{"id":696656,"date":"2026-04-03T22:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696656\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T22:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T22:08:19","slug":"kentucky-basketball-guard-jasper-johnson-enters-ncaa-transfer-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696656\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky basketball guard Jasper Johnson enters NCAA transfer portal"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEXINGTON \u2014\u00a0Jasper Johnson<\/a> wanted to be one and done with the Kentucky basketball<\/a> program.<\/p>\n

This wasn’t the way he intended, though.<\/p>\n

Instead of heading into the NBA draft<\/a>, Johnson put his name into the transfer portal after one season with the Wildcats<\/a>. News of the transfer was first reported<\/a> by Jonathan Givony of Draft Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He is the second Kentucky<\/a> player to announce plans to transfer since the season ended, joining point guard Jaland Lowe.<\/p>\n

A UK legacy, Johnson is the son of Dennis Johnson<\/a>, who had a standout career as a defensive lineman for Kentucky’s football program a quarter-century ago. When Jasper committed to Kentucky<\/a> in September 2024 \u2014 picking UK over his two other finalists, Alabama and North Carolina \u2014 it was considered a coup for\u00a0Mark Pope<\/a>, entering his first season as his alma mater’s coach.<\/p>\n

Johnson had been one of the most highly touted prospects in the 2025 class, a consensus four-star recruit<\/a> ranked among the top 40 players in the nation by every major recruiting database.<\/p>\n

But it never clicked for the 6-foot-5, 180-pound Lexington native during his freshman campaign.<\/p>\n

\"NASHVILLE,<\/p>\n

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – MARCH 12: Jasper Johnson #2 of the Kentucky Wildcats reacts against the Missouri Tigers during the first half in the second round of the 2026 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 12, 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Carly Mackler\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A top-flight scorer during his prep career, points were hard to come by at Kentucky: Johnson had only five double-figure outings in 35 games, with a personal-best 22 in a win over North Carolina Central<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n

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Minutes were equally scarce once SEC<\/a> play started in January.<\/p>\n

In UK’s 13 games in 2025, Johnson logged at least 10 minutes nine times. In the Wildcats’ 21 matchups versus SEC competition (regular season and the conference tournament), Johnson reached that figure on only 12 occasions. In Kentucky’s two NCAA Tournament contests, he combined to play eight minutes (two versus Santa Clara<\/a>, six against Iowa State<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Johnson\u00a0propelled Woodford County to the KHSAA Sweet 16<\/a>\u00a0in 2023, which was the school’s first appearance in the event since 1986. He then transferred to Link Academy<\/a> \u2014 a national power in Missouri \u2014 before wrapping up his high school career playing in the\u00a0Overtime Elite<\/a>\u00a0league\u00a0in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

This story may be updated.<\/p>\n

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Reach Kentucky men\u2019s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball guard Jasper Johnson enters NCAA transfer portal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON \u2014\u00a0Jasper Johnson wanted to be one and done with the Kentucky basketball program. This wasn’t the way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[1046,7,217,11860,8517,1983,234,2583,4418,231,772,1544,1773,1123,2051],"class_list":{"0":"post-696656","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-alabama","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-dennis-johnson","12":"tag-jasper-johnson","13":"tag-jonathan-givony","14":"tag-kentucky","15":"tag-lowe","16":"tag-missouri","17":"tag-ncaa","18":"tag-ncaa-basketball","19":"tag-ncaab","20":"tag-north-carolina","21":"tag-transfer","22":"tag-transfer-portal"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116343060193055333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696656","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=696656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}