Why Ian Jackson Could Be Ready For A Breakout At St. John's | Eye Of The Storm

These days in college basketball, when something doesn't work, it's not shocking when a player decides to leave. Wrong role? Transfer. Minutes aren't what you expected? Transfer. Think there's more money or a better opportunity somewhere else? Well, you know the answer. Ian Jackson had every reason to consider that option last spring. The former five-star recruit came home to New York with big expectations, and his first season at St. John's didn't go the way anyone envisioned. He averaged 9.4 points per game, shot 40.9% from the field and spent significant time trying to learn a position he had never played before, point guard. Then something unusual happened. Head coach Rick Pitino told Jackson, quote, I put you in the wrong position. Jackson, he did something different. He stayed. Jackson arrived at St. John's as a scoring guard. That's what he had been at North Carolina. That's what he had been his entire life. But last year, Pitino asked a player nicknamed Captain Jack to learn to point. The results were inconsistent. Jackson started 19 of 36 games and averaged just over 18 minutes. He shot 34.3% from three and averaged 1.3 assists. After the season, Patino did something coaches don't always do. He put part of the blame on himself. But here's what makes last season interesting now. Because even while Jackson was struggling to find his offensive role, other parts of his game were growing. On February 28th against Villanova, we got a glimpse Of the player Pitino was trying to develop, Jackson came off the bench and finished with 19 points, 5 rebounds, and a career-high 5 steals. But it wasn't just him filling up the box score. Captain Jack attacked the rim, moved without the ball, created offense with his defense, and made quicker decisions. Patino said Jackson was learning to become a total player, not just a scorer. And that may be the irony of Jackson's sophomore season. Playing point guard may not have been the best role for him, but having to think like a point guard, read the floor, make decisions, and impact the game without simply hunting shots may have helped expand the player he can become at shooting guard. After the season, Pitino gave Jackson an out. He told him he would understand if he wanted to go somewhere else. Jackson's response was that he wasn't going anywhere, and he was all in on St. John's. And one of the people in his ear was someone who understands both Patino and the process of developing as a guard. That's Cleveland Cavaliers all-star guard Donovan Mitchell. Jackson has known Mitchell since high school. The two have worked out together, and Mitchell encouraged him to stick with Patino after last season. This year, Jackson is back where Pitino believes he belongs, playing shooting guard, and now he has Quinn Ellis to handle the responsibility of organizing the offense. The move back to the two frees Jackson to do what he does best, which is to attack, run, shoot, and defend. Now, we're only two games into the season, so this is not a declaration that Jackson has arrived, but the early signs are interesting. In the season opener against Monmouth, Captain Jack scored 15 points, going 6 of 12 from the field, 3 of 5 from 3. Then, at Madison Square Garden against Iona, 17 points, 7 of 12 shooting, and 3 more from downtown. So, through the first two games, that's 32 points on 13 of 24 shooting, including 6 of 13 from deep. And his game isn't just limited to offense. After the Iona win, Pitino specifically pointed to Jackson, Tunde Yesufu, and Quinn Ellis as players who have helped St. John's deny the ball and make its press more effective early this season. That sounds a lot more like the total player Patino was talking about last March. And here's the other part of Jackson's growth. St. John's doesn't need him to score 25 every night. This team has options. Keyshawn Hall, he can score. Yesufu can score as well. Ellis, he can create for everybody. What actually may make Jackson so valuable this season is his ability to fill the gaps, space the floor when Ellis has the ball, attack a rotating defense, turn pressure into transition, guard on the perimeter, and provide something most of this roster cannot. Experience playing for Rick Pitino at St. John's. Jackson is the lone returning starter from last year's team, so his junior season isn't just about a bigger role, it's about a different one. Ian Jackson came to St. John's expecting his sophomore year to move his career forward, and it didn't happen the way he expected. So the guard didn't treat it as an excuse to leave, but rather as a reason to come back. And maybe that's what makes his junior season so interesting. The point guard experiment may not have turned Ian Jackson into a point guard, but it appears to have transformed him into a better basketball player. Now he's back at his natural position, he's more familiar with Pitino, he understands what winning at St. John's requires, and he doesn't have to prove he can beat everything. He just has to show how much he's grown.