Chris Jans 'really excited' about Mississippi State's transfer portal additions

The Mississippi State Bulldogs basketball team has upgraded its roster in recent weeks, securing the addition of a couple prominent players from the NCAA transfer portal.

Head coach Chris Jans discussed those additions, which admittedly came after a relatively quiet period for the Bulldogs after the season ended.

“People probably thought we were taking vacation there for a few weeks and it was pretty quiet on the recruiting scene for us,” Jans said. “We weren’t. There’s a lot to it. We were doing a lot of evaluating, a lot of conversations were had on the phone. Everyone’s roster is so fluid right now with the portal and potential grad transfers. But we’re really excited about the two portal additions that we’ve had thus far.”

While Mississippi State waits word on Tolu Smith’s NBA Draft decision, it went out and secured some help in the frontcourt anyway. The program locked up West Virginia transfer Jimmy Bell.

The new Mississippi State transfer averaged 4.8 points and 5.2 rebounds for the Mountaineers as a senior in 2022-23.

“You mentioned Jimmy Bell, just gives us an anchor, if you will, around the basket,” Jans said. “He’s got great size, lefty. He started 34 games for West Virginia in the Big 12. His numbers aren’t maybe as gaudy as one would like, but if you get underneath it and really look he did all that in 18 minutes a game against great competition almost every single night.

“Just getting to know him and his background and what kind of person he is we’re excited for him to join our basketball family and we think he’ll fit right in for what we’d like to do just in terms of our daily expectations. We’re excited that he’s part of us now.”

The other addition might draw more interest on paper.

That’s Marshall guard Andrew Taylor, who averaged 20.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists this season for the Thundering Herd. The new Mississippi State transfer will be counted on to power the backcourt.

“Andrew, he’s someone that his numbers jump out at you, right? Albeit it was at a mid-major level, but a successful program,” Jans said. “Coach Dan D’Antoni‘s very respected. They won 24 games last year. He put up ridiculous numbers.

“I’m not trying to temper it, but in reality they also play a wide open style and the ability to put up bigger numbers on raw data is there for the individuals on that team because of the higher number of possessions that they have. So he’ll have to make somewhat of an adjustment to our style of play. It’s different than what he’s been used to, but having said all that the ability to make baskets, the ability to be a good decision-maker in the pick-and-roll game both for himself and for the other guys on the court I think gives us an added dynamic that we’ve been searching for since the season ended.”