Everything head coach Chris Jans said following Mississippi State's NCAA Tournament invite

Mississippi State is dancing again, the third straight NCAA Tournament appearance under third-year head coach Chris Jans. The Bulldogs (21-12) grabbed the 8th seed in the East Region and will face 9th seed Baylor (19-14) on Friday.

Following the announcement, Jans met with the local media to discuss State’s tournament berth and next challenge:

Q: Your thoughts on getting the invite and facing Baylor in the first round?
Jans: We’re excited. It never gets old. Obviously, the bracketologists gave us a pretty good chance that our name was going to be heard today. It is certainly a comforting feeling. The first year, I remember, we were not so sure and we didn’t do a public reveal. This year is was a lot more fun to know and get excited about the possibilities.

Really, for whatever reason I am excited that we play on Friday. After last year’s experience playing on Thursday the opening game, we felt a lot more rushed after we played in a further round in Nashville (at SEC Tournament) and we didn’t get back as early as we did this year. So we’ll have plenty of time to soak it all up and obviously, do a deep dive on scout and be better prepared.

Q: What do you know about Baylor?
Jans: Not really, to be honest with you. Certainly we know Coach (Scott) Drew and their staff, a national championship coach and their program has been one of the best programs in America for a few years. So they’ve got a great culture, a great reputation. I’m sure once we open the laptop it will be a formidable opponent at the least.

Q: After a couple of solid showings in Nashville, do you feel this team is getting back close to how you were playing earlier this season?
Jans: We’re disappointed that we lost the Missouri game. I thought we played really well against LSU and had a bounce to our step. We didn’t have to play guys a ton of minutes in that game so that was a big bonus in day-after-day format.

Just like I said in post-game and a lot of you guys were there, we just picked the worst time of the game to play the worst four-minute stretch we had in a forty minute game. That’s winning time and you can’t make up for it. As I watched the film the last couple of days, that’s my same analysis now. They played better than us when the possessions mattered the most and that’s disappointing. Hopefully it’s going to happen again when we are in another close game and we’ll play better as the clock is ticking towards the end.

Q: A couple of weeks ago you talked about the gauntlet of the SEC. Now you have a chance to resettle and get back home. Do you see it that way and like the rest you are getting right now?
Jans: I think everybody likes it. We’re, knock on wood, pretty healthy considering the gauntlet and how long college basketball is. We’ve been lucky, knock on wood, that way all year long for the most part. And this team has been a really good practice team. We practiced yesterday and it was as intense a practice as we’ve had in a long, long time. Not just by my standards, they put those contraptions around them now and read all this stuff. Coach (Dominick) Walker, who is way smarter than I am, he speaks to me layman’s terms. He indicated to me that was one of the most intense practices that we’ve had in a long, long time.

So I thought that was a great sign. Certainly you didn’t know what to expect after losing on Thursday and practicing on Saturday, what the mood was. So I think they know there’s a lot more to play for. This group has been a close group all year long and it’s going to be a fun week to prepare.

Q: What does it mean to you to get back to this point with another new roster?
Jans: Yeah, I’m proud of the fact that we’ve been able to do it three years in a row. That’s what we talked about doing when I arrived. We talked about building a team each year to get in March Madness. That was the goal from day one. Certainly, the goals have changed. We want to win multiple games now. That’s what the charge is. We want more. We just don’t want to hear our name called. We’ve got enough guys that have been around long enough to understand getting there is awesome. But we want to stay longer and win games and go on a run.

So I love the fact that we’ve been able to do it three years in a row. Love the fact that we’ve got another eighth-seed two years in a row, our seeding is getting better. Now we just have to win some games.

Q: Not only with your returnees, but you have new transfers like Riley Kugel, RJ Melendez and Claudell Harris that have played in the NCAA Tournament or NIT before. How does that postseason experience help?
Jans: You can’t teach experience. I think that will be true for a lot of teams, though, with the portal being what it is. I think a lot of teams and programs that are in the tournament have new kids that maybe weren’t with them the year before when they played but were with other programs. So I’m not sure how much that is going to help us. I just think everybody is more experience now.

Q: Early on you recruited Baylor freshman standout VJ Edgecombe. Your thoughts on facing him?
Jans: He’s a heck of a player. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t follow their program like that. I don’t have a lot of downtime where I can just go watch a random college basketball game. I don’t even know what kind of year he’s having. I assume he’s having a really good year, but I’ll be getting to know him real quickly.