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SALT LAKE CITY โ Craig Smith finally got a win on the recruiting trail.
Going into his third season as the head coach of the University of Utah men's basketball team, Smith got a commitment from a big-time in-state player Thursday afternoon, the first of his tenure with the program.
Alta High small forward Jaxon Johnson, a four-star recruit, announced his commitment to the University of Utah Thursday afternoon at a ceremony in his school's gym. Johnson, who will begin his senior season at Alta this month, picked the Utes over BYU, Stanford and USC.
Johnson had offers from several other programs, including California, Nevada and Utah State, but ultimately chose Utah because he wanted to "play at a high level and get a good education" and he had trust in the coaching staff.
4-star Alta High forward @JaxonJohnson_13 announces his decision to play at @UtahMBB over BYU, Stanford and USC.
— Josh Furlong (@JFurKSL) November 2, 2023
That's a big recruiting win for Craig Smith in his third year with the Utes. pic.twitter.com/4TJBFGSKFN
The 6-foot-8, 190-pound small forward is part of the 2024 recruiting class, but is expected to serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints before he enrolls with the school in 2026.
Still, it's Smith's first in-state win in his three-year tenure at Utah.
As a junior last season, Johnson averaged 16.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game for Alta, while also spending time on the Adidas basketball circuit with the Utah Prospects AAU team.
Johnson helped the Utah Prospects to a 62-52 win over Game Elite in the Adidas 3SSB under-17 national championship, where he was named the MVP for his performance. The team also included Corner Canyon's Brody Kozlowski, who recently committed to play at USC.
. @UtahProspects won the #3SSBChampionships
— ๐๐๐น๐โฏ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐โฏ๐ (@Andrew__Slater) July 10, 2023
-Jaxon Johnson'24 @JaxonJohnson_13 won MVP๐
-Big Contributions from
Brody Kozlowski @BrodyKozlowski
Isiah Harwell'25 @isiah_harwell1
Julian Bowie @julianbowie5
Malick Diallo @MalickDialloAwa
Owen Mackay @ODawgMackay
& Jordy Barnes pic.twitter.com/mk1ukJ0c4t
