When St. John’s guard Ian Jackson strolled into Carnesecca Arena for his exit interview in the spring, Rick Pitino assumed that the sophomore was about to deliver some unfortunate news. “We all thought that he was definitely leaving,” Pitino tells Hoops HQ.
Despite the team’s success, it had been a challenging individual season for Jackson, who had transferred in from North Carolina the previous April to a lot of fanfare. The New York native struggled to adjust to a new position and ultimately fell out of the starting lineup. His numbers decreased nearly across the board from his freshman campaign, a disappointing outcome for a much-anticipated homecoming.
As a result, Pitino believed Jackson was headed for the transfer portal. “That’s how things go now,” Jackson says. “If things don’t go well for a year, guys just up and leave. So that’s where he thought my mind was at. But I was in a totally different headspace from what he presumed.”
As the meeting got underway, Pitino spoke first.
“Ian, we had great success this year. I’m sorry you didn’t have great success individually, but that’s my fault,” he said. “It’s not your fault. I played you out of position. It’s all on me. You go transfer. Wherever you want to go, I’ll talk you up to any coach you want to play for. We love you here, and I certainly know you’re going to be a great player. I want to wish you luck. And wherever you go, I’ll be watching every game and be behind you 100 percent.”
“Coach,” Jackson replied, “I’m not going anywhere.”
By re-committing to the Red Storm, Jackson went against the advice of many in his inner circle and “bucked the system,” as Pitino puts it. In the era of NIL and loose transfer restrictions, most players turn to the portal when things don’t go their way. They run from adversity, rather than facing it head on. Jackson’s decision to come back showed not just a resilience that’s becoming rarer in college basketball today, but also his unwavering trust in Pitino.
It also dramatically changed the Red Storm’s outlook for the 2026-27 season. Jackson is back at his normal position and vastly improved, having learned from his past struggles. As he boldly proclaimed on social media, Pitino believes Jackson is going to be “one of the best players in the nation” this year. If the 6-foot-5 junior wing lives up to his full potential, St. John’s has a good chance to repeat as Big East champion and make another deep run in March. “I think he’s going to be a much better basketball player because of that experience (last year),” Pitino says. “I really do.”
Jackson first rose to prominence at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, where he won multiple state titles and scored more than 1,000 points over three seasons. A lightning-quick guard with exceptional offensive talent, he became a local legend and a top-10 prospect in the Class of 2024. After playing his senior year at Our Saviour Lutheran, Jackson left New York to suit up for Hubert Davis at North Carolina.
It was a rocky season for the Tar Heels, but Jackson showed flashes of brilliance. He earned ACC All-Freshman honors with averages of 11.9 points (second on the team) and 2.7 rebounds while shooting 39.5 percent from three. During one especially hot stretch from late December to early January, he became the first UNC freshman ever to score 23 or more points in four consecutive outings.
When he entered the portal that April, Jackson drew considerable interest from top schools across the country. He was ranked as the No. 7 overall transfer by 247Sports. He eventually chose St. John’s, a decision that invited a great deal of pressure since he would be playing for a Hall of Fame coach in his home state. But Jackson wasn’t concerned about that; he believed it was the best move for his career, so he ignored the outside noise.
“Everybody else was like, ‘That’s going to be a lot of pressure,’ and filling his head with that more than focusing on the job at hand,” Latisha Simon, Jackson’s mom, tells Hoops HQ. “And he wanted to challenge himself.”
St. John’s believed it would also be landing Princeton transfer Xaivian Lee, a 6-foot-4 floor general and two-time First Team All-Ivy League selection, that offseason. But Lee ultimately committed to Florida, leaving the Red Storm with a hole at the point guard spot.
Pitino opted to shift Jackson from shooting guard to point guard, a risky experiment that proved unsuccessful. Jackson had no prior experience at the position and had dealt with turnover problems throughout his freshman season. “When I played him at the point guard, it made it worse,” Pitino says. “He just was a duck out of water. It wasn’t his position.”
Jackson admits the transition was “difficult.” He went from never playing point guard to playing it at the highest level of college basketball, in a conference known for its tough defense. His turnovers increased and his efficiency plummeted. In league play, he averaged more turnovers than assists and shot just 38.2 percent from the field. Prior to the Big East Tournament, he was replaced in the starting lineup by Dylan Darling.
The criticism of Jackson grew louder as the season progressed, but while the hometown kid may have been frustrated by his struggles at times, he never quit. “Not wanting to let coach down or let himself down, I think he sat with that just for a little bit as it was happening,” says Simon. “But he didn’t stay there very long.”
Instead, Jackson stuck with it and made key contributions down the stretch. He had 19 points in a late-February game against Villanova and 14 in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals against Providence. In the Red Storm’s thrilling round of 32 win over Kansas during the NCAA Tournament, he provided a big spark off the bench, scoring 10 points in 20 minutes.
“He’s the youngest of my five, and I have raised them all to know that anything worth having, you have to be willing to work hard for it,” Simon continues. “You have to stay in it. You have to stay consistent. And you have to let the noise be in the background. It can’t be louder than what you’re trying to do.”
“That’s just who I am. That’s how I was raised,” Jackson adds. “I think that that was just a nod to my parents and a nod to myself as a person, to just go through those kinds of experiences and persevere and fight through.”
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Still, after the Red Storm were knocked out by Duke in the Sweet Sixteen, the widespread belief was that Jackson would not be back in a St. John’s uniform. Not only had the year not gone as planned, but Jackson was being told by seemingly everyone in his life to leave. Speculation that he was bound for the portal wasn’t limited to fans and media; it also spread to Pitino’s staff.
In reality, though, Jackson never contemplated transferring. His faith in Pitino remained strong, and he felt that there was unfinished business — both personally and collectively. He couldn’t envision walking away after St. John’s had one of its best seasons in program history, winning the Big East title and advancing to the second weekend of the Big Dance for the first time since 1999. “He didn’t wrestle with (the decision),” Simon reveals. “He knew what he wanted to do.”
St. John’s was already losing four of its top five scorers from the 2025-26 season — Zuby Ejiofor, Bryce Hopkins, Dillon Mitchell and Oziyah Sellers — due to expiring eligibility, so getting Jackson back was a massive development. But when Pitino received the news during Jackson’s exit interview, he wasn’t even thinking about the basketball implications. “I just was so happy to have him back as a person because I felt I had let him down,” Pitino says. “And I wanted to really do something about that.”
Jackson is returning to the shooting guard position this season, starting in the backcourt alongside a highly skilled traditional point in Quinn Ellis. A former pro overseas, Ellis was a star on the Italian club Olimpia Milano, which competes in Serie A and the EuroLeague. He and Jackson have quickly developed chemistry and should form one of the best backcourt duos in the nation.
Jackson has improved immensely since he joined St. John’s 18 months ago. He has always been a talented scorer, but now the 21-year-old has become “a well-rounded basketball player in all phases,” Pitino says. He is better at setting up his teammates and running the offense. He is a more committed defender and rebounder — in the Red Storm’s 87-74 exhibition win over No. 7 Texas last weekend, he grabbed six rebounds (second on the team). “(Last year) was a year of ups and downs and me facing different challenges,” Jackson says. “But I think those are things that I needed to face that are actually going to help me in the long run. I learned to adapt to different things and figure out different ways to be impactful.”
This was Jackson’s first offseason in a while where he didn’t have to worry about acclimating to a new team. That allowed him to focus fully on his training, which included working out with NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell, a friend and mentor dating back to when Jackson was in high school. Mitchell played two seasons for Pitino at Louisville (2015-17) and took a major leap during his second year. With a role he’s more comfortable in and a familiarity with Pitino’s system, Jackson looks poised to do the same.
As the 2026-27 campaign gets underway, Jackson is one of the main reasons the Red Storm are ranked No. 13 and have realistic dreams of hoisting the national championship trophy in April. He was also voted a co-captain (along with 6-foot-7 senior forward Babacar Sane) by his teammates. “To go from where I was last year to where I am now, being the captain, it means a lot to me,” Jackson says. “It means a lot that my teammates look at me as someone who can lead the group and guide everybody in the right direction. It’s just a nod to the work and to my development as a person.”
And, of course, to the fact that Jackson didn’t run from adversity — that he bucked the system.
“I think adversity makes you stronger if you handle it the right way,” Pitino says, “and he handled it the right way.”
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