Rick Pitino’s St. John’s saw their Top 25 ranking slip away after a loss to Mark Pope’s Kentucky in a teacher-versus-student showdown. But the Johnnies wasted no time responding, bouncing back with a win over Harvard behind a standout performance from Ian Jackson, who then received some pointed instruction from Pitino on how to make sure nights like that become the norm.

“The next thing he’s got to learn is denying the man the ball. He found out about pre-switching tonight. And then once the guy catches the ball, learn to beat him to the spot rather than bump him,” Pitino said in the postgame press conference. “Look, I’m real proud of him. I get on him hard because I love him. I want him to be a great player.”

When Pitino walked into this season with 11 new players, including five-star recruit Ian Jackson out of North Carolina, there was one big thing missing from his roster. With Simeon Wilcher transferring to Texas and Kadary Richmond, who was in the arena to watch the win over Harvard, heading to the pros, St. John’s was set to begin the season without a true point guard.

Pitino’s experiment of having Oziyah Sellers share ball-handling duties with Zuby Ejiofor clearly didn’t work, as the Johnnies dropped games to Alabama, Iowa State, and Auburn with that setup. That’s when the coach decided it was time to hand the keys to Jackson at point guard, and so far, it’s paid off.

The Bronx native made his fourth straight start at the point on Tuesday night and once again delivered. His defense fueled a 22–4 run to close the first half, and he buried four threes as St. John’s cruised to an emphatic 85–59 win over Harvard at Carnesecca Arena.

In his four starts at point guard, Jackson is averaging 12 points, four rebounds, and two assists in 23.7 minutes, with just 1.5 turnovers per game. He’s committed only two turnovers over the past three games and didn’t have a single one against Harvard.

However, that has to become the norm. As Pitino pointed out, the former Tar Heel still has more turnovers (20) than assists (15) on the season right now.

The Johnnies head into the holiday break knowing that if Jackson keeps growing into that field general role, the future could look a whole lot brighter from here on. So…

What’s next for Rick Pitino and co?

St. John’s will head to Capital One Arena in Washington to take on the Georgetown Hoyas on New Year’s Eve. The Hoyas are 9–4 on the season, while the Red Storm are 8–4, so there’s very little separating these two sides, and all signs point to a cracker of a matchup.

St. John’s is putting up 85.9 points per game while allowing 71.7, compared to Georgetown’s 79.5 points scored and 73.6 conceded per night. Naturally, with that edge on paper, ESPN has Rick Pitino’s side as the favorites, giving the Johnnies a 77.8% chance of coming away with the win.

St. John’s setbacks this season have all come against ranked teams, while Georgetown’s only loss to a ranked opponent among their four defeats was against North Carolina. There’s still work for Rick Pitino to do in molding a group with 11 new faces, but with every passing game, belief in Queens is only growing (rather cautiously).

Do you see St. John’s making a deep Big Dance run this season? Let us know in the comments down below!