Chris Jans after Alabama loss: 'We're not a Top-10 team'

Mississippi State has, to an extent, seen what their current ceiling is with their four conference losses.

Following their 88-84 loss to No. 4 Alabama on Wednesday, Chris Jans said the Bulldogs must just not be a top 10 team themselves considering all of their league losses have come against opponents of that caliber.

“Well, my deduction would be at this point that we’re not a top 10 team,” Jans said. “You know, we’ve lost four games of our five to top 10 teams.”

Coming into SEC play, Mississippi State was 12-1 in the non-conference with the one loss coming to Butler on a consecutive day in the title game of the Arizona Tip-Off back in November. They have also won four conference games to this point, including one against a ranked, in-state league opponent in No. 21 Ole Miss.

However, the Bulldogs are 0-4, at 16-5 overall now, in each of their Top-10 matchups against No. 6 Kentucky, No. 1 Auburn, No. 6 Tennessee, and No. 4 Alabama. The losses to the Wildcats and Crimson Tide on The Hump were only by five and four respectively but the ones on the road to the Tigers and Volunteers were their largest of the season by 22 on The Plains and then by 12 on Rocky Top.

Jans didn’t want to have to share that considering what he thinks about his team. Even so, the Bulldogs lost again and, as such, that stat remains a fact about their record.

“I don’t like saying that or admitting that because I like this team. I’m confident in this team. I believe in this group,” said Jans. “That’s what I told them before the game and I told them during the game and what I told them after the game.

“Woulda, coulda, shoulda. It’s hurt. It’s a very hurt locker room from the top down. You expect them to be hurt. They poured their heart out out there, left it on the floor and, in the end, we didn’t win the game, which is obviously all that matters.”

Mississippi State is one of the better teams in the country and in the SEC. They’re just maybe not one of the best teams in either yet based on that mark against the ones who likely are right now – although still having several opportunities to change that record over the next month in conference play.

“We just got to stay the course,” said Jans. “We’ve got more work to do.”