(Photo Credit: Mississippi State Athletics)
Nashville, TENN–The measure of a good team is often foggy and abstract. Chris Jans’ Mississippi State team appears to fit any given definition of one, though. It might fit the definition of a great one by the time it’s all said and done.
Jans’ team is 14-1, is ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll, 12th in the NET rankings and 15th in KenPom. It is also making an impression on coaches around the league
“They’ve been blowing out everybody they’re playing,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said. “Mississippi State is a good basketball team.”
Mississippi State’s 76-64 win at Vanderbilt on Tuesday night was the latest edition of it flexing its muscles and beating a power-four team by double digits, it was the fourth-straight game in which it did that. Tuesday felt different–and perhaps indicated that Jans’ team can be even better than its ranking–though.
On a night in which No. 1 Tennessee got ran off the floor in Gainesville and No. 6 Kentucky lost to Georgia by double digits in Athens, Mississippi State went into Memorial Gymnasium and handled business in front of Vanderbilt’s best home crowd since 2022-23. It also did it with just nine points from its all-SEC guard Josh Hubbard, four points from its third leading scorer Keshawn Murphy and a scoreless outing from talented transfer guard Riley Kugel.
The third-year Mississippi State head coach believes that says something about the group he’s assembled in year three at the helm.
“I don’t love that we had any individuals that didn’t play their best, but that’s gonna happen over the course of a season and we’re just more built to handle it,” Jans said. “We’ve got other guys that can take the slack up when those situations arise and certainly as a coach it makes you feel really good about the team.”
Jans has reason to feel particularly good about Georgia transfer RJ Melendez, who proved on Tuesday that his 8.7 points per game could be easily inflated if he was more of a focal point within Jans’ offense. Melendez looked like the best scorer on the floor on Tuesday and scored a game-high 19 points on 8-for-14 shooting.
“I just love where he’s at. He’s playing how I envisioned him playing for us,” Jans said of Melendez. “He glides up the court. He’s got a beautiful stroke and he’s gotten a little bit nastier, if you will with the other things, just being more prideful on the ball, being on the glass, being the first to the floor. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself right now and we have a lot of confidence in him.”
It appears Jans can rely on his core group of Hubbard, Kugel and Murphy to lead the way with the help of Claudell Harris. He’ll certainly need all hands on deck as his team approaches a four-game gauntlet that includes No. 6 Kentucky, No. 2 Auburn, No. 23 Ole Miss and No. 1 Tennessee. As his team approaches that stretch, Jans is just trying not to stare up at the mountain that is his team’s next two weeks.
“In terms of the next four games, it’s a cliche but that’s all we do is we focus on the next one and treat it like a Super Bowl,” Jans said.
Jans’ team has a chance to come out of that stretch with some results that could ignite its fanbase, but it has to do what’s made it so good throughout the early portion of the season. Jans’ team is 14th in the nation in offensive turnover percentage, 32nd in offensive rebounding percentage and has the nation’s 25th ranked defensive efficiency. That all matters and plays into the identity that Jans has built within his team in Starkville.
Mississippi State knows that its group is different in the midst of losing talented post scorer Tolu Smith, but Jans won’t let it off the hook by letting them use it as an excuse not to defend or rebound. His team, which finally has a stabilized rotation after significant transition throughout the early part of the season, is doing those things at a high level and feels as if it’s finding out who it is.
“We’re still learning, I’m still learning, [we’re] getting more and more comfortable with who we are,” Jans said. “We’re definitely still trying to get a feel and figure out exactly where we need to move people around, but we’re getting better at that in terms of understanding our parts and pieces and how they work together.”
Through 15 games–and two decisive SEC victories–Jans’ team appears to have developed a real understanding of what its identity is and what it’ll take for it to maximize it.
Now things gets real, though.
Great read Joey….as part of BBN Saturday has me really nervous!!