would never really get on me, or, like, say anything to me on the football field, but as soon as basketball season changes, that’s when he switches and he starts talking crazy, cussing at me, making sure I’m doing whatever I need to do to get better.”

“There were some rough days,” Dennis said. “There were some times when you had to be really honest, and [his mother] Nyoka, she would get on me sometimes, ‘You’re just so hard on him,’ but that’s how I was raised, and that’s how I’m trying to raise him. So he kind of knew the expectation.”

Those rough days were when Alvis would get involved. If Jasper and Dennis were butting heads, Alvis was there, ready to listen.

“There are plenty of times when me and my dad have been mad at each other, didn’t talk for days, maybe weeks,” Jasper said. “But I would always reach out to my grandfather, and he would tell me he was the same way with him. You know, you just gotta live, you’ve gotta grow from it. And just keep moving on.”

Dennis can’t help but laugh at how differently Alvis treated Jasper than him growing up. That’s not only the difference between a father and a grandfather, but also a reflection of two kindred souls.

“Jasper and my dad kind of had similar personalities, both really serious about what they did. Every time they went out to practice, it was really serious. And Jasper’s a man of few words, not a lot of emotion.”

In his sophomore year, Jasper led the Woodford County football team to an 11-2 record. He led the basketball team to the semifinals of the Sweet 16. Although Alvis wasn’t in good health, just months from his passing, he and Rosetta were front and center in Rupp Arena, wearing matching “That’s my grandson out there!” custom t-shirts. The family did everything they could to make sure Alvis was there to see his grandson play in the event, which they attended every year as a family.

“I’ve always said that was probably my funnest basketball experience that I’ve had up until this point,” Jasper said of his sophomore year. “A lot of hard work went into that season. We were a great program that year, but my dad – early on, Woodford County was very doubted, and we weren’t very good, but I know he changed the environment, and a lot of people bought into it. So being able to change the culture of the sport down there was a great feeling. That was definitely one of my best memories.”

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In November 2022, Woodford County hosted Whitley County in the first round of the playoffs. Jasper rarely gets ruffled during games, with one exception: when the wide receiver he’s covering catches a pass. The completion wasn’t even a big one, just a simple five-yard out in a game Woodford County went on to win 49-6, but you wouldn’t know it by Jasper’s reaction.

“He just gets so tore up,” Dennis said. “You can see the body language go crazy. They had a big running back or quarterback, and he breaks the pocket, and Jasper comes and knocks him out. I mean, like, freaking knocks him out.”

Dennis always talked to his father during halftime. At the time, Alvis was unable to get down to the field due to his health, so he watched from his car. When Dennis climbed in, he got more than the usual halftime adjustments.

“He was like, ‘This is it, man. Jasper doesn’t need to play football tomorrow. His body’s just not built for it. He needs to stick to basketball.’…That was a moment that I knew, at the halftime of our first playoff game. I said, ‘Well, this is the last year we’ll see Jasper playing football.’”

When the time came to talk to Jasper about his future, Alvis’ conviction helped ease his grandson’s concerns.

“It was kind of a conversation I didn’t want to have, honestly,” Jasper said. “I mean, I love the game of football. I know it’s done a lot for my family, but just realizing that I might have a better future in basketball, my grandfather telling me that I need to really focus on one thing…Telling me just to trust it.”

The family started looking at schools to see which would be the best fit. Dennis kept a close eye on his son, who was still grappling with the decision. Leaving all of his family and friends in Woodford County, where they had lived for over a decade, would be hard, but he was also giving up the outlet that football provided. 

“Ultimately, he loved football. He was a great football player. And I think for anyone in sports, playing multiple sports is good. It kind of broke up basketball, right? I think he had a lot of pressure in basketball; football, he could just go play.”

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It’s January 1999, the day after Kentucky played Penn State in the Outback Bowl. It marked the end of Dennis’ freshman season at UK, for which he’d won Second Team Freshman All-American honors from The Sporting News. Even though football season had just wrapped, Dennis was already moving on to basketball. He came to UK on a football scholarship, but with the understanding that he could play basketball as well. He had already played with Tubby Smith’s team during the summer, focusing on football in the mornings and basketball at night. He walked into Memorial Coliseum to get some shots up and stopped in his tracks.

“I walked in and it was Tubby, Hal [Mumme], and my father. I’m like, oh, this can’t be good.”

When the four sat down, Mumme explained that if Dennis wanted to go to the NFL one day, he needed to focus on football. That meant spending the offseason in the weight room and not on the basketball court. Mumme also wanted Dennis to step up as a leader on the field, which is hard to do when you’re spending so much time on the hardwood; however, as with Jasper two decades later, it was Alvis’ words that meant the most.

“He was like, ‘Listen, you signed a football scholarship, right? Coach Mumme really doesn’t want you to play. He wants you to get stronger.’ And so that’s when the decision was made that I wouldn’t play basketball. And so then I just really super locked in with football, but that is, as an athlete, my biggest regret, is not getting a chance, at least one or two times, to go out there and put on a jersey and be able to play at Rupp Arena. But like I said, I think it ended up working out for me the best.”

Dennis never got to play at Rupp Arena as a Wildcat, but Bill Keightley, the beloved basketball equipment manager, made sure he got an embroidered travel bag and his No. 30 jersey — the same one that his son used to announce his commitment to Kentucky 25 years later. Giving up basketball stung, but Mumme was right in that it propelled Dennis to new heights on the football field.

Dennis started every game in his sophomore season, recording at least one sack, tackle for loss, and blocked kick in all but two. He blocked a field goal against No. 20 Arkansas, swinging the momentum for the Cats to pull off the upset. He blocked a punt at Mississippi State to set up a Kentucky touchdown. He blocked another field goal in the Music City Bowl. Dennis suffered an ankle injury in the season opener against Louisville in his junior year and had to redshirt; he made up for it in 2001, leading the SEC in quarterback sacks (12, a school record), tackles for loss (19), and fumbles caused (5). At the end of his three-year career, those 19 tackles for loss ranked second in program history behind Art Still, and his 19 career sacks were also No. 2 in the history books behind Oliver Barnett. It took over a decade for another player to pass him on either list.

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In May 2023, Jasper and his parents took an unofficial visit to Kentucky. Jasper had gotten off to a hot start in the EYBL circuit that spring, picking up offers from Missouri, Cal, Arizona State, Texas A&M, Louisville, Xavier, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Alabama, Memphis, and Ohio State. The family went into John Calipari’s office expecting a casual chat; they left with an offer, which coaxed a smile from the normally stoic Jasper. He couldn’t wait to tell his grandfather, who followed his sons to Kentucky in 1998 and spent eight years working for UK Athletics.

“It was definitely a big thing, a big excitement, that I was able to get that offer while he was still here, talk to him about it, because I know that he was a part of Kentucky sports and athletics at a point in time. But that was really good. He and my grandmother were very proud of me. He just told me, you know, ‘What’s next? Keep getting them offers and keep them coming in. Just stay high and be confident, but always be humble.’”

Jasper’s star continued to rise that summer. He averaged 12.3 points per game for Team Thad, shooting 40% from three-point range. He played up an age level, alongside Labaron Philon, a top-30 guard in the 2024 class, now at Alabama; Derrion Reed, a top-25 power forward in the 2024 class, now at Oklahoma; and even Kentucky future teammate Jayden Quaintance. Jasper holding his own against mostly older competition was exactly what he needed before enrolling at Link Academy, a powerhouse prep school that had just won the GEICO Nationals championship that spring.

The week after Peach Jam, Alvis passed away at the age of 76. Hundreds attended a celebration of life at Alvis Johnson Field, and football stadiums across the state turned their lights on in his honor. Before he passed, Alvis had one more gift for his grandson, knowing the challenges that awaited him at Link: a bracelet with the inscription, “God is bigger.” Jasper still wears it every single day.

“I know when I went down there, it was a big mental thing that was hard on me. Being away from social life and not having anyone close to me to be able to come see me whenever, but just knowing that God is always with me, being strong in my faith is something that my grandfather really preached on me. He just always told me God is bigger.”

Jasper leaned on those words at Link. He’s the first to tell you that those first few months were hard. He’d left the only home he’d ever known, in a state where he was the best basketball player, to join a team with players just as good, if not better, than he was. Most of that talent was in the backcourt, which included Philon, Jasper’s Team Thad teammate Labaron, and five-star 2024 guard Tre Johnson.

“I know going there, my first couple of practices, getting beat up, getting bullied, and things like that,” Jasper said. “And I know it paid off for me, and it was really, really a good experience. It helped me get better.”

That’s easy to say in retrospect. Dennis recalled Jasper calling him one night early on, asking to come home. It was a moment he had been preparing for, recalling an interview RJ Barrett’s father did about his son’s first month at Monteverde Academy and how hard it was on him. 

“I remember Jasper called me one day, and he was like, ‘Man, I’m ready to come home.’ And I’m like, you’re in the right spot.”

Dennis called Bill Armstrong, Link’s head coach at the time, who confirmed that Jasper was simply adjusting to the new level of competition. Dennis knew there was only one way for him to help his son.

“I said, Well, just, you know, don’t call me. Call your mom. You’re in the right spot. You need to go through it.’ So, I didn’t go to a game for about the first two months. She went to the first few games. But I just needed to leave him alone, let him kind of grow up a little bit.” 

Nyoka knew her role in this balancing act. She hadn’t planned on going to Link’s first preseason game, but woke up the morning of and knew she needed to be there in person to cheer on her son. She and Jasper’s older brother, Skyelar, loaded up the car and made the nine-hour drive to Branson to surprise him. They arrived just in time for warm-ups.

“We snuck up and sat in the stands, and he still didn’t notice us. And then his coach pointed us out. And you know he doesn’t show emotion, but I know that it was important for me to be there and for his brother to be there so he knew that we’re going to be here when you need us.”

Dennis started coming to games after Christmas. He immediately noticed a change in his son. 

“Bill and I are having a conversation like, he’s figuring it out,” Dennis said. “Failure is okay, and that’s how you grow.”

“You really learn that struggle is a good thing,” Jasper confirmed.

After his year at Link, Jasper had his best summer yet on the EYBL circuit. He was one of the stars of Peach Jam, averaging 19.8 points, 3.2 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.2 steals across five games. That summer, he also won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the FIBA U18 AmeriCup in Argentina, shooting a team-best 42.3% (11-26) from 3-point range. Instead of returning to Link, he decided to go to Overtime Elite to further elevate his game. Nyoka sees those two years away from home as necessary steps in her son’s journey.

“I think it was extremely important because going forward in the things that he wants to accomplish in basketball, it’s going to require those times when you’re not in your comfort zone and you’re away from everyone, and it’s not going to be easy. You’re playing with some of the most talented kids in the country. You guys have come together and you’re trying to find your way.”

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Things had changed back home, too. In the spring of 2024, John Calipari left Kentucky for Arkansas, and Mark Pope had been named his successor. Jasper already had an offer from Kentucky, but Pope put renewed importance on keeping the top talent in the state. Jasper wanted to make his college decision before his senior season. He was down to five schools: Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisville. As the summer went on, it was clear that it was a three-way race between the Cats, the Tar Heels, and the Crimson Tide. 

No one knew Jasper’s situation better than Dennis, who chose Kentucky over Notre Dame, Florida, Miami (Fl.), and Colorado. He was happy to pass along the advice Alvis gave him during the final months of his recruitment.

“He told me, coming down to his decision, my grandfather told him that it was all up to him,” Jasper said. “I know my dad had offers to pretty much anywhere in the country, but he always told me, in going through this, just be big on your faith, pray about it. I could always ask him questions, but at the end of the day, it’s up to me.” 

That was also the advice that Dennis received from the one person who truly understood their situation: Jeff Sheppard. The two-time national champion had just watched his son, Reed, go No. 3 overall in the 2024 NBA Draft after a standout season at Kentucky. As Jasper’s recruitment heated up, Dennis and Jeff spoke regularly.

“He was like, ‘What do you think’s best for Jasper? Let him have input, right? Because it is his journey.’” 

There was another commonality in Dennis and Jasper’s recruitments: neither grew up a Kentucky fan. Dennis cheered for Notre Dame as a kid. Jasper loved North Carolina. He and the Tar Heels’ head coach, Hubert Davis, had formed a great relationship during the recruiting process. Nyoka, the biggest Kentucky fan in the family, was certain Jasper was going to pick North Carolina, so when Jasper told her he wanted to become a Kentucky Wildcat, she was stunned.

“I was honestly shocked. When he said it, he was really true, and he was just, like, solidified in his answer, and I was like, ‘Really?’ Because it seemed like it just came out of the blue, in a sense, because he always grew up being – I mean, he supported Kentucky, and watched the games, but truly was a North Carolina fan.”

Nyoka made Jasper sleep on the decision just to be sure, but inside, she was already dreaming of her son wearing Kentucky blue.

“My heart was like, yeah, let’s go! I was so excited, but I would have been happy either way, but you know, that kind of just took it up to another level when he said that he was going to come [to Kentucky]. So, I’m like, Oh yeah, let’s go. It’s go time now.”

Jasper committed to Kentucky on September 5, 2024, a ceremony that included a slew of NIL sponsors and a new motto: “KY ‘til I die.” Even though the phrase quickly found its way onto t-shirts – which Nyoka wears every day – Jasper promises it was impromptu.

“Really, when I was just answering my questions after I had committed, it just came to mind. I mean, I was really excited in the moment, a lot of emotions were coming out, and so I was just speaking from the heart, and ended up saying, ‘KY ‘til I die.’”

Dennis’ old Kentucky basketball jersey also played a part in the ceremony, with Jasper lifting it from under a table to reveal his decision. Dennis insists that using the jersey was all Jasper and his agent’s idea.

“I want to be out of the way, right? I think this journey is about Jasper. I want to be a fan. I want to be his dad from afar. I want it to be about him. So I don’t want all the Dennis stuff. Like, my time was my time. This is his time, and so we’re here to support him. But it definitely was a cool moment.”

“He was really excited, happy for me,” Jasper said of his father’s reaction. “He just told me, you’re here now, so it’s time to get to work. I know it’s a lot of hard days coming ahead, a lot of hardships that you’re going to go through, but this is just the start of it. Everything is good right now, but it won’t always be good, so just stay focused on the assignment and know what your goal is.”

“It does add some icing to the cake,” Dennis said of Jasper choosing Kentucky. “But with that comes a lot of responsibility, a lot of pressure, and stuff. And so I know the pressure I had when I got to UK. He’ll experience the same thing.”

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Dennis was driving to Fayette Mall in the fall of 1998. It was his freshman year at Kentucky, and he thought he was off to a pretty good start. He’d played in the first two games and had two tackles for loss in the opener against Louisville, a 68-34 Kentucky rout. Clearly, the callers on Hal Mumme’s radio show disagreed. 

“It was like, ‘Dennis Johnson hasn’t had a sack in the first two games, and yada yada.’ And I’m like, these were the same people that six or eight months ago, I would come to the games, and they like, loved me. I was signing autographs and stuff.”

“They just thought I was supposed to be – you know, Tim Couch would need to throw a touchdown on every play. Dennis Johnson, every time it was a pass, he needed to get a sack. And that’s just not reality. It’s another level. So that was really hard for me at first, and I had to internalize, like, man, there’s someone out there that hates Dennis Johnson.”

Dennis hopes that moment never comes for his son, but knows that in some shape or form, it will. He and Nyoka believe Jasper can handle the unique expectations that come with being an elite in-state star at Kentucky. He played up a year throughout most of AAU, embracing the challenge of going up against older competition. From a maturity standpoint, the year at Link helped tremendously. Jasper flourished in his senior year at OTE, averaging 20.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.8 assists per game in the professional prep league. When he signed with Kentucky, Mark Pope called Jasper the “most dangerous scorer in all of high school basketball.”

There’s also that part of Alvis in Jasper, always serious, even as the spotlight grew brighter and brighter.

“He’s always just been consistently, just even-keeled, you know?” Nyoka said. “He’s been able to manage a lot of the outside noise and just still continue to just go out there and focus on doing what he loves and being true to the work that he’s put in, to the talents that he’s been blessed with.”

“The pressure’s real, man, and I told him, I said, the first game you go out there and you don’t play your best, expect to hear it, but how mentally tough can you come back?” Dennis said. “And I think my dad had a famous saying, pros do it twice, and that doesn’t mean two games. It could just be the consistency of it, so that’s what we’re looking to see.”

“Even-keeled” is the same phrase that Mark Pope used to describe Jasper at a press conference earlier this summer. Tellingly, he didn’t shy away from setting his own expectations for his “superstar” freshman.

“He’s got a poise about him,” Pope said. “He’s a little bit unflappable. He’s able to kind of metabolize a lot of input and kind of keep himself even-keeled. I think he’s a big shot maker. I expect him to be – like, he needs to come here and be great, and that’s what he wants to do. That’s what we want from him.”

Both Nyoka and Dennis are confident that Pope is the right man to lead Jasper through this journey – especially Nyoka, whose Kentucky Basketball fandom accelerated in the mid-1990s when Pope was the captain of Rick Pitino’s national championship squad. Compared to Hubert Davis and Nate Oats, Pope may have gotten a late start in Jasper’s recruitment due to the line change in Lexington, but he quickly made up ground.

“It was just a whirlwind when Coach Pope was hired. And me being a fan, from his playing days, I knew only of him as a player, but I never knew a whole lot about him as a person. He made such a profound impact personally in such a short amount of time, in his demeanor, in the way he carries himself, in the way that he speaks positivity into the guys; I mean, he speaks positivity in everything,” Nyoka said. “I think his personality, his demeanor, his coaching style, really suits Jasper.”

“He’s the smartest man in the room most of the time, but he can kind of fly under the radar,” Dennis added of Pope. “I just like the father figure he is. When these kids go through something, and all of them will, I think he’ll be there to pick them up and help them, guide them through it.”

And then there’s what happens on the court. Dennis calls Pope the Hal Mumme of this era of college basketball. He walked into Jasper’s room one day while his son was studying film of Pope’s BYU teams. Noticing how excited Jasper was, Dennis sat down to join him. He loves that Pope wants to shoot 40 threes when most coaches go for 20. Dennis, a former big man himself, is obsessed with the concept of running the offense through a “point five” like Pope did with Amari Williams last season. 

“Hal Mumme, it’s 4th and 20 and people [are like], ‘He’s not going for it. He can’t do this.’ And he would do it and get it. So I think Coach Pope has that type of mindset that, like, man, let’s go after it. Let’s play the best. Let’s draw it up. Let’s scheme it up however you want to do it. And I think he believes in his stuff so much. He’ll do some stuff other people won’t do.”

Nyoka didn’t play basketball in college, but Jasper credits her for his jumpshot. As she puts it, she knows enough basketball “to be dangerous.” When Pope sat down and talked through his system with the family, her mind was racing.

“There is a brilliance to the way that he thinks the game and sees the game,” Nyoka said. “I don’t know how even to put it into words, but the way his mind thinks about the game, and the way that he’s able to relay that to the guys, to get them to understand it. One of the first times we were in the office with him, and he was just talking about, you know, gravity, and it’s all those different terminologies for the game, and then drawing up things. It was just like, man.” 

Jasper and Mark Pope got a few extra opportunities to bond before Kentucky’s summer workouts began in earnest. Pope served as an on-court assistant coach during USA Basketball’s U19 Training Camp in Colorado Springs, giving him early access to Jasper and fellow in-state star and Kentucky freshman Malachi Moreno. Jasper made the final cut in camp for Team USA’s 12-man roster for the FIBA World Cup in Switzerland. Pope made the trek to Lausanne to support him – and check on the five-star high school recruits also on the roster. Having his new head coach in the stands was a big deal for Jasper and his family. Thankfully, he wasn’t near Dennis when Jasper missed two free throws. 

If showboating was Alvis’ number one trigger with Dennis’ game, missing free throws is Dennis’ with Jasper. When his son was fouled on a three-point attempt and missed the first two free throws, Dennis was so upset he hit the wall, prompting the men in front of him to turn around.

“I hit the wall, and probably said a word I shouldn’t,” Dennis said. “These guys from Switzerland were like, ‘Man,’ – because they were Jasper fans – they looked at me. So I finally had to tell them, like, ‘Yeah, that’s my son.’ We became really good friends, but they were like, ‘Go get the cops. This dude is freaking hitting the wall ‘cause this dude missed some free throws.’” 

Dennis and Jasper’s Swiss fan club struck up a friendship, with Dennis inviting them on the court after Team USA won gold to celebrate, and the guys inviting the Johnsons to come skiing with them in the Alps. Jasper averaged 8.0 points, 1.6 assists, and 1.3 rebounds per game in the FIBA World Cup while shooting 46.3% from the field and 40.1% from three-point range. While those numbers weren’t team highs, playing alongside and against the best of the best, including those a year ahead of him in school, further prepared Jasper for what was next.

It was time to head home, gold medal in hand, to start his new life as a Kentucky Wildcat.

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Jasper watched almost all of Kentucky’s games last season and got a small taste of Pope’s coaching at the USA Basketball training camp, but he was eager to fully immerse himself in the system. He couldn’t immediately get on the court due to a minor ankle injury he suffered in Switzerland, so he spent a lot of time watching film with the coaches. 

“I feel like I’m getting better each and every day, watching a lot of film. Coach Pope has been working with me, putting a lot of trust in me, seeing that I’ve been growing rapidly, learning the system, and learning coverages and plays and things like that. He feels that I’m a quick learner, so just trying to do whatever I can to get better each and every day.”

Jasper especially likes how Pope uses his football background to break things down. 

“In football, I played two positions where I had to use my mind a lot, safety and quarterback,” Johnson said. “That always helped me with my decision-making. Coach Pope always references that when we’re watching film, it’s like being a QB on your reads. That’s kind of like our offense.”

Scoring comes easily to Jasper, so defense and physicality have been the toughest adjustments he’s had to make so far. Even in just a month of summer workouts, he’s confident in the progress he’s made.

”That’s really been my main focus is defense right now, because, I mean, every time I touch the ball, it seems like he’s telling me to shoot. So just knowing that part, it comes easy to me; I’m not really worried about it.”

Dennis knows that his son will cram in as many film sessions, reps, and shots as he can before the season starts; however, as the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle “Mean Joe” Greene taught Dennis, nothing takes the place of experience. Greene was an assistant coach for the Arizona Cardinals during Dennis’ rookie season. When Dennis lost his temper during one practice and threw his helmet on the ground, Greene asked him to come to his office. 

“He was like, ‘Listen, these guys have been in the NFL for 10, 12 years. They don’t care about your 20-year-old, 19-year-old pass rusher. They’ve seen it all.’ So he just left me thinking about that. Nothing takes the place of experience. So I think [Jasper]  likes it. He’s got to learn it. But I think he’ll thrive in the system.”

The Johnsons have gotten small tastes of what Jasper’s life as a Wildcat will be. They attended the SEC Tournament this past March and enjoyed meeting fans and taking pictures. One fan had also gotten his picture with Dennis during Dennis’ freshman season at Kentucky, and asked to recreate it with Jasper. Nyoka is already bracing for the moment that Jasper takes the floor at Rupp Arena for his first game. She knows Jasper and Skyelar will take bets on whether or not she’ll cry – and that they’ll probably win.

“Oh my god, I think I’m gonna be a mess,” Nyoka said. “I’m going to be a ball of emotions, I’m sure. We won’t be sitting together.” 

“Absolutely not!” Dennis exclaimed.

“That helps,” Nyoka laughed. “I’m excited at the same time because I know what he’s capable of. I know what he’s worked so hard for. He’s prepared for the moment. And so when it’s his time to step on the floor, it will also be a big sigh of relief to get that first one out of the way. And then it’s business as usual.”

Dennis wants Pope to get him a seat “up at the top” so he can properly lose his mind.

“I’m always tight for any game, just because I know what’s on the table and the expectations we had, right? The ultimate goal is right there, and go to work every single practice, every single game, and you’re on the biggest stage in college basketball, man.”

In the Johnsons’ Rupp Arena seating chart, there’s a space reserved for Alvis, right next to the court. Dennis’ father would be front and center, eager to watch his grandson make his mark as a Kentucky Wildcat.

“He definitely will be [watching from above],” Dennis said of his dad. “It’ll definitely be heavy on my heart when he runs on the court for the first time. It’s definitely going to be emotional.”

Reminders of Alvis are everywhere, even during this interview, which took place feet from where Alvis’ old office was in Memorial Coliseum. 

“We were just walking down here, and [Nyoka] was talking about how it brought back memories of us coming down here and seeing him every few days and stuff,” Dennis said. “But he’s in heaven, and like I said, he’ll be cheering – until he misses his first free throw, then he might be mad.”