3 takeaways from St. John's season-opening win over Quinnipiac
St. John's Red Storm guard Ian Jackson looks on in the second half of an NCAA men’s basketball game against the Quinnipiac Bobcats at Carnesecca Arena on Monday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
St. John’s opened the 2025-26 season on Monday by unveiling banners to celebrate last season’s Big East regular-season championship, its Big East Tournament title and coach Rick Pitino being named national coach of the year. Then it showed how much better this team could be by decimating MAAC favorite Quinnipiac, 108-74, before a sellout crowd at Carnesecca Arena.
Despite all the success — a school record-tying 31 wins, a No. 2 seeding in the NCAA Tournament and its first tourney victory since 2000 — that team consistently had to overcome its poor shooting to win, especially on three-pointers. That doesn’t look as if it will be a problem this time around. St. John’s shot 56.5% from the field and 42.1% (8-for-19) from outside the arc.
Here are three takeaways from the season-opening victory:
1. The Ian Jackson everyone anticipated has begun to show up.
The highly anticipated homecoming of the North Carolina transfer and high school All-American from the Bronx got off to a bumpy start as he struggled in St. John’s two exhibition games, going a combined 4-for-13 shooting. But Jackson said during a team appearance a week earlier that he would be the player everyone was looking for when the season started.
Jackson delivered on Monday with 15 points, making all six of his shots, including 3-for-3 on three-point attempts. The Red Storm outscored Quinnipiac by 31 points during his 15 minutes on the court, the best plus/minus number on the team. He wasn’t perfect the rest of the time, though, committing two turnovers, and Pitino is on him about it.
“He does it once a game, once a night, once a practice,” Pitino said of the giveaways. “Outside of that, he's growing. He's got to be more physical on the backboard. He's a very willing passer . . . [and] he's a much improved defensive player. He's lightning-quick. He can shoot it. So I'm very pleased with Ian.”
2. Dylan Darling could be a major contributor.
The transfer from Idaho State and 2025 Big Sky Conference Player of the Year not only seems up to the challenge of playing up a level but looks as if he could excel. He had six points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals and took a charge in 17 minutes. Pitino said, “The way he played both ends of the floor, he was dominating . . . He took over the game from a tempo standpoint, got in the lane, found people, was tough on defense . . . I thought he was terrific.”
3. Joson Sanon’s ceiling is incredibly high
The 6-5 sophomore guard and Arizona State transfer may not have gotten the start this time because his defense hasn’t caught up to his offense, but he was a scoring force when he entered the game. Sanon had 14 points and shot 5-for-9 in 19 minutes off the bench.
“Joson is one of the more gifted talents I've coached, and I've coached a lot of great ones, a lot of first round [picks], lot of lottery picks,” Pitino said. “He's got great talent. He's just got to learn more defensively, learn more about the game. But as far as talent is concerned, he's big-time — really big-time.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
