Chris Jans explains KeShawn Murphy's recent dip in minutes

If there’s one position on the court where Mississippi State doesn’t need any more bodies, it’s at the forward spot. The Bulldog roster is riddled with tough, defensive-minded forwards in the 6-7 to 6-10 range. In fact, players in that heigh range account for seven of MSU’s top 10 rotation players. First-year coach Chris Jans is defensive-minded by nature and prefers to roll with bigger, more athletic lineups — hence the stable of forwards.

However, with so many options in the front-court, some guys can get left behind, which has happened to freshman big man KeShawn Murphy. The rookie got off to a slow start this season, but found his way into the rotation by the end of November and wound up playing 10+ minutes in each of his next eight games. In the last three games, though, he played 10 or more minutes just once and logged three minutes in two of the games.

After a strong run in December and early January, what’s led to the decrease in minutes for Murphy? Coach Jans was asked that exact question in his most recent press conference. Here was his answer:

Chris Jans explains why KeShawn Murphy has lost minutes

You know, that’s the one position where we actually have probably as much or more depth than we do anywhere else. So it’s a little tough for for those guys at times, because, you know, obviously Cameron Matthews has been a big rotation guy starter for the majority of the season and plays a lot of minutes most nights. And then you got Tyler Stevenson, who’s the grizzled veteran, if you will.

“And KeShawn, you know, he’s going to have other opportunities here. There are decisions we have to make each and every night and they’re tough decisions to make. But the whole team and I said it in the postgame — but individually, like, his attitude has been awesome. He stayed the course he continues to work, he continues to be a good teammate, he knows what he needs to do to get on the floor.

“There’s other guys that want minutes and some of them deserve some minutes. But you can only play five at a time. There’s only 200 minutes to go around in each particular game and every coach in America has to make some tough decisions like that.”

Coaches tend to trim down their rotations as the season draws nearer to an end and each games means more and more. Well, Mississippi State is in desperation mode when it comes to salvaging their chances at an NCAA Tournament berth. So Murphy’s minutes may have been sacrificed for the sake of figuring out a tighter rotation.

Nonetheless, it’s good to hear from Coach Jans that he’s taking it well and still in good spirits. Surely there will be games when the Bulldogs need him to come through.