![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/reacts-hitting-three-point-shot-116897277.jpg\")
St. John\u2019s guard Ian Jackson (11) during a game against Ole Miss on Dec. 6, 2025. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\nRick Pitino is making a switch at point guard for Saturday.<\/p>\n
Ian Jackson will get the nod in place of Dylan Darling, the St. John\u2019s coach said Thursday before practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel that Ian has improved like Joson [Sanon] a great deal, he plays hard every single day. He\u2019s improving, and everybody has started from Dillon Mitchell to Dylan Darling \u2014 everybody but Ian Jackson,\u201d Pitino said as the No. 22 Johnnies prepared to host Iona at the Garden on Saturday. \u201cI think he deserves to have a chance to start as well, because starting to me is not meaningful, but starting to them is very meaningful and he deserves that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-5 native of The Bronx is averaging 11.4 points and 2.5 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game while shooting 35 percent from 3-point range. Jackson has been used mostly as a reserve. But now the sophomore guard will get a chance in the starting lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot. I feel like I\u2019ve put in a lot of work in practice to games just trying to be better every day,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThis is a tip to that, I guess. I feel like I\u2019m getting more comfortable as the days go on. I just feel better. Against Ole Miss [last Saturday], I felt way more comfortable than I did in prior games.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. John\u2019s guard Ian Jackson (11) during a game against Ole Miss on Dec. 6, 2025. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
Pitino believes Jackson is ready for a bigger opportunity. He has cut down on his turnovers in practice, and didn\u2019t have any in the win over Ole Miss last Saturday. He has taken positive steps forward as a defender and rebounder, something the coach has emphasized since the preseason. Jackson has always been a gifted scorer, but Pitino is seeing progress in his all-around game.<\/p>\n
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS<\/a> AND ST. JOHN\u2019S STATS<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLike [former St. John\u2019s star Daniss Jenkins], we have worked diligently to improve his assists, turnovers, rebounding, and him and Joson have improved immensely,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cIan Jackson has improved immensely since he\u2019s been here. \u2026 He\u2019s starting for the Iona game because of the improvement he has made. But it takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n Pitino said that Jackson at this point in his first year with him is further along than Jenkins was in his first season with Pitino at this juncture.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took [Daniss] a good three to four months from the summer on before he learned to really play the right way,\u201d Pitino said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s taken Ian three to four months to get to this point, where defense matters. He was averaging five to six [turnovers] every practice, which is unheard of, and now he\u2019s one or two, max. So he\u2019s come a long way.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tYour weekly dispatch from the No. 1 source on the Johnnies\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside St. John’s by Zach Braziller, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cIan\u2019s turnovers have come way down, his rebounding has gone way up, and his defense has gotten significantly better, same as Joson. I just think being a New Yorker you get over-scrutinized, it takes time to develop into a complete basketball player. When this season\u2019s over, he will be a complete basketball player ready to move on to whatever pastures he wants to get to.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson downplayed any pressure that comes with being home. He is thrilled to be able to see his family more frequently \u2014 roughly 20-25 people attend every game \u2014 and doesn\u2019t mind the heightened expectations that come with being back in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a level of understanding and discipline to myself to where outside things don\u2019t really affect me too much,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rick Pitino is making a switch at point guard for Saturday. Ian Jackson will get the nod in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3361,30243,30244,9,24,55,54,56,3362,319,3363],"class_list":["post-69356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-college-basketball","tag-dylan-darling","tag-ian-jackson","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-rick-pitino","tag-sports","tag-st-johns-red-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"St.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/st-johns-red-storm-dylan-116903425.jpg\")
St. John\u2019s guard Dylan Darling (0) during a game against Ole Miss on Dec. 6, 2025. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n