Ian Jackson Not a “Best Case Scenario” for St. John’s Thanks to National Reporter’s Harsh Wake-Up Call

New Yorkers had looked every bit ready to roll out the carpet and put up the banners for Johnnies with the pace they were moving at. “About 10 minutes ago,” Rick Pitino would say when asked when he last thought this was a team capable of winning a championship. They had just secured the conference title. Seemed to be on top of the world. But one bad day with shooting was all it took to pull them back to earth. One show of weakness and Pitino has to do it all over again. He has been here countless times before in his 50-year career. Exactly why the analysts trust him to turn things around. But has the portal been cooperative with the Hall of Famer?

Pitino made swift moves in adding Joson Sanon, Bryce Hopkins, and Oziyah Sellers weeks post the 2024-25 season. But his real deal breaker came in the form of Ian Jackson from UNC. The No.8 recruit of his class, single-handedly propelled Pitino’s transfer class to rank only below Michigan. ‘A massive transfer,’ the headlines ran. Pitino was bringing in a guard after losing RJ Luis. Jr. to transfer portal. This was a guy the staff at St. John’s had eyed for a while.

It was a win-win– a program on the rise and a highly touted young talent. But is it really? While Pitino expressed excitement and more than a few nodded, national basketball reporter Jeff Goodman is here to question the scenario. And maybe speak what a lot of them have been itching to.

“Their top option at the point was not Ian Jackson,” Goodman begins. A proven shooting guard over the years, the UNC transfer is expected to take the role of a point guard with the Red Storm. Pitino announced it himself. “We had Big shoes to fill at the point,” the head coach said in a social media post. “The ball is now in the hands of our next great point. Let’s Go Ian!!!” Now that is the problem for St. John’s.

“Ian Jackson is not the best case scenario for St. John’s. Maybe it is, if they win a national title next year, but to me, he’s a scorer. We have seen him play enough- he is not a point guard who looks to distribute the basketball,” he adds. Rightly so. Jackson hardly averaged one assist per game last season. While Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith, the two guards in the position before him, averaged 5.3 and 3.9, respectively. Surely big shoes to fill. 

Trust Jackson to create his own shots. He averaged 45.6% from the field last season and 39.5% from the three. But creating for others? That raises eyebrows. Now there’s speculation that the 5-star recruit wants to show his entire game after failing to do so with the Tar Heels, starting 12 games and averaging 23.8 minutes. But if you were to ask Goodman to reason the move, he’d say, St. John’s had no good point guard options in the transfer portal to begin with.

The one they had — Xaivian Lee, a Princeton transfer averaging 16.9 points and 5.5 assists, ended up with the defending champions, Florida Gators, instead. Goodman isn’t shying away from saying it as is. “They just had a pretty good shot at Ian Jackson all the way along,” he adds. While all the signs point towards this not being a ideal move, many, including the reporter here is ready to give him the benefit of the doubt. Why? It has all got to do with the man in the lead himself.

“Now, he’s got arguably the best coach in America right now tutoring him on how to become a point guard but I think it’s going to take time,” Goodman adds. No doubt there. It was Pitino who had said his first year at St. John’s was ‘the most unenjoyable experience of his career’. It was he who had bashed the Johnnies for being the most unathletic. Fast forward a year and you’d see where he had taken the program. A first conference title since 2000. 

Defense. Toughness. Pitino had built a brand of basketball. After securing the Big East title, someone on the broadcast would say, ‘he’s making the coaches look good’. So, if there’s anyone you’d trust with developing Jackson’s game, it is Rick Pitino. Or maybe not just Jackson’s. The Red Storm have all the eyes on them after stunning the world as they did last season. So, where is the head coach standing right now?

Still a task ahead for Rick Pitino

Rick Pitino may have landed the No.2 transfer class right now, but he cannot ignore the gaps on the roster. He recently lost big man prospect Khaman Maker to DePaul in the transfer portal. It was soon followed by the news of another big moving on. Vince Iwuchukwu, a 7-foot-1 center reportedly entered the portal only hours before it closed on Tuesday.

Iwuchukwu was a five-star recruit coming into college and played his first two seasons in the NCAA with USC. Though he saw limited minutes in St. John’s, he was expected to be an efficient rim protector and a strong finisher in the paint. This leaves Pitino without a notable big. Plus, Goodman isn’t banking on Ian Jackson reaching the expected heights in the first year. So, there lies another task for the head coach to hunt for a backup point guard.

But whatever roster Pitino ends up with, expect him to go all the way through. “If there is one guy in in college basketball that I would trust to be able to find a way to make it work with a bunch of guards that are maybe shoot first, it’s the guy that is coaching the St. John’s,” Rob Dauster says. Rick Pitino may not have much left to prove at 70. But a ring at St. John’s? That one’s gonna be for the history books. 

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