00:00These days in college basketball, when something doesn't work, it's not shocking when a player decides to leave.
00:05Wrong role? Transfer. Minutes aren't what you expected. Transfer.
00:10Think there's more money or a better opportunity somewhere else? Well, you know the answer.
00:14Ian Jackson had every reason to consider that option last spring.
00:18The former five-star recruit came home to New York with big expectations,
00:21and his first season at St. John's didn't go the way anyone envisioned.
00:25He averaged 9.4 points per game, shot 40.9% from the field,
00:30and spent significant time trying to learn a position he had never played before, point guard.
00:35Then something unusual happened. Head coach Rick Pitino told Jackson,
00:39quote, I put you in the wrong position. And Jackson, he did something different. He stayed.
00:52Jackson arrived at St. John's as a scoring guard. That's what he had been at North Carolina.
00:57That's what he had been his entire life. But last year, Pitino asked a player nicknamed Captain Jack
01:03to learn to point. The results were inconsistent. Jackson started 19 of 36 games and averaged just
01:09over 18 minutes. He shot 34.3% from three and averaged 1.3 assists. After the season,
01:15Pitino did something coaches don't always do. He put part of the blame on himself.
01:20But here's what makes last season interesting now. Because even while Jackson was struggling
01:26to find his offensive role, other parts of his game were growing. On February 28th against Villanova,
01:32we got a glimpse of the player Pitino was trying to develop. Jackson came off the bench
01:37and finished with 19 points, five rebounds, and a career-high five steals. But it wasn't just him
01:43filling up the box score. Captain Jack attacked the rim, moved without the ball, created offense
01:49with his defense, and made quicker decisions. Pitino said Jackson was learning to become
01:54a total player, not just a scorer. And that may be the irony of Jackson's sophomore season.
02:01Playing point guard may not have been the best role for him. But having to think like a point guard,
02:06read the floor, make decisions, and impact the game without simply hunting shots may have helped
02:12expand the player he can become a shooting guard. After the season, Pitino gave Jackson an out. He
02:18told him he would understand if he wanted to go somewhere else. Jackson's response was that he
02:23wasn't going anywhere. And he was all in on St. John's. And one of the people in his ear was
02:29someone
02:29who understands both Pitino and the process of developing as a guard. That's Cleveland Cavaliers
02:35all-star guard, Donovan Mitchell. Jackson has known Mitchell since high school. The two have worked
02:39out together, and Mitchell encouraged him to stick with Pitino after last season. This year,
02:45Jackson is back where Pitino believes he belongs, playing shooting guard. And now he has Quinn Ellis
02:50to handle the responsibility of organizing the offense. The move back to the two frees Jackson to
02:55do what he does best, which is to attack, run, shoot, and defend. Now, we're only two games
03:02into the season. So this is not a declaration that Jackson has arrived, but the early signs
03:08are interesting. In the season opener against Monmouth, Captain Jack scored 15 points, going
03:14six of 12 from the field, three of five from three. Then at Madison Square Garden against
03:18Iona, 17 points, seven of 12 shooting, and three more from downtown. So through the first
03:24two games, that's 32 points on 13 of 24 shooting, including six of 13 from deep. And his game isn't
03:30just limited to offense. After the Iona win, Pitino specifically pointed to Jackson, Tunde Yesufu,
03:37and Quinn Ellis as players who have helped St. John's deny the ball and make its press more
03:42effective early this season. That sounds a lot more like the total player Pitino was talking
03:47about last March. And here's the other part of Jackson's growth. St. John's doesn't need
03:53him to score 25 every night. This team has options. Keyshawn Hall, he can score. Yesufu can score as well.
04:00Ellis, he can create for everybody. What actually may make Jackson so valuable this season is his
04:06ability to fill the gaps, space the floor when Ellis has the ball, attack a rotating defense,
04:12turn pressure into transition, guard on the perimeter, and provide something most of this
04:17roster cannot. Experience playing for Rick Pitino at St. John's. Jackson is the lone returning starter
04:24from last year's team. So, his junior season isn't just about a bigger role, it's about a different
04:30one. Ian Jackson came to St. John's expecting his sophomore year to move his career forward,
04:35and it didn't happen the way he expected. So, the guard didn't treat it as an excuse to leave,
04:41but rather as a reason to come back. And maybe that's what makes his junior season so interesting.
04:46The point guard experiment may not have turned Ian Jackson into a point guard,
04:50but it appears to have transformed him into a better basketball player. Now, he's back at his
04:55natural position, he's more familiar with Pitino, he understands what winning at St. John's requires,
05:00and he doesn't have to prove he can beat everything. He just has to show how much he's grown.
05:07For more information, visit on theасleven.org.
05:07The Raven Sands
05:07The Raven Sands
