Head coach Chris Jans talks Ole Miss, KeShawn Murphy and get-back defense

Having dropped three of its last four games, the road doesn’t get any easier for No. 22 Mississippi State (17-7 overall, 5-6 in SEC) this weekend. The Bulldogs will face No. 19 Ole Miss (19-6, 8-4) on Saturday with a 5 p.m. tip-off on ESPN2.

On Thursday, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans met with the media to discuss the matchup with Ole Miss among other topics:

Q: When you watch the tape, what is not clicking with this team other than lack of confidence?
Jans: We go through spurts, offensively, in games that puts us behind the eight ball. You never know when they are going to come, obviously. If we did we would do everything we could to avoid it. But get out of sorts and it’s not one person. Like I said after the (Florida) game, I felt like we were not balanced, offensively, even in the first half when the game was close.

And then unfortunately, when things are not going well offensively, it affects other areas of our game. Every coach talks about having teams that understand your mood and personality can’t change regardless of what’s going on with the offensive end. It is a great theory and certainly, I’ve had teams that were better than others at it. But individually, which leads to collectively, to us having some of that in us and it can’t.

In a league like the SEC, especially this year, you’re going to have stretches where that you have some costly turnovers, poor shooting, frustration. You got to sprint back and be on defense and rely on that. We had times where that wasn’t the case and it has proved costly for us. The start of the second half looking back at our get-back defense, I think 12 or 13 points in that run where because of going from offense to defense in that setting and some people having some breakdowns in their responsibilities in doing that.

And then we turn it over six of our first nine possessions, offensively. When you are turning it over on offense, that leads to run-outs for the other team combined with what I just said about our get-back, in general. That game got away from us but big picture, people talk about our defensive numbers not being as good and it’s not. But sometimes there’s a lot that goes into that. Sometimes your offense directly leads to poor defensive possessions, as well.

Q: In terms of finding more offense, how much of that depends on finding more from those secondary scorers?
Jans: I love this team. I love the guys on this team. I believe in these kids. It’s no secret if you are following us closely, we haven’t as a team, and some individuals, not shooting the ball as well as they are capable of or as well as they have in prior stretches of the season. When you make a concerted effort to alter and tweak your roster to make it better, offensively, to be able to score the ball better, you have to give up something, usually. We’ve given up a little bit of our girth and our size to be able to score it better.

Well, when scoring is not happening, it compounds because we we’re not as good, defensively, as maybe we’ve been in years’ past. We can’t rely on turning defense into offense like we’ve done in the past as much. Certainly, we’re trying and that’s the goal. At the end of the day, we’ve got to figure out a way to score at the rim. That was an issue against Florida and they have great size. But in that particular game I don’t think it was altered because of their size. We just picked off some contested shots at the rim and it gets in your head a little bit. I could see it in their body language.

We had some looks that just didn’t go down for us. It can be frustrating for everybody in the building. Certainly, our fanbase can see it. Our players can see it. Our job is to instill confidence in them, have short memories and help them to try to get even better looks in every possession we have.

Q: Ole Miss has several capable scores. How important is it to limit guys like Jaemyn Brakefield?
Jans: That is one of the things that makes Ole Miss so good is their balance. You bring up (Sean) Pedulla and (Jaylen) Murray and certainly they deserve a ton because of their ability on both ends of the floor. They are tough-minded guards. They can score the ball in different ways and they are playing off one another. But it would be a big mistake to just focus on those two guys because of the balance that they’ve created with their team. They’ve got plenty of guys that are capable and Brakefield is one of them.

He is playing at a high level and playing like you would expect with a guy with that much experience and that much pride to play for his team. He’s having a really good season, especially lately.

Q: What have you seen from Ole Miss that’s helped them win close games lately?
Jans: I think every coach/program takes pride in winning close games when you are preparing for your league. As a coach, you are constantly talking to your team about how many close games we’re probably going to have coming up and what we need to do to make sure we make the decisions and to keep playing and execute when there’s only so many possessions left and you don’t have time to make up for it.

They’ve obviously done an excellent job at doing those types of things, being able to win games that come down to the last possession or two. I think that probably gives them great confidence being in those situations because of the outcomes that have been for them this season.

Q: With it being his first year to play center, has KeShawn Murphy‘s success surprised you at that spot so far this year?
Jans: It hasn’t, to be frank with you. I could see the talent because of the access I’ve to him since I’ve been here. I know people are tired of hearing about it but the injuries prevented him from playing the minutes he needed to get his talent on the floor. He’s just had some tough breaks that way. But knock on wood, he’s been injury free and he’s getting comfortable being a big-minute guy. We talked about he’s a redshirt junior but he might as well be a freshman in terms of experience or at least a sophomore.

But it doesn’t surprise me. He is very, very skilled. He is invested. The whole program knows how much he has invested, how much he cares, how productive he was heading into the season. The way we play lends himself to be able to play the five for us with a lot of trapping when the ball goes inside so he doesn’t have to fight some bigger dudes 1 on 1, defensively, in the post. Then him having some advantages, offensively, against some of their big guys with his ability to get in that mid-range and bring those bigs away from the basket, and not just try to back those guys down and make it easier for the bigs to guard him.

His touch from six to 16 feet is kind of old school that way. But happy for him. Certainly, it is about winning and he is about winning. But at the same time, he’s become reliable guy for us this season.

Q: Has Ole Miss changed much from the first time you faced them this season?
Jans: Their structure is the same the way they play. Everybody tweaks and adds as the season progresses. But their foundation of motion and man-to-man defense and toughness and togetherness is evident on the film. They are better than they were the last time we played against them. I think they’ve got a confident group. They’ve altered their starting lineup placing Murray in there rather than him coming off the bench. That’s probably helped them, as well, probably from the outside looking in.

We know we are going to go into this environment and I am excited for that opportunity. I am excited for our team to be able to play in this game that way. We’ve had a lot of road success, a lot of success away from home this year. Probably more than we’ve had at home if you really want to really drill down into it. We don’t like the fact our home record in our league is not better than it is. But it should give us a great confidence in preparing to go on an SEC road game because of the success we’ve had on the road this year.

Q: Obviously it is a different challenge facing your rival on the road. What is your message to your team before this game?
Jans: Yeah I got a few hours before I got to figure out exactly how we will start the process this afternoon in preparing this game and we understand the rivalry part. It’s important to us but at the same time, we’ve got seven games left. We’re 17-7. I don’t take the time to dig this stuff up but many people on my staff maybe have too much time on their hands. But apparently, we are 17-3 against teams that are not in the Top 6 in the NET. So if you look at that, I would imagine that most, not all, but most other teams across the country would love to have that record.

We have 11 Top 100 KenPom wins. I don’t know where that ranks and I have no idea. But I would imagine it’s up there. We are disappointed in not having a better record against the Top 6 in the NET. Every game is a Super Bowl for us. I’ve been saying that since I’ve arrived, the way we prepare, the way we go about getting ready for these games. They don’t always go our way. Certainly, would’ve loved to have had a couple of those bigger home games as wins on our resume rather than losses. We’re disappointed. But at the same time, we got lots of opportunities left.

We’ve got at least eight and they’re all going to be high-level challenges and high-level opportunities. We’ve put ourselves in position to control our own destiny and that’s what you want. Every goal we have for this particular team, and the goals are higher than they’ve ever been since I arrived, are all still attainable. But at the end of the day we’ve got to win games. We got to win games and we got plenty of them left to win and it starts Saturday.