'I Love Where We're At'
October 18, 2023 | Men's Basketball
BIRIMINGHAM, Ala. – Before beginning his first interview live on the SEC Network set on Wednesday, Mississippi State coach Chris Jans leaned over to forward Cameron Matthews and reminded him to "just act normal" and "don't be weird".
The light-hearted advice from Jans was his way of loosening up his star senior to enjoy his first experience at SEC Media Days. And it wouldn't be long before Jans would be the one on the receiving end of questions that could be considered odd in their own right.
Questions like "what was the best holiday gift you've ever received?" (It was his first bicycle as a child) and "what is your favorite Thanksgiving dessert?" (pumpkin pie) were among several strange queries and requests made of Jans as he made his way through the luxurious Grand Bohemian Hotel.
The second-year Bulldog coach revealed during those rounds that he has a pregame habit of pulling up his socks just before the ball is tipped and also has a hidden talent that dates back to his childhood.
"Back in the day, I was a wrestler – like a grappler," Jans said. "I grew up in Iowa and when you grow up in Iowa, that's what you do. If there was a wrestling match at this point against coaches of a similar weight, just wrestling with techniques – not fighting or WWE – I can still do that."
Wrestling wasn't the only thing Jans was good at as a kid. He played basketball, baseball and ran track in high school. He even led the Wapsie Valley Warriors to back-to-back undefeated Class 2A state championships in football as both a tailback and cornerback in 1986 and 1987.
"I loved (football) and was a student of the game," Jans said. "I still love watching college football and I like to think our teams have a little bit of a football mentality."
Jans certainly brought a brand of toughness with him to Starkville last year, helping MSU reach the NCAA Tournament in his first season at the helm. His demands on the defensive end of the floor earned him the nickname "The Dentist" from college basketball analyst Jon Rothstein as he guided the Bulldogs to a 21-13 record including wins over No. 11 TCU and No. 25 Texas A&M and into the Big Dance for just the second time since 2009.
"That was huge," Jans said. "We didn't have to sell a dream or a vision anymore to perspective student-athletes…Now, the proof is in the pudding if you will. We made the tournament in a year nobody expected us to outside of our program. What I loved the most about it is only one person on that team had experienced March Madness before and to make sure all those kids have that experience now and can share that with their kids someday when they're watching it together meant a lot to me and my staff. We certainly wanted to be in it a lot longer and had an early exit, but we were definitely happy to make that big step in our first year."
State returns all five starters this season and continued to stack the roster with talented transfers from the Division I and juco levels along with a highly-regarded high school class. Among those new additions are Jimmy Bell Jr., who started all 34 games at West Virginia last season and is 6-foot-10 and 280-pounds, and Andrew Taylor, who was a first team All-Sun Belt selection that averaged 20.2 points per game at Marshall last season.
"I love where we're at," Jans said. "I feel like we have 15 players in our gym everyday that are good enough to play in the SEC. In Year 1, I didn't feel that way. Our depth has gotten so much better from top to bottom in terms of quality of player and quality of people. We're certainly not where we want to be and still have a bunch of rungs that still need to be climbed, but I feel like we're headed in the right direction."
And although much was said during SEC Media Day on Wednesday, Jans wants his team to apply actions over words this season and let their hustle and physical style of play do all the talking for them. Â
"We don't have a team motto this year," Jans said. "We're kind of a non-slogan program. I always tell our guys that we want people to know what we stand for by how we compete on the floor every night."
Mississippi State will play a charity exhibition game at Southern Miss on Oct. 29 before opening its season in the Barstool Sports Invitational against Arizona State in Chicago on Nov. 8.
