Top basketball recruit from nearby Huntington has UK’s attention and a crucial skill
Often, when a highly touted basketball recruit gets to play in front of a large crowd of college coaches for the first time, he plays it cool when asked about the emotions of the moment.
There’s usually a lot of talk about not looking into the stands and concentrating solely on the game at hand.
Credit to Maki Johnson for telling the truth about what many such players are almost certainly truly thinking.
“Definitely,” Johnson said about peeking into the bleachers during the first July recruiting period. “Actually, in the middle of the game, I looked up and saw a couple of coaches — I was a little starstruck.”
In this particular game Saturday morning, Johnson helped lead his Wildcat Select program to a victory on the Adidas 3SSB circuit, the shoe company league’s first stop of July and the first chance college coaches got to see these teams play in person this summer.
Johnson — a 6-foot-4 combo guard from Huntington, W.Va. — said after this game that he specifically noticed a couple of “big names” — Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua and new Louisville assistant Ross McMains — in the stands. And there were plenty of others representing major colleges, including West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins, who took in some of the game.
“It’s been great. This is my first time playing in front of college coaches — my first time ever,” Johnson said. “So it’s a good experience. I really like the energy out here. I try to approach it like any other game, but there’s always a difference when you got high-major schools watching.”
The West Virginia native’s recruitment is attracting plenty of eyes from the highest levels of college basketball.
Going into July, he’s the No. 58 overall player in the 2023 class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings. He has recent scholarship offers from Louisville, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Penn State and Dayton. Kansas and Nebraska offered in the spring. Last year, Auburn, Maryland, Virginia Tech and Xavier all extended early offers, after Johnson’s freshman season.
On June 15 — the first day that college coaches could directly contact players from the 2023 recruiting class — Johnson’s phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
“I was getting calls at midnight,” he said with a smile. “I got like six calls that night, and the next day my phone was just blowing up. I felt kind of famous. It was kind of nice.”
One of the coaches that reached out that day was Antigua, who rejoined the UK coaching staff this spring for his second stint with the program.
“I’d love to get an offer from them,” Johnson said. “Hopefully I’ll hear from him after this tournament. If I play a little better.”
That last line showed the type of mature approach Johnson is taking to his recruitment. He knows a scholarship offer from a program like Kentucky will need to be earned over time, and this past weekend might have been the first big step on that journey. He was realistic about what he needs to do to get better. He’s been working on his ball-handling and playmaking ability, while continuing to hone his shooting stroke — the clear strength of his game — and has focused on improving as a defender, perhaps the key to unlocking his full potential.
For now, it’s that ability to make shots that has captured the attention of college coaches and national talent evaluators.
“He’s a really confident shooter. He can get hot from three,” 247Sports analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader. “He’s also skilled. Plays with some swagger to him. And he also has good size for the position. He can impact the game in a few different areas with his passing and playmaking ability, which all come off his ability to make shots. That’s his biggest strength, and that’s what opens up the rest of his game.”
Johnson has already taken unofficial visits to a handful of relatively local schools — including U of L and Ohio State — and, while he doesn’t have any other recruiting trips planned for the near future, he still has two years of high school ahead of him, and Kentucky is clearly on the list of programs he’d like to hear more from in the future.
Johnson isn’t as highly ranked as most UK recruiting targets, but he has a game — and a particular skill — that’s suited for the current direction of the sport. And as outside shooting continues to become a more coveted trait at the highest levels, the biggest programs are looking a little further down the recruiting rankings for their players.
Branham noted that Jaden Schutt — the No. 169 player in the 2022 composite rankings — picked up a scholarship offer from Duke over the weekend. Michigan State had already made the 6-5 sharp-shooting guard a major recruiting priority.
“He’s a similar type,” Branham said of Johnson. “That’s a very valuable thing right now — that ability to shoot the basketball, especially with guys who have size and skill to them. Jaden Schutt fits that mold, and obviously some of these top-tier programs like Duke, Indiana, Michigan State — they’re all valuing it.
“And it’s something that you might start seeing more with Kentucky down the road.”
