Get ready for a new brand of Mississippi State basketball this season

The 2024-2025 college basketball season is here, and it's a big year for Mississippi State basketball. The Bulldogs enter their third-season under Chris Jans, and expectations are high, as this team has the potential to be his best.

But there's a major change to this year's team compared to last season, and that's the absence of a dominant center. That change is creating a huge shift in how the Bulldogs are going to play this year.

Chris Jans didn't look to fully replace Tolu Smith

Over the past four seasons, Mississippi State had one of the best big men in college basketball in Tolu Smith. Smith was a double-digit scorer all four years of his career in Starkville. He had his best two seasons playing for Chris Jans, averaging at least 15 points and eight boards each of his final two years.

He was the focal-point offensively for the majority of his career. State would look to get him the ball down low and let him go to work nearly every possession, and there were many games where if he didn't put up a big number, the Bulldogs had no shot at winning.

Needless to say, he's a massive loss. But Chris Jans didn't enter the offseason trying to replace Tolu's production. He said as much at SEC Media Days, stating that they brought guys in to compete and be productive in their own ways. State added a pair of quality transfers at center in Miami's Michael Nwoko and Rhode Island's Jeremy Foumena, but neither of those guys are expected to be among the top scoring options in Starkville.

Instead, Jans' Bulldogs will be doing things differently on offense this season.

Bulldogs taking new offensive approach for 2024-2025

Rather than go after a dominant big-man in the portal to replace Tolu Smith, Chris Jans went all in on loading up in the backcourt. State added three guards through the portal: Penn State's Kanye Clary, Boston College's Claudell Harris, and Florida's Riley Kugel.

Clary and Harris were both double-digit, high-percentage scorers at their previous stops. Kugel averaged over nine per game each of the last two seasons in Gainesville and put together some big performances for the Gators in key games. And that's not included transfer wing RJ Melendez, who averaged 9.6 a game for Georgia and had a 35-point performance last year.

There's no question what the best returning piece on the Bulldogs' roster is, and that's guard Josh Hubbard. And rather than just say "we've got a high-level scorer at guard; we're set there", Jans instead chose to add several perimeter scoring options to place around Hubbard.

There are multiple true shooters on this team, and that's going to look very different to Mississippi State fans. Jans laid out those changes at SEC Media Days, saying the strength will be on the perimeter.

"I think we're going to score more than we have in the past...We've modernized our offense. We're playing with more space in mind, a lot more dribble-drive. We've got multiple play makers, multiple guys that can shoot the basketball. We're going to be able to spread the defense out a little bit more than maybe in the past."

- Miss State HC Chris Jans

This version of Bulldog basketball is going to be much more akin stylistically to what you see across the sport: more fast-paced, more spacing, more shots on the perimeter. That's not to say they're abandoning Jans' identity on the court. They're still going to make defense and rebounding a priority. And obviously Nwoko and Foumena are going to get opportunities down low.

But overall, this group is going to play a much more wide-open style offensively. That will not only be more entertaining to watch, but State should be better equipped to keep pace with some of the high-flying offenses we see in the SEC.