Ringing In A New Era Of Bulldog Basketball
A history of hard work and winning accompanies new Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans.
Joel Coleman, Senior Writer
3/21/2022
It was around 10:45 on Monday morning when the Mississippi State contingent gathered at George M. Bryan Airport in Starkville.
Destination: Las Cruces, New Mexico
In this Southwestern city, the Bulldogs’ new head coach, Chris Jans, was waiting. Truth is, he’d been waiting for this for a while. He’d been working for this very moment in time for years.
This is the tale of a man with an unconventional journey. It’s a story about a coach who took the long route to his dreams. To achieve them, he simply put his head down, got after it day after day and became one of the winningest coaches in all of Division I college basketball.
Soon, Jans would be on a plane that was Starkville-bound. But first, the plane had to get to him.
By 11 a.m., the jet was hurtling down the runway, taking off and gaining altitude – all to go get the man who’s about to help Bulldog basketball do the same.
Why Jans?
It bears asking, right? Of all the qualified coaches out there, how did Mississippi State settle on Chris Jans?
MSU director of athletics John Cohen simplified it this way.
“Everyone we talked to kept coming back to the same things,” Cohen said. “Chris is a relentless worker. He holds those in his program accountable. He has a reputation for getting the most out of his players. Then, his resume speaks for itself. He wins. Chris has won literally everywhere that he’s been. He had success at the junior college level, NAIA and Division III long before he was doing things like taking New Mexico State to the NCAA Tournament three times. He’s been successful all along the way and talking to him, you see why. Chris has a clear vision, and when you combine that with his ability as a tireless recruiter and his knowledge of the Xs and Os of college basketball, there wasn’t a better fit for Mississippi State than Chris Jans.”
Like Second Nature
About two-and-a-half hours after taking off in Starkville, MSU’s plane touched down in a windy Las Cruces.
Inside the airport, Mississippi State representatives stretched their legs and awaited the arrival of the new head Bulldog. Minutes later, Jans and his wife, Sheri, walked in the door.
A few handshakes and greetings and it was back to the aircraft. But before that, Jans used the power of technology to say hello to the Bulldog family for the first time.
“Hey Bulldog fans, Chris and Sheri Jans here,” Chris said on a video posted to social media. “Getting on a plane headed to Starkville. Can’t wait to get there. Hail State!”
Once settled on the plane, Jans reached into his bag. Out came a cowbell. Yes, his very own cowbell. Talk about prepared. It wasn’t quite the Mississippi State version with the comfortable handle and all, but a cowbell nonetheless.
“When I had the opportunity to meet with the [Mississippi State] leadership team, I walked in with my cowbell,” Jans later explained. “I told them I wasn’t going to ring it until they hired me to become their next basketball coach. So [the clapper on the inside of the bell] is still taped to the cowbell, but at some point here when we get on the ground, my wife and I are going to have a little mini celebration and we’re going to ring that darn cowbell.”
Jans slipped off his maroon jacket to get more comfortable for the ride to his new home. Coming from New Mexico State, who shares the same primary color as the Bulldogs, Jans has plenty of maroon.
“It’s another silver lining is we’re all ready to go with the colors,” Jans said.
A bell? Check. Maroon? Check. Yep, this all appears to be second nature to Jans.
But There’s More
The thing is, for as much as Mississippi State loves its traditions, it’s winning all Bulldogs like more. That’s the part that makes Jans the perfect fit more than anything. That, and how Jans became a winner. Whether he was in the spotlight or at a lower-level school, Jans’ work ethic never changed. He wanted success and found a way to get it.
He holds a .765 winning percentage (143-44) through his first six seasons as a Division I head coach. Only three other active head coaches in the country have a higher mark.
Along with three NCAA Tournament appearances at New Mexico State, Jans’ teams won four WAC regular-season championships and three WAC Tournament titles.
Dig deeper to see Jans didn’t just figure things out the last half decade or so. Working and winning is all he’s done. It’s who he is.
He won an NJCAA Division II National Championship and National Coach of the Year award at Kirkwood Community College during the 1997-98 season. Jans later led Chipola Junior College to its first conference title in a decade.
There were other stops along Jans’ path – NCAA Division III Elmhurst College and Grande View College of the NAIA among them, along with Independence Community College and Howard College.
There might not have been a lot of glitz and glamour at some of those places, but Jans certainly led his teams to glory.
Then, in 2007, Jans joined the staff as an assistant at Wichita State and guess what? The Shockers won like never before.
They built the foundation of a team that went to seven straight NCAA Tournaments. They reached the Final Four in 2013. They set an NCAA record with a 35-0 start the following year.
By 2014-15, Jans was the head man at Bowling Green. He turned around a team that’d lost 20 games the year prior and went 21-12. That kind of thing is what winners like Jans do. No matter the odds, no matter the past, they find a way.
Then, after returning to Wichita State for a couple of seasons as special assistant, Jans went to Las Cruces where he stayed with the Aggies until getting on the Mississippi State airplane Monday.
It’s been quite the journey for Jans.
“I’m not sure I’m the blueprint for other coaches to try and emulate my path,” Jans joked. “But it’s been my path, and it’s made me who I am. As I look back, it’s kind of amazing to think about all the stops that I’ve had. It certainly wasn’t by design. It’s just the way it worked out. It taught me so much. It got me to this point. I’ve been exposed to so much on the basketball court from all the different coaches I’ve worked for and worked with. Certainly, from a scouting perspective, being exposed to so many different leagues, I think it's helped my IQ as a basketball coach. Certainly, I’m a better coach now having done all of that.”
Obsessive In A Good Way
When trying to understand Chris Jans and who he is and what he’s bringing to Mississippi State, there’s no better person to turn to than his bride.
Midflight, somewhere over the state of Texas, Sheri Jans tried to put her husband into words.
“Blue collar is right,” Sheri said. “He’s obsessive. He’s obsessive when it comes to scouting the other team or putting in the homework on potential recruits. He’s obsessive with pretty much everything he does. He doesn’t leave a stone unturned.”
While Sheri uttered those words, in a seat behind her, Jans sat with his laptop in hand watching the screen intently. On it was footage from Mississippi State’s late-February victory over Vanderbilt. With a break in conversations with MSU administrators, Jans wasted no time.
Obsessive alright - in all the right ways.
“I would say from day one when I met him, he’s always been that way,” Sheri said. “He puts the hours in.”
Jans On Jans
If there’s anyone other than Sheri who perhaps could best put Chris Jans into words, well it’s Chris Jans. Here’s how the new State leader describes himself and his coaching style:
“I was raised on defense and rebounding and toughness,” Jans said. “I was raised on an old-school way of basketball. I didn’t realize at the time back when I played [at Loras College from 1987 through 1991] it was going to help me so much as a young coach, but my foundation was all about that kind of stuff. So, as a young head coach – I was 26 when I got my first junior college job – I was told by someone smarter than me to use the acronym KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. That’s what I did. I coached what I knew. I didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. It served me well at a young age and certainly since then, I’ve been exposed to so much.
“Our style has changed depending on where we coached and who we coached. I think you have to be able to adapt to the players that you have. But at the end of the day, we want to have rebounding and toughness and defense in our back pocket. It’s the old cliché about how all that travels on buses and planes. Sometimes, for whatever reasons, the shots don’t go down on the road, but you can still win games even if you’re not shooting the ball well.
“We’ve evolved offensively. We like to be an attacking, aggressive style. We like to play downhill. We want to share the ball and space the court. And we want to recruit really good players and put them in position to where they can make plays. It doesn’t make any sense to get a bunch of really good players and try to slow them down. That’s not what we want to do. What we want to do is spread the court and play a product that people are excited to watch.
“It’s important to me that when the fans leave the arena, they’re not kicking the can mumbling under their breath about lack of effort or why aren’t they getting after it on the floor or why aren’t they playing hard. That’s always a goal of mine, win or lose, is to have our fanbase proud of our style. I think we’re going to be a blue-collar team. I think Starkville is a blue-collar city and we want to make them proud of how we compete.”
It Begins
With Jans and his wife in tow, the State plane touched back down in Starkville around 4:15 p.m. There was plenty to do for both Jans and Sheri. This is, after all, a family adjustment.
Said Sheri: “I think I’m just going to start trying to familiarize myself with Starkville. I’ll be honest, I’m not one that ever wants to jinx anything. So, even though the process [of coming to Mississippi State] was maybe going this way, I was like, ‘Until it’s a done deal, I’m not going to do anything. I’m not going to look up too much about the city. I’m not going to look at homes.’ So, I’m hoping I can familiarize myself and maybe get a feel for where our new home will be and what it will be like.”
While Sheri gets the Jans’ house in order, Chris will start arranging things on campus at Mississippi State. The first order of business was to introduce himself to the current Bulldogs. That meeting happened Monday evening.
“That’s the most important thing I have to do,” Jans said beforehand. “It’s the first thing I’m going to do when I hit the ground. I can’t wait to get in front of them and give them a feel for who I am and what I envision for the program.
“We’re setting up individual meetings for [Tuesday] morning for the ones that want to get to know me better. I want to get to know them better. We’ll just talk about where they’re at. I want to give them time to get to know me, and I want them to, hopefully, give me some time to get to know them. Then, they’ll make decisions if they think this is the best place for them right now. But I want people that want to play for me. That’s important.
“Then, we’ll try to put our best foot forward. Like I said, just give them an opportunity to get a feel for how we’re going to play and how we’re going to treat them and the expectations we’re going to have. Then in turn, they’re going to have to make some decisions along with their families and people that help them make their basketball decisions. But it’ll be fast and furious. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got a lot of conversations to be had. But I think it’s important that I get with them right when I land and make sure they understand they are the priority.”
Jans got off the plane and headed to see his Bulldogs face to face. There were a few quick orders of business to handle before getting to The Humphrey Coliseum though.
Both Chris and Sheri were presented with their own Mississippi State cowbells. This one a little more visually appropriate than the one Chris brought with him, he indeed did ring it loud and proud, just as he said he would.
It was the culmination of years of hard work. It was a dream fulfilled. All those years at jucos and smaller schools and mid-majors all led up to this.
“It’s been a wild ride, but a wonderful ride,” Jans said. “If you’re a competitor, you want the opportunity to compete against the best. I’m just looking forward to the battles we’re going to have. We certainly have a lot of work to do to get to that point. Big picture, the research that we did – Sheri and I – it just felt like we were a perfect fit. We’ve lived in a lot of communities that are similar to Starkville in our careers. We know what we’re walking into. There’s a rich history of winning. There have been some great coaches and great players. There’s been a Final Four run, some Sweet 16 runs. History usually repeats itself, and we’re going to try to write our own chapter in the history of this revered men’s basketball program.”
Added Sheri: “All this absolutely feels like a dream. No question. I haven’t even really had enough time to sit down and let it sink all in. The emotions will be overwhelming when I do get the opportunity for sure. No question, we’re so grateful for where we’ve been, and it’s very mixed emotions moving on, but this was a no-brainer.”
Jans worked for it. Jans won for it. Jans earned it. Now, he’s ready to prove himself all over again, coaching on the stage he always wanted.
“Certainly, when this went down, it’s just different,” Jans said. “It’s always been a dream of mine once I got in the profession to be at this level. It’s a dream come true. I always wanted to compete against the best. I always dreamt what that would feel like. I’m just grateful and excited for the opportunity. We’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s going to be a fast and furious summer.
“We’re just ready to roll our sleeves up and get to work and make John Cohen and this leadership team and Mississippi State University proud of this basketball program.”
