Chris Jans explains why Shakeel Moore started against Alabama

Mississippi State has lost eight of its last nine games, but the most recent loss is as close to you can get as a ‘moral victory.’ No. 2 Alabama outlasted Mississippi State 66-63 at home. The tight game did prompt questions about why Shakeel Moore started for the Bulldogs.

It was his first start of the season, coming on the heels a couple terrific performances.

“Yeah I don’t know about moving forward, it wasn’t a matchup thing it was just time,” coach Chris Jans said. “We felt like we needed to switch it up. We like them two out there together. When you’re in the midst of what we’re in the middle of you try to shake it up a little bit at times and get a little bit different rhythm, a little bit different start. Obviously we had a great start.”

Though Shakeel Moore started the game, it could have gone better.

The junior guard finished just 2-of-10 shooting in the contest and ended up with five points, five rebounds and four assists in the contest. It wasn’t quite enough to push Mississippi State over the top against the league’s top team.

Chris Jans liked Mississippi State’s response

The Bulldogs weren’t able to hang on against the Crimson Tide after building a decent lead, but that didn’t keep Jans from finding plenty of positives for Mississippi State in the loss.

“In the second half we came out and re-established ourselves and got up more than seven for a long period of time,” Jans said.

Ultimately Alabama was able to power through, winning the second half by 10 points after going into halftime trailing by a score of 36-29.

So while Mississippi State ultimately wasn’t able to hang on for a massive win, there were plenty of encouraging signs. And even though Shakeel Moore started but didn’t have his best outing, the Bulldogs seem to be onto something.

“I was real proud of them, how they handled their run,” Jans said. “I thought about calling timeout a couple times when they got pretty loud and they overtook us. I think we had a couple possessions there where we quieted them down with some big shots and some nice offensive possessions, so I’m really proud of them being able to stick together when you’re in a hostile environment like that.”