Chris Jans commends Jimmy Bell Jr. after Mississippi State basketball victory over Rutgers
By Ethan Lee
As the Mississippi State men’s basketball team took care of business on Saturday afternoon when facing off against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, Mississippi State basketball fans weren’t the only ones who appeared impressed with the way the team was able to get a 10-point neutral site win.
Count Chris Jans, the head coach of the Bulldogs, among those who liked what happened when the MSU men’s basketball team faced Rutgers. In particular, Jans was really impressed with the way Jimmy Bell Jr. absolutely dominated when facing off against Rutgers.
In the midst of an intimidating atmosphere, Bell thrived and helped the Bulldogs all throughout the game, even when tasked with taking on Clifford Omoruyi. As Jans noted, that’s a matchup that Bell was pretty interested in.
"I think Jimmy took it personally a little bit and wanted to play his best," Jans explained in the postgame press conference. "His motor was going today, and he was our anchor to a lot of the things we’re trying to do offensively."
That seems like a pretty solid way of describing how Bell performed.
Mississippi State basketball’s Jimmy Bell Jr. dominated rebounding battle vs. Rutgers
When looking at what exactly Bell did against Rutgers, you have to look at the way he simply wasn’t impacted by anything the Scarlet Knights threw at him. Even when facing a Big Ten frontcourt that was anchored by Omoruyi, Bell went out and secured 18 rebounds while also scoring 17 points.
That sort of consistent rebounding was pretty important for the Bulldogs to have a shot at winning.
"The biggest key we talked about all day long was rebounding. It felt like that we needed that to be our calling card today," Jans stated. "It needed to give us extra possessions. We needed to limit theirs, and I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job.”
Bell helped set the tone for Mississippi State. He played with a relentless motor that Rutgers failed to slow down. And that’s a good thing for Mississippi State basketball fans.
And again, Jans (and the college basketball world) noticed how crucial Bell was on Saturday.
Simply put? Well, let’s see how Jans summed things up:
Jimmy executed the game plan very well," he said.
That’s pretty succinct and pretty accurate.
Omoruyi finished the game with just 3 points and he only played for 20 minutes. Bell has a lot to be proud of when looking at how he handled that sort of matchup on Saturday.