It has been more than two months since Wisconsin stunned Kentucky in the national semifinals, ending Kentucky’s once-perfect season with a 38-1 record, but Dakari Johnson still hasn’t fully recovered.
“I’m still not over it, it’s still a tough loss,” the 7-foot Johnson told reporters Thursday at the Brooklyn Nets training facility.
Ironically, Wisconsin guard Josh Gasser was also part of the group workout, but Johnson said Gasser hadn’t busted his chops about the NCAA semifinal.
“Josh is here too, he’s actually a pretty cool guy,” Johnson said. “I don’t have any grudges against him….He’s a pretty cool guy.”
A Brooklyn native and former star at St. Patrick in New Jersey and Montverde (FL) Academy under coach Kevin Boyle, Johnson is currently projected by DraftExpress.com to go No. 44 to the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Draft.
“This is my fifth workout,” Johnson said. “I have about four or five more left so it’s a grind traveling from place to place but I’m definitely enjoying the process.”
SNY.tv first broke the news that he had decided to leave Kentucky after his sophomore season, becoming one of seven Wildcats eligible for the draft.
Of the six Wildcast on the Draft Express mock, Johnson is the lowest.
Andrew Harrison is projected at No. 41 to the Nets, while Aaron Harrison is not currently projected to get drafted.
“Every part of my game needs improvement,” Johnson said. “Every part of my game, from rebounding, conditioning, shooting, adding more post moves. I can always improve on every aspect of my game.”
Johnson is not the athlete that his fellow Kentucky big men Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein are. They are projected to go No. 1 and No. 5, respectively.
But he has been working out in Los Angeles with Towns, Cauley-Stein and Ohio State guard D’Angelo Russell — the projected No. 4 pick to the Knicks — under the guidance of former UCLA star Don MacLean.
“Actually the past three weeks we’ve been working out in L.A. with Don MacLean,” Johnson said. “It’s great to keep on competing with them even after college to get ready for this moment.”
MacLean told SNY.tv he’s been impressed with Johnson’s development.
“Dakari’s better than I thought he was,” MacLean said by phone from L.A.
“I think Dakari, like a lot of guys, now understands that this is serious business and that it’s time to make a living out of this and I think Dakari’s going to be better than people think. We’re really working on stuff that I think is going to show well, and he’s going to have to work out for a lot of teams. But he works, he’s not afraid of the work. He’s not as good as Karl, but better than I thought. He shoots it pretty well, Dakari. That makes him more valuable. He can shoot it out to 19 [feet] which makes him a lot more valuable than other bigs that can’t shoot.
“I think that will really come through in his team workouts and I think the way the game’s going now, the way it’s played, you have to be able to shoot, so that may move him up a decent amount.”
