Mississippi State Basketball: Don’t hit the panic button on this team quite yet.

Mississippi State Basketball fans, don’t hit the panic button quite yet.

Listen, folks. Let’s all make this clear. This Mississippi State basketball team isn’t the reincarnation of the 1996 squad. This team isn’t as talented as the 2018-2019 team, who earned a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament (we won’t talk about the first-round results). This team doesn’t have structured positions, a depth chart comparable to other SEC teams, and have stars beside individual names.

And that is okay.

What this team does have though, is tenacity. And in my opinion, it’s the first time in a long time we have seen a Mississippi State men’s basketball team have true fight and toughness in every game they play in. Chris Jans and these young men have brought back a sense of hope to this program, and the potential it holds for the future.

We can all agree the contest against Alabama wasn’t pretty by any means. The Tennessee game I am currently watching is atrocious. We are currently down by 30 points with 2 minutes remaining in the game. Tennessee has shot 69% from the floor and currently sits at 55% from beyond the perimeter. They cannot miss, and the Bulldogs cannot seem to get shots to fall. The Volunteers got off to a 16-0 start in this game, and that momentum and shot percentage carried them throughout the rest of the contest.

But who cares. We weren’t expecting in Year 1 of the Jans era to be beating Top 10 teams. Hell, we didn’t expect to even be competitive, much less win some of our non-conference matchups. We still have a chance to win big games this year and have a chance to build momentum for the next basketball season. Don’t let this team’s effort go unnoticed, and keep cheering them on for the rest of the year.

There is too much potential and too much hope for the future with Chris Jans and this program. Don’t hit the panic button quite yet.