{"id":499178,"date":"2025-12-27T14:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T14:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/499178\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T14:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T14:39:11","slug":"jasper-johnson-when-my-opportunity-comes-i-have-to-be-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/499178\/","title":{"rendered":"Jasper Johnson: ‘When my opportunity comes, I have to be ready.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jasper Johnson<\/a> signed with Kentucky<\/a>, Mark Pope<\/a> called him \u2018the most dangerous scorer in all of high school basketball\u2019 <\/a>with \u2018massive gravity,\u2019 set to \u2018write the most profound chapter\u2019 of his family\u2019s great legacy in Lexington.<\/p>\n

That momentum continued into the summer and early fall with the top-25 recruit emerging as the best pure bucket-getter on the roster, Pope once again saying \u2018he is a dangerous, dangerous, dangerous scorer.\u2019<\/a> <\/p>\n

His first test against No. 1 Purdue in the team\u2019s exhibition opener? A team-high 15 points on 6-10 shooting and 3-7 from deep with three assists in 19 minutes. Maybe he\u2019d be even more than a microwave scorer off the bench as a freshman? Could he be a go-to star?<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t translated to minutes or production against name-brand competition, combining for 20 points in 55 minutes against No. 12 Louisville, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 16 UNC, No. 11 Gonzaga, Indiana and No. 22 St. John\u2019s. That compares to 79 points in 152 minutes in the other seven outings. He\u2019s hit the double-figure shooting mark just once and it led to a season-high 22 points on 6-10 shooting, 2-4 from three and 8-8 at the line.<\/p>\n

Johnson earned the third-most playing time of his freshman season against Bellarmine, stepping up in Jaland Lowe\u2019s absence at point guard with 11 points, seven assists, three rebounds and a block with just one turnover in 22 minutes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Jasper was really good. I had a lot of confidence in him today on the offensive end,\u201d Pope said of the performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always comfortable,\u201d Johnson said of his expanded role after the game. \u201cCoach is always telling me to make plays for teammates, so I\u2019m doing whatever I can to playmake, communicate with my guys, make sure they\u2019re in the right spots, and build from there. \u2026 Coach thinks I\u2019m one of the best playmaking guys on the team. Getting out there and trying to make plays for teammates is something that I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That performance was a good one, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s all been sunshine and rainbows for Johnson in terms of his own personal expectations and goals at Kentucky. Beating up on the lesser competition is fine because basketball is basketball and he\u2019s always grateful to represent his hometown, but there is still a hunger inside of him about proving himself on the biggest stage \u2014 something he hasn\u2019t been able to do just yet wearing the blue and white.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just new territory for him after playing a ton in a starring role at every level and stop along the way up to this point with high school, prep school and AAU. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard,\u201d Johnson told KSR after the Bellarmine win.<\/a> \u201cI mean, I\u2019ve never really been in this position before where I haven\u2019t\u00a0got the minutes that I wanted, but I\u2019m working.\u00a0I know when my opportunity comes, I have to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knows that defense is the key to everything, probably the biggest knock on his game over the years \u2014 that and his thin frame, which plays into the defense some, too. He embraces that and is working on it every day, controlling what he can control and developing in the areas keeping him off the floor.<\/p>\n

That means continuing to do what he does best as a scorer and facilitator while improving as a defender.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to keep my game sharp, keep working, keep getting better, and\u00a0keep growing in every aspect that I can,\u201d he continued. \u201cI know defense is a big side of reasoning in my playing time, so\u00a0I gotta get better at that.\u00a0I can\u2019t be mad at nobody but myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do those things and a breakthrough is inevitable, he feels. He simply pours too much into the game for it not to give back to him in the long run.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t quite yet at Kentucky in terms of top-end production and playing time consistency against the best of the best, but until then, he\u2019s going to keep working and impact winning however else he can.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be ready when his number is finally called. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest part for me is sometimes in games where I really don\u2019t play that much. I\u2019m always trying to stay ready,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI know that the game of basketball has something in store for me, so I\u2019m always trying to stay positive and keep working \u2014 even when I\u2019m not getting minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI always gotta be a benefit to the team, don\u2019t have bad energy. Being a good teammate is something that I\u2019ve been learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slowly but surely, Jasper Johnson\u2019s time is coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jasper Johnson signed with Kentucky, Mark Pope called him \u2018the most dangerous scorer in all of high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,4452],"class_list":{"0":"post-499178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jasper-johnson-25-overtime-elite"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115792050224140340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}