Mark Few's Gonzaga, Rick Pitino's St. John's among schools interested in WCC standout transfer Jordan Ross: Reports
Former St. Mary's Gaels guard Jordan Ross had a stellar sophomore season under coach Randy Bennett in the West Coast Conference. On Monday, Ross announced his intention to enter the transfer portal on various social media platforms.
In an interview with "League Ready" on Tuesday, Ross revealed that he had been contacted by 11 schools so far, including coach Mark Few's Gonzaga Bulldogs and coach Rick Pitino's St. John's Red Storm. The rest of the schools that have contacted the guard include: Washington, Mississippi State, Clemson, Iowa, Vanderbilt, Kansas State, Washington State, UNLV and Seton Hall.
Jordan Ross averaged 8.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists on 26.7 minutes per game last year. He started all 35 games he played for the Gaels last season, tallying double-digit points in 13 of them and managing a career-high 19 points against the Arizona State Sun Devils on Nov. 29.
Can Jordan Ross fill Rick Pitino's PG position?
St. John's Red Storm coach Rick Pitino recruited former North Carolina Tar Heels guard Ian Jackson from the portal on Monday. During Tuesday's segment of the "Field of 68" podcast, analyst Jeff Goodman revealed that Jackson was not Pitino's first choice to be the Red Storm's starting point guard and that the coach had aggressively recruited Xaivian Lee, who visited St. John's but joined the Florida Gators instead.
Jackson has been a shooting guard his whole career and averaged 11.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg and 0.9 apg last season for the Tar Heels.
"I don't think St. John's wanted him to play the point," Goodman said. "I mean, they tried to get another guy who ended up in Gainesville. They didn't want Ian Jackson, that was not their top option at the point.
"It was Jackson coming off the bench as a combo guard or maybe starting as a combo guard. But now, if you look around, there just aren't a lot of top point guard options. So, they had a pretty good chat with Jackson all the way along," he added.
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Jordan Ross was a four-star prospect from Compass Prep, Arizona, in the class of 2023, according to ESPN, where he starred as a point guard for four years. He was also the No. 23-ranked point guard in his class.
Ross's ball distribution as a point guard was apparent during his prep career when he led the league in assists for four seasons, making him a better fit at point guard for the Red Storm than Ian Jackson, who is a combo guard.