WATCH: Coach Jans Postgame Presser - No. 15 Vanderbilt
January 24, 2026 | Men's Basketball
2025-26 Mississippi State Men's Basketball Postgame Quotes
Mississippi State vs. No. 15 Vanderbilt – January 24, 2026
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Mississippi State Head Coach Chris Jans
Q: Did it surprise you that your guys never matched the intensity of Vanderbilt especially at the start of the game?Â
 CJ: "It surprised me. Both teams were on the wrong side of a streak, and we talked a lot about that in the last 48 hours. One team was going to feel better after the results of today and get off the snide if you will."
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"Like you mentioned, they brought great intensity to the start of the game. I'm not sure if our guys thought that we'd get off to a good start because that's been kind of the norm for the most part in SEC play and even prior to that for a few games. We didn't have the right mental approach or certainly the physicality, the intensity, or the attention to detail that we know we've got to play with all the time, but especially out the gate. I don't know if we took it for granted or not."Â
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"It's like what I told them after the game. They've all played enough basketball to know that when you look back at each game, there's usually a theme or a handful of plays or an area or two that determine the outcome of the game. Every once in a while, you can punch someone in the face two or three times so hard that they don't get off the mat. I felt like that's what happened to us. After the first 10 or 12 minutes, we didn't find a group of guys that decided that we were going to dust ourselves and punch back harder and more. Unfortunately, it ended up being that way for the majority of the game."
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Q: Could you sense that the game was going to be bad from practices leading into the game?
CJ: "Considering the circumstances, they were great. We got home late Wednesday. Then, obviously we had to move the tip time up for potential weather. So, our routine was a little off. Vanderbilt had played Tuesday, so their routine wasn't thrown quite as off as ours."
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"What I told the locker room is all of that you're going to hear that as an excuse out there, and that had nothing to do with the outcome of this game. It had zero [effect], and I said that because we got the information to them like we always do or try to do anyways."
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"I felt like, in our PM shootaround last night and in our morning film today and in warmups from the feedback I get from the guys that are out there. They're all like yeah, the vibe is really good, and I felt that way too. Our practice yesterday was really good. It was intense. We guarded, we rebounded and we played how we were trying to play. So, it's no, a long answer to your question. It's not something that I expected, nor did I get a feeling that it could be a long day for us. That wasn't the case."
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Q: How important is it to have strong player leadership in tough moments like this?
CJ: "Well, we're going to find out. We're pretty deep into a tough, wrong side of the streak. We're going to need a lot of that right now from players and from myself, it starts there and ends there, and from our staff. We've got to go on the road now this week. I don't care who you're playing, where you're playing, when you're playing, home, road, neutral. In this league, you're going to play a prepared team with really good players and a plan. Your point is well taken. We're going to have to figure out a way to stay together and coach better and compete more. That was again the most disappointing thing for me for whatever reason."
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"We did a decent job on the glass in the first half, and it's something that we've really been talking about lately. In the second half, Jamar [Jamarion Davis-Fleming] had two offensive rebounds. That was the only individual that recorded an offensive rebound, and that can't happen when you're trying to get back in the game. You've got to have more guys that are hungry for the ball, and I'm not doing a good enough job to get them to play with that motor that's required to do all the things that we want them to do."
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"We talked about guarding the ball a lot going into this game, and we had a heck of a time keeping [Tyler] Tanner and [Duke] Miles out of the paint. They're obviously really good players, and you've got to give them a lot of credit. I just didn't feel like we were motored up quite enough that would be needed to play against those kind of players."
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Mississippi State vs. No. 15 Vanderbilt – January 24, 2026
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Mississippi State Head Coach Chris Jans
Q: Did it surprise you that your guys never matched the intensity of Vanderbilt especially at the start of the game?Â
 CJ: "It surprised me. Both teams were on the wrong side of a streak, and we talked a lot about that in the last 48 hours. One team was going to feel better after the results of today and get off the snide if you will."
Â
"Like you mentioned, they brought great intensity to the start of the game. I'm not sure if our guys thought that we'd get off to a good start because that's been kind of the norm for the most part in SEC play and even prior to that for a few games. We didn't have the right mental approach or certainly the physicality, the intensity, or the attention to detail that we know we've got to play with all the time, but especially out the gate. I don't know if we took it for granted or not."Â
Â
"It's like what I told them after the game. They've all played enough basketball to know that when you look back at each game, there's usually a theme or a handful of plays or an area or two that determine the outcome of the game. Every once in a while, you can punch someone in the face two or three times so hard that they don't get off the mat. I felt like that's what happened to us. After the first 10 or 12 minutes, we didn't find a group of guys that decided that we were going to dust ourselves and punch back harder and more. Unfortunately, it ended up being that way for the majority of the game."
Â
Q: Could you sense that the game was going to be bad from practices leading into the game?
CJ: "Considering the circumstances, they were great. We got home late Wednesday. Then, obviously we had to move the tip time up for potential weather. So, our routine was a little off. Vanderbilt had played Tuesday, so their routine wasn't thrown quite as off as ours."
Â
"What I told the locker room is all of that you're going to hear that as an excuse out there, and that had nothing to do with the outcome of this game. It had zero [effect], and I said that because we got the information to them like we always do or try to do anyways."
Â
"I felt like, in our PM shootaround last night and in our morning film today and in warmups from the feedback I get from the guys that are out there. They're all like yeah, the vibe is really good, and I felt that way too. Our practice yesterday was really good. It was intense. We guarded, we rebounded and we played how we were trying to play. So, it's no, a long answer to your question. It's not something that I expected, nor did I get a feeling that it could be a long day for us. That wasn't the case."
Â
Q: How important is it to have strong player leadership in tough moments like this?
CJ: "Well, we're going to find out. We're pretty deep into a tough, wrong side of the streak. We're going to need a lot of that right now from players and from myself, it starts there and ends there, and from our staff. We've got to go on the road now this week. I don't care who you're playing, where you're playing, when you're playing, home, road, neutral. In this league, you're going to play a prepared team with really good players and a plan. Your point is well taken. We're going to have to figure out a way to stay together and coach better and compete more. That was again the most disappointing thing for me for whatever reason."
Â
"We did a decent job on the glass in the first half, and it's something that we've really been talking about lately. In the second half, Jamar [Jamarion Davis-Fleming] had two offensive rebounds. That was the only individual that recorded an offensive rebound, and that can't happen when you're trying to get back in the game. You've got to have more guys that are hungry for the ball, and I'm not doing a good enough job to get them to play with that motor that's required to do all the things that we want them to do."
Â
"We talked about guarding the ball a lot going into this game, and we had a heck of a time keeping [Tyler] Tanner and [Duke] Miles out of the paint. They're obviously really good players, and you've got to give them a lot of credit. I just didn't feel like we were motored up quite enough that would be needed to play against those kind of players."
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Players Mentioned
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