The Huskers received some big news on Monday as 2018 Bishop O’Connell (Virginia) point guard Xavier Johnson pulled the trigger and committed to Coach Tim Miles and Nebraska.
https://twitter.com/TheXavierJ0/status/912489559530835968
Johnson is a 6-foot-3, 175-pound guard rated as a 3-star prospect who ran with Team Takeover out of Washington D.C. on the AAU circuit.
Johnson averaged 10.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists and shot 74 percent from the free-throw line as a junior for a 20-11 Bishop O’Connell squad that included James Madison freshman shooting guard Matt Lewis and Providence freshman forward Nate Watson, a top 100 2017 recruit.
Nebraska has been hitting the recruiting trail hard looking for a floor general of the future and Miles finally struck gold with Johnson. Nebraska has five guards set to be on the roster in 2018-19 including seniors-to-be Glynn Watson Jr. and James Palmer Jr., making backcourt depth a need going forward.
Johnson received 12 offers during his recruitment and narrowed down his list to six: Creighton, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, South Florida, Washington and Nebraska.
He took an official visit to Washington the weekend of Sept. 1, then narrowed his list to a final three of Georgetown, Georgia Tech and the Huskers. He took his second official visit to Lincoln the weekend of Sept. 14 along with Nate Roberts, a 3-star froward from Brewster Academy.
Johnson originally had an official visit to Georgia Tech scheduled for this past weekend but canceled the trip then announced on Twitter Sunday evening that he would be committing the next day.
Johnson is the second member of the 2018 class for Nebraska, joining Platteview (Nebraska) center Brady Heiman who committed on Aug 8. The Huskers still have two spots left in the 2018 class.
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
