Chris Jans’ Message To Future Bulldogs
May 10, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Joel Coleman
The new leader of State basketball shares how he’s equipped to succeed at MSU.
STARKVILLE – Imagine it. You're a big-time recruit finishing up high school basketball or perhaps you're in the transfer portal looking for a new collegiate hoops home. Suddenly, Mississippi State comes calling.
It's a situation several have found themselves in over the last few weeks as new MSU head coach Chris Jans has started putting together his very first Bulldog roster. Graduate transfer guard and 2021-22 All-Ohio Valley First Team selection Eric Reed Jr. out of Southeast Missouri was announced as the newest State addition on Tuesday. He preceded a pair of other transfers – Jans' former-turned-current forward, Will McNair, Jr., from New Mexico State; as well as guard Dashawn Davis from Oregon State, who's fresh off a season in which he led the Pac-12 in assists.
Obviously, something is working for Jans and company when it comes to luring special players. Top-tier talent is choosing MSU and hitching their wagons to Jans. As you might have guessed, it's no accident.
This is what Jans does. He builds teams. He wins. It's all he's ever done. It's all he's ever known. He's in the beginning stages of doing it again in Starkville.
So, what exactly is Jans presenting to those considering Mississippi State? How has he been able to land impact players and be in the game for more?
Jans simply lays out the cold, hard facts.
"The easy pitch and the obvious pitch is the league [we play in]," Jans said. "The league is as good as it's probably ever been. It's quote-unquote, 'Hot right now.' All the industry experts, all the people that follow college basketball acknowledge it. Arguably, it's the best league in the country right now…The quality of coaches, the platform you're going to play on, the bright lights, everybody is going to watch you play across the country – that's the easy part. Everybody's selling that."
Oh, but there's more. Much more in fact. It's the piece that sets Jans and his group apart from all the rest, and it's based on a blue-collar background that has seen results everywhere this unit has gone and wherever they've been.
"For us at Mississippi State, [we] want to win," Jans continues. "You don't make a [coaching] change like this unless you want to win. We tell that to our prospective players as well. Certainly, for me and my staff, it's, 'Hey, that's all we've ever done is win. All we've ever done is develop young men.' And there's people [outside of MSU] talking about, 'Hey, yeah, they've done a good job at the mid-major level or the junior college level, but we're in the SEC now.' My response to that is, 'Yeah, you're right. And they're giving you the answers to the test. They just didn't realize it. They didn't look at it the way we look at it as, 'OK, now what are we going to do?'
"I've never had resources like this. I've never had my own strength coach. I never had the people that we have access to that are on our campus, that work for Mississippi State that can provide a first-class experience for our student-athletes and help you become a better person, a better man, a better player. This is all foreign to us. So, our response to that is, 'Yeah, what are we going to do with these resources and with the attraction of quality student-athletes and better players, bigger players, more skilled players?"
Here's an educated guess, based on the Jans track record. Victories and a high level of success are about to follow.
Again, the Jans history speaks for itself. If you've somehow forgotten over the last few weeks, it bears remembering.
He holds a .765 winning percentage (143-44) through his first six seasons as a Division I head coach. Only two 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.
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 continued to lead 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.
And here he is in Starkville, selling his new program, getting ready to find a way to win once more.
"Hey, look what we've done [in the past and] now, we're going to get guys like you," Jans said he's telling prospects. "It's going to explode."
