Chris Jans discusses Mississippi State basketball culture and continuity after beating Rutgers by double digits
By Ethan Lee
Even though he’s only in his second season leading the Mississippi State men’s basketball team, head coach Chris Jans is doing a pretty solid job of establishing an environment that is conducive to keeping talented players in Starkville.
After the Mississippi State Bulldogs beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 70-60 to advance to 10-2 on the season, Jans was asked about what it felt like to have a significant number of returning players from last season’s roster.
Essentially, his starting lineup returned for this season without any issues. In the midst of the transfer portal era, that sort of continuity seems a little rare. And as he discussed this and answered the question, Jans made sure to discuss the belief and culture that is being built within his Mississippi State basketball program.
That said, Jans doesn’t really seem to want to talk about how this pertains to him and his leadership.
"I don't like to talk about that in terms of what it says about me, but I think it says a lot about these kids," he explained. "Their belief in Mississippi State, our program, and how they’re treated."
Mississippi State basketball: Chris Jans deserves credit for establishing Bulldogs’ culture
Chris Jans wants to deflect all of the credit to his players coming together and building and established team culture, but he really deserves some recognition for the way that he’s getting the Mississippi State basketball team established.
It really seems like Jans holds his team to a high standard and he communicated as much during his postgame press conference.
“We coach them hard,” Jans explained. “We tell everybody how it’s going to be, and [the returning starters] didn’t have to take it word-for-word.They were a part of it. No question that it makes you feel really good. We’re doing the right thing to get those guys to come back.”
That sort of open communication and ability to develop players is a great thing to have in Starkville. It enabled the Bulldogs to get to 10-2 up to this point in the season and will put the Mississippi State basketball team in a great position once Tolu Smith is able to return from injury.