WATCH: Coach Jans Media Sesson
November 26, 2025 | Men's Basketball
STARKVILLE - Mississippi State men's basketball head coach Chris Jans met with the media before Wednesday's practice to preview the SMU game.
2025-26 Mississippi State Men's Basketball Quotes
Media Session – November 26, 2025
Head Coach Chris Jans
Q: Coach, I know it's only been a couple of games since you talked about your rotation. Do you feel like you've gotten a little closer after these last couple of games to seeing how guys have stepped up?
CJ: If I'm being honest, the answer would be unfortunately no. I still think it's in flux. I don't think it's solidified yet, whether I like it to be or not. I still feel there's two or three spots that just haven't been taken ahold of, if you will. They still have some inconsistency with some of our guys in certain positions, and, because of that, we're still trying to figure out who needs to be playing and how much they need to be playing and who they need to be playing with. It's just – that's where it's at."
Q: None of these games are doing anything good for the blood pressure. In a couple of the home games, your team has been to come back with the win. How do you feel about the guys that can get the job done when they need to.
CJ: "Like I said to the team after the game, never feel some kind of way about winning. I mean, winning is difficult, and it's hard. I've said that my whole life and been hearing that from other coaches that I've looked up to my whole life. It's difficult. The other team and the other coach, everyone that's on their side is doing whatever they can to win. So, it's a 50/50 proposition every time you step on the court."
"Having said that, we're certainly not playing to the level of expectation that we've created around here. It's not as if our guys don't know that, or our coaches don't know that. At this point, all we can do is keep our head down. That's kind of the theme I had with them is we've got to get our head down and just work and get better if it's in the weight room, if it's in the meeting room, if it's on the floor, if it's in games. Not focus on the outcome as much and focus on possession-by-possession in the process of playing better. Then, eventually you could look up and say, 'Hey, look how much further we've gotten, and how much better we've gotten.' It's really easy to focus on just the outcome or how the outcome happened. We're humans, so we all tend to do that as well. But, I think for this team, right now, they really need to – we collectively need to put her head down and work and try to figure out solutions to the issues that we have."
Q: This SMU team that you're preparing for is a high scoring team averaging over 90 points a game but also forces a lot of turnovers and gets a lot of steals. What's the focus as you take the first steps of approaching Friday's game?
CJ: Well, I haven't met with them as a team yet until a couple hours from now. So, it's more been just obviously working with all the coaches like normal and trying to get together of what our focus is going to be and what our game plan is going to be. I'm up to speed on them now, and they're really good."
"They're 7-0, and they score at a high level. But, at the same time, they could turn you over which has been the big Achilles heel for us thus far in the early season. They just feel like they're on the same page. They've got a lot of veterans on the floor, a mix of guys returning and some new players that they brought in via the portal."
"They just run good stuff, and they've got great spacing. They're pretty good decision makers, and they're off to a great start. So, obviously, not that I don't think it matters much when you throw the ball up, we do have some familiarity with one another since we played last year. But, in this day and age, it's so many new faces to each team. I don't know how much that'll have to do with it."
Q: Coach, it has only been a couple days since I last asked you this question from postgame on Monday. Is there an update to Jayden Epps or Sergej Macura status?
CJ: Yeah, unfortunately they haven't been able to practice yet. I haven't seen them today. It's kind of a situation where you're hopeful that it's going to be sooner than later. Like I said the other day, it's not a month's thing or even weeks, multiple weeks, but we're fingers crossed that the rehab will continue to go well for both of them individually. It'll be sooner than later."
Q: With Achor Achor right now, what are you looking for out of him right now as he's been struggling a little bit?
CJ: I met with him yesterday. We had a meeting in the office just to see where he was at and how I could help him, which we do often throughout the season with our players like everybody else does [across the country], I'm assuming."
"We just have got to get him to play with some more confidence. We've got to help him regain that confidence. He's obviously a good player. He's been there, done that. In the end, you want your players to feel good when they step out onto the floor in the games. Practice helps, but in the games, it's more important."
"So, we're working together to try to figure out a solution to help him feel better when the lights are on and to play better and to feel good about what he's doing. That's what he wants too. So, he's not the only guy that's not playing up to their capabilities. Our team's not, I'm not and our staff isn't. All of it, but we're going to keep working and encouraging one another and trying to put them in the best spots that we can. I'm confident that he will play better going forward."
Q: On the opposite end of that, you've talked about Amier Ali. How big of a confidence boost is it for somebody like him to one, see his hard work result in more minutes, but second to then have the success that he's had the past couple of games?
CJ: Yeah, I'm happy for Amier. We, as coaches, always talk about staying ready. You don't have to get ready, stay ready for your opportunity. Coaches preach to guys who aren't playing as much as they would like to keep your head down and to keep working. Don't go the wrong way. Then, you'll never get the opportunity."
Amier is a classic example of that where if you would pay attention to our bench in the games he wasn't playing, he was his energetic and as good a teammate as anybody that we had on the bench. He's been consistent that way, and his approach to practice has been consistent. He hasn't hung his head, he hasn't had bad body language, and he's kept working with encouragement behind the scenes from our staff. He was given an opportunity, and he played well."
"Fortunately, for us and for him, he can play a lot better. He still has a lot of things like all of us need to work on, but he saw the ball go through the net. Then, he got some rebounds. I thought he was better defensively in the last game [against New Orleans] than he was in the New Mexico game which is really good for him."
"Like I said during that first question we had was about the rotation, it's in flux because of a lot of factors. That's one of them, who is going to be consistent coupled with practice and games moving forward and to be able to say, 'Hey coach, I'm the guy that needs to play these minutes at that position.' He's one of the candidates."
2025-26 Mississippi State Men's Basketball Quotes
Media Session – November 26, 2025
Head Coach Chris Jans
Q: Coach, I know it's only been a couple of games since you talked about your rotation. Do you feel like you've gotten a little closer after these last couple of games to seeing how guys have stepped up?
CJ: If I'm being honest, the answer would be unfortunately no. I still think it's in flux. I don't think it's solidified yet, whether I like it to be or not. I still feel there's two or three spots that just haven't been taken ahold of, if you will. They still have some inconsistency with some of our guys in certain positions, and, because of that, we're still trying to figure out who needs to be playing and how much they need to be playing and who they need to be playing with. It's just – that's where it's at."
Q: None of these games are doing anything good for the blood pressure. In a couple of the home games, your team has been to come back with the win. How do you feel about the guys that can get the job done when they need to.
CJ: "Like I said to the team after the game, never feel some kind of way about winning. I mean, winning is difficult, and it's hard. I've said that my whole life and been hearing that from other coaches that I've looked up to my whole life. It's difficult. The other team and the other coach, everyone that's on their side is doing whatever they can to win. So, it's a 50/50 proposition every time you step on the court."
"Having said that, we're certainly not playing to the level of expectation that we've created around here. It's not as if our guys don't know that, or our coaches don't know that. At this point, all we can do is keep our head down. That's kind of the theme I had with them is we've got to get our head down and just work and get better if it's in the weight room, if it's in the meeting room, if it's on the floor, if it's in games. Not focus on the outcome as much and focus on possession-by-possession in the process of playing better. Then, eventually you could look up and say, 'Hey, look how much further we've gotten, and how much better we've gotten.' It's really easy to focus on just the outcome or how the outcome happened. We're humans, so we all tend to do that as well. But, I think for this team, right now, they really need to – we collectively need to put her head down and work and try to figure out solutions to the issues that we have."
Q: This SMU team that you're preparing for is a high scoring team averaging over 90 points a game but also forces a lot of turnovers and gets a lot of steals. What's the focus as you take the first steps of approaching Friday's game?
CJ: Well, I haven't met with them as a team yet until a couple hours from now. So, it's more been just obviously working with all the coaches like normal and trying to get together of what our focus is going to be and what our game plan is going to be. I'm up to speed on them now, and they're really good."
"They're 7-0, and they score at a high level. But, at the same time, they could turn you over which has been the big Achilles heel for us thus far in the early season. They just feel like they're on the same page. They've got a lot of veterans on the floor, a mix of guys returning and some new players that they brought in via the portal."
"They just run good stuff, and they've got great spacing. They're pretty good decision makers, and they're off to a great start. So, obviously, not that I don't think it matters much when you throw the ball up, we do have some familiarity with one another since we played last year. But, in this day and age, it's so many new faces to each team. I don't know how much that'll have to do with it."
Q: Coach, it has only been a couple days since I last asked you this question from postgame on Monday. Is there an update to Jayden Epps or Sergej Macura status?
CJ: Yeah, unfortunately they haven't been able to practice yet. I haven't seen them today. It's kind of a situation where you're hopeful that it's going to be sooner than later. Like I said the other day, it's not a month's thing or even weeks, multiple weeks, but we're fingers crossed that the rehab will continue to go well for both of them individually. It'll be sooner than later."
Q: With Achor Achor right now, what are you looking for out of him right now as he's been struggling a little bit?
CJ: I met with him yesterday. We had a meeting in the office just to see where he was at and how I could help him, which we do often throughout the season with our players like everybody else does [across the country], I'm assuming."
"We just have got to get him to play with some more confidence. We've got to help him regain that confidence. He's obviously a good player. He's been there, done that. In the end, you want your players to feel good when they step out onto the floor in the games. Practice helps, but in the games, it's more important."
"So, we're working together to try to figure out a solution to help him feel better when the lights are on and to play better and to feel good about what he's doing. That's what he wants too. So, he's not the only guy that's not playing up to their capabilities. Our team's not, I'm not and our staff isn't. All of it, but we're going to keep working and encouraging one another and trying to put them in the best spots that we can. I'm confident that he will play better going forward."
Q: On the opposite end of that, you've talked about Amier Ali. How big of a confidence boost is it for somebody like him to one, see his hard work result in more minutes, but second to then have the success that he's had the past couple of games?
CJ: Yeah, I'm happy for Amier. We, as coaches, always talk about staying ready. You don't have to get ready, stay ready for your opportunity. Coaches preach to guys who aren't playing as much as they would like to keep your head down and to keep working. Don't go the wrong way. Then, you'll never get the opportunity."
Amier is a classic example of that where if you would pay attention to our bench in the games he wasn't playing, he was his energetic and as good a teammate as anybody that we had on the bench. He's been consistent that way, and his approach to practice has been consistent. He hasn't hung his head, he hasn't had bad body language, and he's kept working with encouragement behind the scenes from our staff. He was given an opportunity, and he played well."
"Fortunately, for us and for him, he can play a lot better. He still has a lot of things like all of us need to work on, but he saw the ball go through the net. Then, he got some rebounds. I thought he was better defensively in the last game [against New Orleans] than he was in the New Mexico game which is really good for him."
"Like I said during that first question we had was about the rotation, it's in flux because of a lot of factors. That's one of them, who is going to be consistent coupled with practice and games moving forward and to be able to say, 'Hey coach, I'm the guy that needs to play these minutes at that position.' He's one of the candidates."
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's BasketballMEN'S BASKETBALL | Chris Jans Media Session - 11/26/25
Wednesday, November 26
MEN'S BASKETBALL | Amier Ali & Ja'Borri McGhee Postgame Press Conference vs. New Orleans - 11/24/25
Monday, November 24
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Monday, November 24
MEN'S BASKETBALL | Chris Jans Postgame Press Conference vs. New Mexico - 11/21/25
Saturday, November 22