Top-five prospect in 2024 recruiting class cuts his list. Kentucky didn’t make it.
The Kentucky men’s basketball program still has only one commit in the 2024 recruiting class, and you can cross off the name of another potential recruit that the Wildcats were pursuing.
Shooting guard Tre Johnson, formerly the No. 1-ranked prospect in the 2024 recruiting group, announced Tuesday he would only be considering Baylor and Texas moving forward.
Johnson previously had a top six list of Alabama, Arkansas, Baylor, Kansas, Kentucky, and Texas.
Originally from Texas, Johnson spent his first three high school seasons playing for Lake Highlands High School in Dallas. This offseason, he transferred to Link Academy, a new prep basketball powerhouse in Missouri.
Johnson is teammates at Link Academy with former Woodford County High School standout Jasper Johnson, who is a top Kentucky recruit in the 2025 class.
“I don’t know where I’m at yet, and I really don’t have a timeline (for committing),” Tre Johnson told the Herald-Leader on Saturday evening at the USA Basketball junior national team minicamp in Colorado Springs.
“Just want to see what’s the best place for me right now.”
Tre Johnson has long been viewed as a prospect likely to stay close to his original home.
Johnson’s father played college basketball at Baylor. And while the elder Johnson was there, current Texas head coach Rodney Terry was an assistant coach for the Bears.
The 6-foot-5 guard took a second official visit to both Baylor and Texas this fall.
He previously took an official visit to Kentucky in January, when the Wildcats hosted Kansas for a marquee non-conference game in Rupp Arena.
Johnson was also planning to visit Alabama and Arkansas this fall, according to 247Sports, but unsurprisingly those visits have now been canceled.
Johnson ranks as a five-star prospect in the 2024 class and is the No. 4 overall player in the class, according to the 247Sports Composite.
When speaking to the Herald-Leader last weekend, Johnson noted that college coaches have told him he would be allowed to have freedom on offense, as long as he plays defense, too.
“He’s one of those guys that you’ve got to look at as a true off-ball guard,” 247Sports analyst Brandon Jenkins, who specializes in Texas recruiting, told the Herald-Leader in January about Johnson. “He’s able to make a lot of things happen while playing with other good players on the floor. That’s how his game projects. And he has a chance to be pretty special in that regard.”
While any out-of-state school was likely a long shot to land Johnson, some ties existed between the Kentucky program and Johnson.
One of those connections was through former UK player and current NBA star Tyrese Maxey, who is also from Dallas.
“I’ve been watching him since he was younger, and it’s just good to see him progress, getting better every single day and every single year,” Maxey told the Herald-Leader last summer when asked about Johnson.
“Now being able to get recruited by the big-name schools and even a school that I went to. It’s just great. I just give him the advice that I can. I tell him, of course, that I want him to go to Kentucky, but I just want him to be successful.”
The North Texas region has proved to be a fruitful recruiting area in recent years for head coach John Calipari and the UK program.
In addition to Maxey, the likes of Julius Randle, Cason Wallace and P.J. Washington all spent some of their high school years in the region.
But Johnson won’t be joining that list of Wildcats to come from the Dallas area.
