From Homework To Hires
March 23, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Joel Coleman
John Cohen had Mississippi State ready when it came time to fill MSU’s basketball openings.
STARKVILLE – When it comes to college basketball, March is associated with madness. Well, it's certainly been a wild month for Mississippi State director of athletics John Cohen.
There were two Bulldog basketball head coaching jobs to fill – one on the women's side and one on the men's. There were calls to make. There were conversations to be had.
Yet through it all, there was a sense of confidence for MSU.
Why? Well while the Mississippi State family eagerly waited to see who'd end up being the next leaders of the Bulldog hoops squads, Cohen and State administrators were prepared.
On Wednesday, new men's head coach Chris Jans held his introductory press conference on campus. It came only 10 days after new women's head coach Sam Purcell had done the same.
The hires have been universally applauded, for good reason.
Jans has won everywhere he's been. Not even counting all his prior success, his .765 winning percentage as a Division I head coach is behind only three other active coaches.
Purcell has spent the last decade helping the Louisville women's program rise to elite status, compiling the third-most wins in the country over the last five seasons.
Now, both are Bulldogs and the basis for that happening was the homework Cohen and company did behind the scenes.
"I was at so much peace with both of these hires just because of the sheer volume of information that we gathered," Cohen said. "I don't know this for a fact, and I have a lot of friends who are athletic directors, but I truthfully believe nobody had more information about a group of five or six coaches that were out there on the women's side or on the men's side than Mississippi State University. I'd be willing to put a large sum of money on that because I know how much information we had. It was really important to me for us to be prepared in that area."
Of course, the Purcell hire came first. A recruiter. A tactician. Purcell made himself stand out as one of the most well-rounded candidates in the field.
"Sam Purcell is one of the most respected and elite recruiters in America," Cohen said. "That was a big part of this decision.
"Sam was someone we had our eye on for a long time and we feel like he's a terrific fit. He's an elite game planner and he's an elite Xs and Os coach. Sometimes when you give great compliments to somebody in the area of recruiting, it can be misconstrued as, 'But they're not an Xs and Os coach.' This is an Xs and Os coach who is an elite recruiter as well."
And Purcell is an elite recruiter because of how his energy and personality builds immediate connections to those around him.
"You talk to parents, and you talk to people he has recruited and that comes across with regularity," Cohen said.
Purcell was officially named the new State women's head coach on March 12. Eight days later, he learned who he'd be sharing the Humphrey Coliseum with.
Jans was tabbed as the new front man for the men's team on Sunday. It came only one day after he'd wrapped up an NCAA Tournament run with his now-former team, New Mexico State.
It's fitting. MSU grabbed Jans right after the Big Dance believing he'll soon have the Bulldogs reaching for dancing shoes of their own. It's a reasonable expectation given Jans' history.
Jans took New Mexico State to three NCAA Tournaments in five years. He won four WAC regular-season championships and three WAC Tournament titles. He's a winner, and how he became one stood out to Cohen every step of the way in the process that led him to hire Jans.
"The proof in the pudding is talking to people who've worked with [Jans]," Cohen said. "The research that we did, when you have a group of people saying the same things over and over and over about a candidate, it's really compelling, and what they said about Chris Jans is, 'This guy will make you better than you thought you could be.' Part of that process is, it's hard. It's tough. To get where you need to go, you have to do things other people aren't willing to do and he's going to take you on that journey and it's going to be hard. But in [our evaluation] process, student-athletes gave us information saying [Jans] has the backs of the student-athletes. He believes in them, but he's going to push them at the same time. There's this really fine balance of pushing, getting the most you can out of every student-athlete, but being fair at the same time and having student-athletes' backs. That, to me, was the most compelling thing because in an interview process, anyone can say anything, but when the student-athletes are saying the same things, that's really good information to have."
It's not a coincidence that former players praise both Jans and Purcell. After Purcell's hiring, words of adoration came in from the talent he's guided in the past. At Jans' Wednesday press conference, he was overcome with emotion as he thanked the former athletes of his that he's built lifetime bonds with.
Those connections have been key to making Jans and Purcell successful. With the best indicator of the future being the past, it seems safe to assume Jans and Purcell will each continue being tremendous leaders of men and women, respectively, even as college basketball evolves.
Perhaps the evolution of the game makes Jans and Purcell even better fits for MSU in this moment in time, given how it seems imperative in this day in age to quickly relate to and build trust with student-athletes.
"I think Chris really summed everything up [Wednesday] and I think Sam summed things up last week in that we have a lot of work to do, but there's a nice foundation," Cohen said. "And we're in a different era. Both of them have explained, we're in a different era of coaching. To listen to both of those coaches, they went on and on about the transfer portal. It's a factor, and it's something that in order to be good, you're going to have to be good in the portal. So, I love their approach."
Only time will tell how high Mississippi State's teams can fly under the leadership of Jans and Purcell. But the background work was extensive. The recommendations were glowing. The resumes were spectacular. So, as cliché as it may be to say, it seems the sky is indeed the limit for both MSU hoops programs.
"Both of these are really important hires and both of these guys are tremendous leaders and great coaches and I'm very excited about the future," Cohen said.
Of course, the future can be exciting when you stay so ready in the present.
"I feel like you always have to be prepared, not just in basketball, but in all our sports," Cohen said. "And I really feel like when the moment presented itself, we were prepared for this."
