No. 1 Player in American Ian Jackson Announces his Departure from UNC Basketball Due to….

North Carolina’s roster has undergone significant turnover for the 2025-26 season. Hubert Davis and his staff lost key pieces to either eligibility, the draft or the transfer portal. Among the players leaving is former five-star recruit Ian Jackson, who played one year in Chapel Hill and is headed to St. John’s.

Jackson’s departure might have been a surprise to some, but as the season went on signals pointed to him either testing the NBA draft waters or moving to a different program. That became clearer as the days went on following UNC’s loss to Ole Miss in the NCAA Tournament.

During an episode of his podcast “The Captain Jack Show”, Jackson commented about his choice to leave UNC: “I feel like at Carolina, it simply wasn’t for me. It was some things I couldn’t exhibit or accomplish on the floor that I felt like I could’ve done.”

Jackson complimented the program, calling them great people before offering his reasoning. Even so, his answer feels pretty significant. We heard something similar with Drake Powell in an interview during the predraft process a few weeks back.

Some may now wonder whether the system Davis has in place is a good fit for certain players, including two recent five-star recruits. Even if it’s not, those comments from Jackson and Powell were certainly interesting.

In his one season at North Carolina, Jackson averaged 11.9 points and 2.7 rebounds per game. He had a seven-game span during which he scored 20-plus points six times.