Saturday, Kentucky Assistant Coach Orlando Antigua attended the St Patrick vs St. Benedict’s game in New Jersey.
Coach Antigua was there to support 2011 Kentucky commit, and top 5 prospect, Michael Gilchrist, but he was also there to see 2014 recruit Dakari Johnson.
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Dakari Johnson is not a household name in most homes within the Big Blue Nation, but don’t be surprised if it isn’t a name you see pop up more and more.
Johnson, a Freshman at St Patrick High School in Elizabeth, NJ, already stands an amazing 6-10 and weighs in at 235 pounds.
One of the few true Centers, Johnson is quickly making a name for himself. Here’s what ESPN and Scout.com has to say.
[B]- [/B][B][URL=”http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/119182/dakari-johnson”]ESPN[/URL][/B]: Dakari is a true force whenever he steps on the court. He plays up a grade in the 15 & Under division and he’s still dominant. He has a strong body and good hands. His feet and footwork are good for a player so young.
He’s an excellent scorer inside and his teammates make a concerted effort to get him the ball in the paint. He scores mostly off short face up shots in the lane but will show an occasional post move scoring over his left shoulder. Johnson is an excellent rebounder with his big body and strong hands.
Johnson is an excellent prospect and has to be considered at or near the top of the 2014 class at this point.[URL=”http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/119182/dakari-johnson”]
[/URL][URL=”http://scouthoops.scout.com/a.z?s=75&p=8&c=1&nid=4907705″][B]- SCOUT[/B][/URL]: You won’t find many freshman that stand 6-foot-9, 240-pounds, but it turns out Johnson was matched up with another 2014 prospect – Jahlil Okafor — that was close to his size. Johnson let the game come to him, showed a good set of hands and finished a couple of buckets at the rim. Johnson appears to be the next big name out of St. Pat’s.
His early list of schools include Syracuse, [B]Kentucky[/B], Villanova and Xavier. Here’s the young man many have compared to Shaq at work.
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[LEFT]Go Cats!!!
[SIZE=2]Contact Chip Miller with your Kentucky questions or comments at [EMAIL=”[email protected]”][email protected][/EMAIL], via twitter at [URL=”http://twitter.com/ukbigbluenation”]@ukbigbluenation[/URL] or here at N of B, at his NofB Profile, by [URL=”http://www.nationofblue.com/members/chip-miller/”]clicking here[/URL].[/SIZE] [/LEFT]
