Kentucky's road win over Auburn could help the Wildcats land a five-star recruit
The Kentucky Wildcats got their signature win of the season, taking down the Auburn Tiger in Neville Arena.
While no one on the College GameDay crew believed in the Wildcats, the team believed in themselves, leading to the 70-59 win in the Jungle, which has been deemed one of the best environments in all of college basketball.
Auburn had a big-time recruit on campus for the game named Jasper Johnson. The 6'4 combo guard is ranked as the number 12 player in 247Sports campsite rankings. Johnson has been on three recent visits, most recently to Auburn but before that to Kentucky and North Carolina. He is from Kentucky, and his dad played football for the Wildcats. He is now the head football coach at Woodford County High School. Knowing that Johnson is considering Kentucky and watched the Wildcats beat the Auburn Tigers on their home floor with College GameDay in attendance had to be a positive for the Wildcats. Coach Calipari's team showed Johnson that while Auburn's program is moving in the right direction, Kentucky is still the staple program in the SEC and college basketball.
Adam Finkelstein of 247Sports had this to say about Johnson, "Jasper Johnson is a southpaw scoring guard who has spurts of extreme tough shot-making when he gets hot. He has a super soft natural touch and is very crafty around the lane with a deep bag of runners, floaters, and other types of finishes, in addition to the jumpers and step-backs he’s capable of making from the perimeter. Physically, Johnson is lean, but he’s very long with a recorded +5 wingspan. In addition to building up his body, he also needs to learn to impact the game more when the ball isn’t in his hands, or more specifically, when he’s not on one of his scoring sprees."
While Auburn likely did show Johnson a good time, seeing Kentucky take down the #13 Tigers on their own floor helped the Wildcats chances with the hometown kid. If Kentucky is able to land Johnson, he will be a star in Lexington playing for his dad's alma mater.
