Five-star Kentucky Basketball commit Keldon Johnson was in the Bluegrass State over the weekend, as his Oak Hill Academy (Va.) squad competed in the Marshall County Hoopfest on Friday and Saturday in Benton, Ky.
The 6’6” shooting guard had a strong showing, averaging 15.5 points and six rebounds over two games in two days. He’s improved a lot since the summer, and one person he has to thank for that is NBA All-Star Kevin Durant, who recently critiqued Johnson’s game.
Durant posted a video last Tuesday breaking down the top high school players in the country. Johnson was one of those mentioned.
“It means a lot for Kevin Durant to be talking about you,” Johnson told the Herald Leader. “I looked at that video and took some of his advice. Everybody knows I can score, but now it’s just being a better teammate and getting my teammates more involved. So that’s the main aspect I’m trying to focus on — not necessarily just scoring all the time, but making my teammates happy. So we all can have fun, instead of just one person having fun.”
Certainly some mature comments coming from a senior in high school. For Kentucky Coach John Calipari, this should come as some encouraging news for a coach that has to pitch this team mentality to new talented faces each year. New Wildcats signees that will join Johnson in the class of 2018 (so far) are five-star point guard Immanuel Quickley and four-star shooting guard Tyler Herro.
Johnson is already playing with some serious talent at perennial powerhouse Oak Hill, including Class of 2018 signees to Florida, Oregon, and Kansas. Being able to play with great players makes it easy to go to a school like Kentucky that will also be loaded with great players.
That shouldn’t be surprising, however, since Johnson is set on a winning a national championship.
“I’ll go to Kentucky to make my family happy, make Coach Cal happy and win a National Championship," Johnson told Cats illustrated. "That’s the only thing I’ve got in mind. I don’t need to know what the outsiders think.”
Hopefully Kevin Durant posts some more videos breaking down Kentucky recruits, and they continue to listen to Durant’s advice.