Settled In And Embracing Expectations
August 25, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Joel Coleman
With his second season at State on the horizon, Chris Jans is now familiar with his surroundings and not backing down from the high hopes for his team.
STARKVILLE – Chris Jans remembers last summer well. His head was spinning some given the challenges that came with being only weeks onto the job as Mississippi State's head basketball coach.
He was settling into life in Starkville. He was still putting together his roster. It was understandably a stressful time.
We all know how last year's story ended though. Founded on Jans' trademark toughness and tenacity, the Bulldogs started hot, then overcame a midseason skid in time to find their dancing shoes and enter the NCAA Tournament.
Jans went from the madness of his first few months to the madness of March, making his debut season in Maroon and White a success by any measure.
Now, with year two on the horizon, the expectations have risen. As Jans tries to meet them, he's able to do so with a little clearer mindset.
"How I feel now compared to 12 months ago…it's a huge difference," Jans admitted. "Especially from how I felt in June a year ago when we were on the court with only seven, eight or nine guys trying to figure out and establish some type of culture and standard of expectations [and] everything that came out of my mouth was new for those guys.
"Now, [this past] June, we had all these returnees. We had the majority of our program, our team, our coaching staff already all here. It was a ragtag situation a year ago and we did the best we could, but we didn't really have our whole team together until [this point] a year ago. We're ahead of the curve, if you will, this year."
Add being "ahead of the curve" to the many reasons so many are excited to see what Jans' squad has in store for an encore to last year's magic.
Also on that list? One more year of First-Team All-SEC center Tolu Smith. Then there's the returns of veterans D.J. Jeffries, Cameron Matthews, Shakeel Moore, Dashawn Davis, KeShawn Murphy, Shawn Jones, Jr. and Martavious Russell – all starters or contributors to last year's tourney team. Of course, don't forget about instant-impact transfers from both the four-year and junior college ranks including Andrew Taylor, Jimmy Bell, Jr., Trey Fort and Jaquan Scott, or promising freshmen like ESPN Top 100 prospect Josh Hubbard, along with the talented Adrian Myers and Gai Chol.
It's unquestionably a group with remarkable potential, one that ESPN's Joe Lunardi currently projects as a No. 8 seed come March. Some coaches might try and throw a wet blanket on such expectations. Don't count Jans among them.
"We're going to lean into it," Jans said. "It's already been discussed. We're not going to sneak up on anybody this year like maybe we did last year early in the season a little bit [when we] popped some people and surprised some people. That won't be the case this year. So, it's going to be different…But that's where you want to be. You want to be recognized.
"You want to have people taking notice of your team and your program. That's where we're at headed into year two."
Indeed, it's nice to be recognized as one of the country's best groups. It's even nicer when the head coach looking to lead his team to live up to their tremendous potential – along with those around him – can do so with feet planted firmly in the Starkville soil.
"We didn't have any staff changes, other than just graduate assistants – which is normal," Jans said. "None of our full-time guys [left]. We've had zero change. I think for all of us, the synergy of our staff, who's doing what, it's more comfortable...Headed into our second year when we have such quality men surrounding our players and professional college coaches definitely makes me feel at ease more than I was a year ago and comfortable with what we're doing."
