Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics
WATCH: Coach Jans Media Session
February 20, 2023 | Men's Basketball
STARKVILLE - Head coach Chris Jans met with the media leading into Monday's practice leading Tuesday's matchup at Missouri.
Q: Obviously, a pretty quick turnaround with the Missouri scouting situation. Do you see anything different from them on film following the first meeting, or do you pretty much expect them to attack the same way?
CJ: "I'm glad we didn't have to play them the first time around with the short turnaround. That was huge in terms of being able to scout them and prepare our team better. The second time around, it's a little bit easier obviously for everybody. But in terms of how they're playing, no big picture things."
"They're still about turning you over. They create so much offense from their defense. When we're really clicking, that's kind of what we do. They do it in a different way. It's nonstop. Every time you throw the ball in, in a dead ball throw in, on the sides, backcourt, frontcourt, baseline – they're messing with you. They're trying to make you throw an errant pass. The pressure that they do it with is different. Sometimes, they gap you. Sometimes, it's all very, very aggressive. Even in their presses, they're going to give you different looks. Every time the ball goes through the net for them, they're going to press you. Sometimes, they're going to do it when they miss shots. They're going to pressure you. They do it full court, half court."
"There's a lot going on, trying to stay organized. Then, that balancing act of how aggressive are you going to try attack it. Are you just trying to break the press and get to the front court? Or are you going to try to take advantage of the pressure and let it work for you? That's a balancing act. At the end of the day when the clock is ticking, the players have to make decisions. There's nothing I can do about it. Certainly, try to do what we can in practice, but that'll be a big deal as the game unfolds like it was here is when do we push and attack. When do we beat it, try to get organized in the halfcourt. But at the end of the day, we're going to have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball than our last outing, or we'll be in trouble."
Q: Coach, I was curious of what you remembered from the recruiting process of Shawn Jones Jr. Was he a guy that flew under the radar in a lot of recruiting aspects? How did you guys come across him?
CJ: "It was just word to mouth. Our staff was on it, and basically got me up to speed quickly. It was video, a lot of video. A lot of conversations like it always is with people that know him better than us in the area he's from. At the end of the day, it just worked out. Certainly, glad that it did. He's become a vital role player for us. He's playing pretty consistently for us down the stretch, and it just worked out in our favor. It was a heck of a shot in the arm for us heading into the fall semester."
Q: Did you think when you first got a glimpse of Shawn Jones Jr. that he would be a guy as a freshman that could come in and have a big role early in his career?"
CJ: "Once he started practicing, and especially when we got to the closed-door scrimmage portions of our season, we all felt like he had a chance to contribute. Just his length and the way he moves and his instincts. For the most part, he plays with a pretty good confidence level. The injury really set him back. He basically was out for 4 weeks, and that's a long time for a kid that got here in August, for a true freshman. If it wasn't for that, who knows where he would be in terms of his productivity and his minutes. But that really set him back and now he's obviously fully recovered and he's a big part of what we're trying to do."
Q: You always talk about the big goals of the NCAA tournament for this team. With only four games left in the regular season, do you talk about it with the team, and what do you think your team has to do to get into the NCAA Tournament?
CJ: "I don't always talk about it, I just get asked about it. That's a big difference, and I understand why the questions are asked. It's just the world we live in now, with social media. So much is written about March Madness, who's in, who's out, the seeds. It's all over. You can't not see it unless you just going anti-phone, anti-social media and anti-websites. I think I mentioned that when we were in that mini winning streak when our resume was building back up that, we didn't talk about it. Just felt like we were in a good rhythm. There was no reason, we were playing well."
"Then, after the Kentucky loss, we addressed it on Friday before we left for Ole Miss just to make sure we were all on the same page. But, in terms of if in my mind is there a number we have to get to, I don't know what it would be. I'm not looking at it like that. Your mind wanders certainly, but we're just really trying to control what we can control. I know that's a cliché, but I think that's all you can do."
"What I do like is we are in control of our own situation. This isn't a conference race, we're not in that. I've been in those situations before where you're going down the stretch, and you need help from someone else to win a championship. That's not the situation we're in. We control our destiny by how we play, by how we prepare and that's what I've told our team. That's what you want, to have your own control. Now, that may change down the stretch. But at the end of the day, all these people that do the predictions aren't in that room. They can look at the percentages. They get right and all that. I don't get down that rabbit hole at all, but I certainly know what our numbers are. That's what I pay attention to. I think, for the most part, our kids do too."
Q: Looking back on it, how important was it for you to keep the core of D.J. Jeffries, Cameron Matthews, Shakeel Moore and Tolu Smith?
CJ: "And Murph [KeShawn Murphy] too. It gave us a chance. That's what our staff talked about. When the dust cleared and those guys had recommitted to be Bulldogs to play for our new staff, we gave them plenty of space and plenty of time to make any decisions that they had to make. We wanted the time to get to know them better. I just felt like it was kind of like taking a deep breath like okay that gives us a chance. If anyone of those guys, or two had made the decision to play elsewhere, it would've been hard to replace them. It's pretty obvious to people that watch us how integral most of those guys are to the success of this team."
"I've always been appreciative of it. Hopefully, they're still happy about the decision that they made, but I just felt like once they made those decision We're adding to the mix. That made a difference on who we were bringing in too. We had to have some recruiting situations put on hold because certain guys were coming back."
Q: Getting close to the last few home games, what did it mean to have the season ticket holders and students buy into supporting the program that you're starting to build?
CJ: "Well first, I don't have a historical perspective on it. This is my first go around. So, I don't know if that's the norm or not. But I know it makes the games more exciting. It's what college basketball looks like when you see the highlights. This isn't part of your question, but I talk about that a lot with our team. Most people that watch this game, most, not all, do not understand all the time what it takes to win. They see the big dunk, they see the big 3, they see the highlights. But the grimy stuff that's going on under the basket, the things that we're trying to teach them to do all the time doesn't always show up on the stat sheet. Those plays result in wins or losses.
"It's kind of like the crowd, it all plays a part. When you can get your fanbase to support. Then, help that team through tough stretches. We were so disappointed that we let them down against Kentucky. I've said it many times, and I don't want to go backwards, I mean they deserved to win. They played better than us. They played really well, and we didn't play good enough. Our crowd was there and wanted to get behind us and wanted to help us win. We didn't play well enough to allow them to be as big a factor as they could've been. But, I've been unbelievably impressed with our students all year long. They've been there through thick and thin. They continued to supports us when we stubbed our feet a couple times, and it keeps growing. It's cool to see the kids painted. It's cool when they chant for people to come in the game. Trust me, we're serious in trying to win, but that part of college basketball is fun to be apart of. I know it adds to the guys experience as well."
Q: Obviously, a pretty quick turnaround with the Missouri scouting situation. Do you see anything different from them on film following the first meeting, or do you pretty much expect them to attack the same way?
CJ: "I'm glad we didn't have to play them the first time around with the short turnaround. That was huge in terms of being able to scout them and prepare our team better. The second time around, it's a little bit easier obviously for everybody. But in terms of how they're playing, no big picture things."
"They're still about turning you over. They create so much offense from their defense. When we're really clicking, that's kind of what we do. They do it in a different way. It's nonstop. Every time you throw the ball in, in a dead ball throw in, on the sides, backcourt, frontcourt, baseline – they're messing with you. They're trying to make you throw an errant pass. The pressure that they do it with is different. Sometimes, they gap you. Sometimes, it's all very, very aggressive. Even in their presses, they're going to give you different looks. Every time the ball goes through the net for them, they're going to press you. Sometimes, they're going to do it when they miss shots. They're going to pressure you. They do it full court, half court."
"There's a lot going on, trying to stay organized. Then, that balancing act of how aggressive are you going to try attack it. Are you just trying to break the press and get to the front court? Or are you going to try to take advantage of the pressure and let it work for you? That's a balancing act. At the end of the day when the clock is ticking, the players have to make decisions. There's nothing I can do about it. Certainly, try to do what we can in practice, but that'll be a big deal as the game unfolds like it was here is when do we push and attack. When do we beat it, try to get organized in the halfcourt. But at the end of the day, we're going to have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball than our last outing, or we'll be in trouble."
Q: Coach, I was curious of what you remembered from the recruiting process of Shawn Jones Jr. Was he a guy that flew under the radar in a lot of recruiting aspects? How did you guys come across him?
CJ: "It was just word to mouth. Our staff was on it, and basically got me up to speed quickly. It was video, a lot of video. A lot of conversations like it always is with people that know him better than us in the area he's from. At the end of the day, it just worked out. Certainly, glad that it did. He's become a vital role player for us. He's playing pretty consistently for us down the stretch, and it just worked out in our favor. It was a heck of a shot in the arm for us heading into the fall semester."
Q: Did you think when you first got a glimpse of Shawn Jones Jr. that he would be a guy as a freshman that could come in and have a big role early in his career?"
CJ: "Once he started practicing, and especially when we got to the closed-door scrimmage portions of our season, we all felt like he had a chance to contribute. Just his length and the way he moves and his instincts. For the most part, he plays with a pretty good confidence level. The injury really set him back. He basically was out for 4 weeks, and that's a long time for a kid that got here in August, for a true freshman. If it wasn't for that, who knows where he would be in terms of his productivity and his minutes. But that really set him back and now he's obviously fully recovered and he's a big part of what we're trying to do."
Q: You always talk about the big goals of the NCAA tournament for this team. With only four games left in the regular season, do you talk about it with the team, and what do you think your team has to do to get into the NCAA Tournament?
CJ: "I don't always talk about it, I just get asked about it. That's a big difference, and I understand why the questions are asked. It's just the world we live in now, with social media. So much is written about March Madness, who's in, who's out, the seeds. It's all over. You can't not see it unless you just going anti-phone, anti-social media and anti-websites. I think I mentioned that when we were in that mini winning streak when our resume was building back up that, we didn't talk about it. Just felt like we were in a good rhythm. There was no reason, we were playing well."
"Then, after the Kentucky loss, we addressed it on Friday before we left for Ole Miss just to make sure we were all on the same page. But, in terms of if in my mind is there a number we have to get to, I don't know what it would be. I'm not looking at it like that. Your mind wanders certainly, but we're just really trying to control what we can control. I know that's a cliché, but I think that's all you can do."
"What I do like is we are in control of our own situation. This isn't a conference race, we're not in that. I've been in those situations before where you're going down the stretch, and you need help from someone else to win a championship. That's not the situation we're in. We control our destiny by how we play, by how we prepare and that's what I've told our team. That's what you want, to have your own control. Now, that may change down the stretch. But at the end of the day, all these people that do the predictions aren't in that room. They can look at the percentages. They get right and all that. I don't get down that rabbit hole at all, but I certainly know what our numbers are. That's what I pay attention to. I think, for the most part, our kids do too."
Q: Looking back on it, how important was it for you to keep the core of D.J. Jeffries, Cameron Matthews, Shakeel Moore and Tolu Smith?
CJ: "And Murph [KeShawn Murphy] too. It gave us a chance. That's what our staff talked about. When the dust cleared and those guys had recommitted to be Bulldogs to play for our new staff, we gave them plenty of space and plenty of time to make any decisions that they had to make. We wanted the time to get to know them better. I just felt like it was kind of like taking a deep breath like okay that gives us a chance. If anyone of those guys, or two had made the decision to play elsewhere, it would've been hard to replace them. It's pretty obvious to people that watch us how integral most of those guys are to the success of this team."
"I've always been appreciative of it. Hopefully, they're still happy about the decision that they made, but I just felt like once they made those decision We're adding to the mix. That made a difference on who we were bringing in too. We had to have some recruiting situations put on hold because certain guys were coming back."
Q: Getting close to the last few home games, what did it mean to have the season ticket holders and students buy into supporting the program that you're starting to build?
CJ: "Well first, I don't have a historical perspective on it. This is my first go around. So, I don't know if that's the norm or not. But I know it makes the games more exciting. It's what college basketball looks like when you see the highlights. This isn't part of your question, but I talk about that a lot with our team. Most people that watch this game, most, not all, do not understand all the time what it takes to win. They see the big dunk, they see the big 3, they see the highlights. But the grimy stuff that's going on under the basket, the things that we're trying to teach them to do all the time doesn't always show up on the stat sheet. Those plays result in wins or losses.
"It's kind of like the crowd, it all plays a part. When you can get your fanbase to support. Then, help that team through tough stretches. We were so disappointed that we let them down against Kentucky. I've said it many times, and I don't want to go backwards, I mean they deserved to win. They played better than us. They played really well, and we didn't play good enough. Our crowd was there and wanted to get behind us and wanted to help us win. We didn't play well enough to allow them to be as big a factor as they could've been. But, I've been unbelievably impressed with our students all year long. They've been there through thick and thin. They continued to supports us when we stubbed our feet a couple times, and it keeps growing. It's cool to see the kids painted. It's cool when they chant for people to come in the game. Trust me, we're serious in trying to win, but that part of college basketball is fun to be apart of. I know it adds to the guys experience as well."
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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