Chris Jans identifies Auburn game as ‘must-win’ for Mississippi State’s resume

Mississippi State picked up a huge win for its resume on Saturday, holding off No. 8 Auburn for a 64-58 victory.

It’s a game the Bulldogs desperately needed after starting the year 2-4 in SEC play. Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans went as far as to refer to the game as “must-win” when talking with his son beforehand.

“I told my son, ‘This is a must win.’ I didn’t tell my team that. I didn’t tell, really, anybody else that. But it was a must-win in my mind, because of the obvious. We need more Quad 1 wins,” Chris Jans said postgame.

Beating Auburn isn’t just a Quad 1 win for Mississippi State, it’s a high Quad 1 win. The Tigers are No. 9 in the NET and have one of the best resumes in the country.

“This is a really good Quad 1 win, because of how high they’re ranked in the NET. And I’m sure they’re going to stick around that vicinity all year long,” Jans said. “It’s like the Tennessee win. They’re Quad 1 wins, but they’re like super Quad 1 wins because of how solid their numbers are and how they’re playing all year long. But it was huge. We had to have it. I didn’t really say those words with the team, but I think they knew what was at stake. We talked about the Quad 1 opportunity and how important it was because of being at home.”

Mississippi State moved up to No. 36 in the NET with the victory. In addition to Auburn, the Bulldogs have impressive wins over Northwestern and Tennessee.

Mississippi State is now 8-2 at home on the year.

“The biggest thing we talked about before we left the locker room was that this was our court. It was our day and our time and we had to figure out a way to get it done,” Jans said.

He added that he wasn’t only pleased to get the win but was also happy with the way the Bulldogs played.

Mississippi State got back to its defensive identity, holding Auburn to 21 points in the first half and 58 for the game.

“We’ve got a ton of respect for Auburn and coach Pearl. He’s done a tremendous job to build that program. They’re obviously really, really good. … But everybody says it, no matter what level you’re coaching at, you’ve gotta play harder. But we really, really, really drilled down with it and showed them clips,” Jans said.

“We think there were times where we were a little grimier last year. We score the ball a little bit better this year… but we showed them some clips of last year against Auburn, even though we lost last year, that we were a little tougher, a little nastier. And that we needed to get back to our full identity that way, and I think they adopted that this afternoon.”