NEW YORK -- St. John's freshman guard Rysheed Jordan missed Saturday's game against Youngstown State due to the illness of his mother.
Jordan is the eldest of her seven children, and has been home in Philadelphia the past two days to be with her at the hospital.
Coach Steve Lavin said after the game that there is no timetable for Jordan's return to the team at this point.
"I think a lot will have to do with the state of [his mom's] health," he said.
Jordan, the Big East Preseason Rookie of the Year, has started six of St. John's first nine games, and has been playing much better of late. He was coming off back-to-back double-figure scoring games. On the season, Jordan was averaging 6.3 points and 3.0 assists in 18.8 minutes per game.
St. John's has also activated sophomore guard Felix Balamou, who Lavin had been planning to redshirt this year. Balamou averaged 2.0 assists and 1.0 rebounds in 9.1 minutes per game last season before injuring his ankle in the Big East tournament.
Lavin said the activation of Balamou was unrelated to Jordan's absence.
"No, we almost did it six weeks ago, we almost did it four weeks ago, we almost did it three weeks ago," Lavin said. "He's been playing so well in practice -- as his performance just kept elevating, it tipped the scales to what we were thinking about doing before."
Balamou started in place of Jordan on Saturday, and scored two points in 10 minutes in St. John's 96-87 win.