St. John’s injury luck has hit a snag.
Starting guard Ian Jackson will miss Saturday afternoon’s game at the Garden against Creighton with a sprained ankle.
Jackson suffered the injury early in the first half at Marquette, and was able to finish the game after getting the ankle taped up.
“He’s got a pretty good ankle sprain. He’s in a boot from the other night,” coach Rick Pitino said.
“He showed a little toughness, went back and got re-taped and played through pain [on Wednesday].”
Pitino is uncertain if Jackson will be able to return for the following game at No. 5 Connecticut on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-5 Jackson is one of the 17th-ranked Johnnies’ best shooters and most talented players. Nevertheless, he has not been finishing games, as Pitino goes with Dylan Darling in crunch time.
“I will say this about Ian: Ian the other day in practice had 12 assists and 11 rebounds. His trajectory is going the right way as a basketball player, learning to do other things [than score],” Pitino said.
“The other night he went after loose balls hard, where he had a total flip [once]. He’s improving on the other areas he was basically missing. So we’re going to miss that.”
It’s unclear who will start in place of Jackson.
Pitino can go with Joson Sanon or Darling alongside Oziyah Sellers in the backcourt.
It’s possible sharpshooting sophomore Lefteris Liotopoulos sees an uptick in minutes.
The Greek guard is coming off a strong eight-point performance off the bench, and he enjoyed the best game of his career in the first contest against Creighton, when Liotopoulos exploded for 17 points and five 3-pointers.
There was a large St. John’s contingent at Thursday night’s Knicks-Pistons game at the Garden to support former Johnnie Daniss Jenkins.
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Pitino, associate head coach Steve Masiello, assistant coach Ricky Johns, graduate assistant Stephen Boateng and players Zuby Ejiofor and Sadiku Ibine Ayo were in attendance to watch the Pistons player who has become a part of the Eastern Conference’s leaders rotation as the backup to star Cade Cunningham.
“It was great. Daniss is getting a lot of minutes,” Pitino said. “He’s on a great team. It’s exciting for him.”
Pitino and Masiello had courtside seats, while Ejiofor and Co. were a number of rows back.
“I don’t think Coach likes me as much as you guys might think,” Ejiofor said jokingly.
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