{"id":279917,"date":"2025-10-05T16:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279917\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T16:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T16:57:10","slug":"sophomore-transfer-is-the-x-factor-for-st-johns-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/279917\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophomore Transfer is the X-Factor for St. John’s This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former UNC five-star guard Ian Jackson<\/a> had an inconsistent freshman season. Can Rick Pitino tap into Jackson\u2019s potential?<\/p>\n

Sophomore Transfer is the X-Factor for St. John\u2019s This Season<\/p>\n

Jackson entered his freshman season with plenty of hype around him. Originally a five-star recruit, Jackson was expected to be a transformational piece for the Tar Heels. Ultimately, that was not the case, as North Carolina fell way short of expectations, finishing 23-14 and losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. There were many factors to explain the Tar Heels\u2019 underperformance, but the program failed to get the best out of Jackson\u2019s time in Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n

Once a top-10 recruit<\/a> (per 247Sports), Jackson was expected by many to be a one-and-done prospect. However, he failed to capture consistency as a two-way player. While Jackson flashed the offensive talent that made him a promising talent in the first place, he struggled on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

Shortly after the end of the season, Ian Jackson entered the transfer portal. Jackson had many interested teams but ultimately ended up picking St. John\u2019s<\/a>. St. John\u2019s is coming off a successful season, winning the Big East regular season title and Big Tournament. However, despite earning a two seed, St. John\u2019s ended up losing in the second round to Arkansas. Rick Pitino has done an impressive job making St. John\u2019s one of the best Big East teams, but he must have more success in March.<\/p>\n

Jackson is an offensive X-Factor for Pitino<\/p>\n

Rick Pitino has been known for being a more defensive-oriented head coach. St. John\u2019s was one of the best defensive teams in the country last season. Unfortunately, their offense, especially in the halfcourt, led to their defeat in March Madness. St. John\u2019s is currently expected to be one of the most talented teams in the country for this upcoming season. If St. John\u2019s wants to be a title contender and possibly win the national championship, St. John\u2019s must be elite on offense.<\/p>\n

For context, St. John\u2019s was the #2 rated defensive team according to KenPom rankings, but they finished 68th on offense. Typically, along with elite defense, past national champions have a top-30-ranked KenPom offense. To help address the offensive concerns, St. John\u2019s brought in key transfer players such as Joson Sanon<\/a> and Bryce Hopkins<\/a>. However, the transfer that has the biggest ability to lead St. John\u2019s to a dominant offense is Ian Jackson.<\/p>\n

Pitino plan for Jackson might come as a surprise<\/p>\n

Based on Ian Jackson\u2019s performances with the Tar Heels, he is a player that is very capable of scoring in bursts. Jackson is also capable of scoring from all three levels. However, his playmaking and defense are two crucial areas that need work under Pitino. Jackson\u2019s development was likely hindered by his inconsistent rotation minutes throughout the year. Jackson will have to make a defensive leap in order to get consistent minutes under Pitino.<\/p>\n

Despite the deficiencies in his defense and playmaking, Jackson likely hasn\u2019t hit his best level yet. Recently, Pitino made an interesting comment<\/a>, saying that the point guard position is done in modern basketball. While Jackson will be the starting point guard on paper<\/a>, Jackson will likely split ballhandling roles with other players. This should likely take the pressure off of him as a playmaker and give him more freedom as a shot creator. Should Jackson make a defensive leap, Jackson has the chance to be a crucial piece for Rick Pitino in his third season at St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former UNC five-star guard Ian Jackson had an inconsistent freshman season. Can Rick Pitino tap into Jackson\u2019s potential?…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":279918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1339,144719,1317,1337,1338,62,1378,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-279917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-ian-jackson","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaabasketball","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-st-johns-red-storm","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115322620839512111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}