As football season hasn’t gone quite as planned for Mississippi State fans, much of the Bulldog faithful are beginning to turn their attention toward basketball season.
Coming off the team’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in four years, second-year head coach Chris Jans said on Thunder & Lightning that the expectations are even higher going into this season.
“I have bigger expectations going forward now that we’ve established ourselves and we’ve got our culture instilled, we’ve got some more of our players, and just have a better feel for the landscape of what this job entails and the league we’re in,” Jans said. “So yeah, we’re shooting for bigger goals going forward and I can’t imagine that changing in the near future.”
Jans, who came to Starkville from New Mexico State after the departure of Ben Howland, told host Brian Hadad that for the first time in his career, he’s changed the team’s goal from making the NCAA Tournament to making a run in the NCAA Tournament.
“To be perfectly honest, every year for quite some time, making March Madness is the ultimate goal,” Jans said. “I’m not going to go into the details of it, but I will admit that in our first meeting that we had as a group this fall, I changed the big goal that we normally have. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that as a head coach.”
The reason for the rising expectations is in large part due to the returning roster. Mississippi State is the only SEC team and one of very few NCAA Tournament teams welcoming back all five starters from a year ago.
Along with 2022-23 starters Dashawn Davis, Shakeel Moore, D.J. Jeffries, Cameron Matthews, and Tolu Smith – who is out with a foot injury until at least conference play – the Bulldogs welcome back KeShawn Murphy, Shawn Jones, and Martavious Russell.
Jans also put together a small but talented incoming class highlighted by transfers Andrew Taylor (Marshall) and Jimmy Bell (West Virginia) along with true freshmen Josh Hubbard, Adrian Myers, and Gai Chol. The first-years in Starkville will be joined by junior college transfers Lorenzo Fort II (Howard College) and Jaquan Scott (Salt Lake CC).
Even with the injury to the team’s only preseason All-SEC player in Smith, Jans believes the rest of the roster is good enough to hold down the fort until Smith’s return in January.
“We’ve definitely had to adjust (without Tolu). Any silver lining is that it didn’t happen in the middle of the season,” Jans said. “And we’ve had plenty of time to tinker with lineups…playing faster, possibly pressing more, definitely having a small-ball lineup, working with that and what that looks like and how we need to play.”
Mississippi State will begin the 2023-24 campaign on Wednesday against Arizona State as part of the Barstool Sports Invitational. Tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m. CT on Barstool.TV.
