In January 2023, James Brown, ranked No. 71 on the 247Sportsvibes 2024 Composite, announced his commitment to UNC basketball. More than a year later, the 6-foot-9, 210-pound four-star is hoping to persuade one of his five-star Link Academy (Mo.) teammates, sharpshooting guard Jasper Johnson, to follow suit.
On Friday, Brown posted a photo of himself wearing Tar Heel gear and standing next to Johnson, who is ranked 12th among his 2025 peers but has not ruled out reclassification to 2024. Brown tagged Johnson in the post and asked his fans to “like” it if they thought Johnson “would look good in a North Carolina shirt too”:
Jasper Johnson, a lifelong UNC basketball fan who grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, recently returned from an official visit to Chapel Hill. He was in attendance, along with a fellow five-star 2025 target, Holy Innocents Episcopal (Ga.) forward Caleb Wilson, to watch the No. 3 Tar Heels defeat their archival opponent, now-No. 9 Duke.
“It was a great visit,” Johnson told recruiting insider Adam Zagoria. “[Hubert Davis and his staff] want me to play major minutes and make an immediate impact from day one.”
“[Reclassifying is] always an option, but I’ll probably stay in the class of 2025 just to give my body one more year before college. A couple of different schools would love to have me in 2024 or 2025, but it is my decision, and I will be patient.”
There are no 247Sportvibes Crystal Ball predictions in the race.
Johnson will pay an official visit to Kentucky this weekend before visiting Auburn the following weekend. The top ten teams are UNC, Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Missouri, Southern California, and West Virginia.
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