Chris Jans has had a successful run during his short-time at Mississippi State. He's in the midst of his third-straight 20-win season in Starkville and will be taking the Bulldogs to their third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time since the early 2000s.
But when you have that level of success at MSU, chances are you're going to have your name come up for other job openings. And as Chris Jans is in the process of preparing his squad for March Madness, there's already speculation that he could be a candidate for an opening in the Big Ten.
Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans named a possible candidate to replace Fran McCaffery at Iowa
This afternoon, news broke that Iowa was moving on from longtime head basketball coach Fran McCaffery. One name being mentioned frequently as a possible option for the Hawkeyes is Mississippi State's Chris Jans, and it's no surprise that he'd be considered a possibility in Iowa City.
Jans was born in Fairbank, Iowa, played college basketball at Loras College in Dubuque, and was both an NAIA assistant and JUCO head coach in the state. The "Hawkeye State" is quite literally home for Jans, and much of his coaching career has been spent in the Midwest. Given his ties to the state along with a long track record of winning as a coach, it's understandable why people would mention him as a candidate to watch for Iowa.
This won't be the first time that Chris Jans' name comes up for another opening. After his first season in Starkville many mentioned him as a possibility for Wichita State, where he was previously an assistant coach. Last year, his name briefly came up as an option for SMU, and it was reported that he interviewed for the Arkansas opening.
How much of this has been a product of genuine interest by Chris Jans in other jobs as opposed to being pure speculation from analysts or Jans' agent just trying to stir up interest in his client, we don't know. But the simple fact is as long as Chris Jans is consistently putting together successful seasons in Starkville, he's at a minimum going to be named a possible candidate for other jobs.
And this is certainly one State fans should keep an eye on. Iowa is a historically good program, and it's home for Jans. I could see it being enticing. But I'm also confident Mississippi State, which is already well-committed to Jans, would be prepared to do what it needs to keep him in Starkville.
Plus there's no guarantee he's who Iowa will be after. West Virginia's Darian DeVries and Drake's Ben McCollum are likely targets for the Hawkeyes, and they'd both be cheaper options than Jans. It's far too early to be legitimately concerned that Mississippi State could lose Chris Jans to Iowa, but it's worth monitoring for now.