WATCH: Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans talks Kentucky, Trey Fort and Shakeel Moore
Mississippi State’s rugged start to the SEC slate continues on Wednesday as the Bulldogs visit No. 6 Kentucky for a 6 p.m. tipoff (ESPN2). The Bulldogs are 12-4 overall and 1-2 in the SEC while the Wildcats enter Wednesday’s matchup with a 12-3 mark and 2-1 record in the league.
On Monday morning Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans met with the media to discuss Kentucky among other topics:
Q: Your thoughts on facing Kentucky at Rupp Arena?
Jans: I’ve never coached at Rupp Arena so looking forward to that opportunity. Certainly heard a lot about it, watched a lot of games, talked to other people about it. But most importantly, just trying to get our kids ready to go.
It will be a heck of a challenge. At first glance they are uber-talented. Obviously, they have a lot of young guys this year but they are very, very talented. They don’t play like freshmen. They seem very seasoned already. They are very high-octane on offense, very similar to Alabama in terms of their transition baskets, their ability to get down hill, multiple playmakers on the floor at one time. And they shoot the ball really, really well. They shoot the ball much better than last year’s team.
From what I have read and seen, their coaching staff seems really happy about the vibe they have and the culture this particular team has. They feel really good about themselves.
Q: How do you go about trying to handle their offense?
Jans: Just hope we execute the gameplan better. I’m not going to give away what we are going to do but we got to execute better on that end of the floor. After watching the tape, it wasn’t just the ghost screens. We had some ball screen breakdowns, defensively, and we have to shore that up. We’re just going to have to be better.
Q: Trey Fort gave the team some good minutes against Alabama. Your thoughts on his play of late?
Jans: We were excited about the prospects of him being able to help us as we got into conference play and we saw some of that against Alabama. He jumped up and made a couple of shots, and had the opportunity to convert a layup that didn’t happen. Defensively, he is still a work in progress like a lot of our guys are. But hes’s gotten a lot better on that end and he can provide a spark for us. He gives us another scorer on the floor, another guy that can stretch the defense and give us more room to operate around the paint.
Q: With Kentucky coming off the loss to Texas A&M, you expect them to try to bounce back mentally from that loss?
Jans: Yeah I wasn’t rooting for that outcome, to be honest with you. That wasn’t ideal for us but that’s just the way it goes. But at the end of the day we know how that feels, coming off a loss and getting an opportunity to get the player’s attention maybe more than normal. I am sure their staff is rallying them up right now to try to defend their home court. But Wednesday night when they tip the ball we know that will have no relevance when it comes to the game we are going to play with them.
Q: Do you think your team will have an extra chip on their shoulder Wednesday after losing the Alabama game?
Jans: Again, I don’t think the outcome will have much bearing, theirs or ours. I think both teams will be ready to go. I think both teams are going to play really hard. Most importantly, we just have to have two good days of practice. We’ve got to have two really good days of understanding what went wrong in the game and our staff trying to work together to do some things in practice that we can get better so that we can get it on the court on Wednesday.
All that stuff sounds good in theory. But when they throw that ball up, you’re not thinking about anything but playing the team you’re playing.
Q: Your thoughts on the backcourt rotation?
Jans: Again, every game unfolds as it does and there’s a lot of things that factor in rotations and one big thing is foul issues. I don’t remember a game all year long we didn’t have someone that was in some sort of foul trouble. So that determines a lot of who plays.]
Then other factors include who is on the floor for them, what matchups, defensively, present by playing certain guys and the flow of the game and who is playing well and who isn’t. It’s just a lot of factors that go into it. But like I’ve always said, more options are welcomed by me and the staff.
And they know how it works. You get minutes, you’re productive and then you get more minutes. But it all goes back to that and practice. We always preach you play like you practice and we put it to words. It means something to us. We play guys that produce daily that have a consistent approach daily and that, at the end of the day, we trust are going to get out there and play the way we are trying to play.
Q: We saw Rams (Dashawn Davis) and his minutes decrease against Alabama. How has his role changed?
Jans: I don’t think his role has changed at all. He just needs to play better. He didn’t play very well against Alabama with the minutes that he had. He’s usually in at the end of the game, especially when it is tight and he’s earned that right because of his productivity and because of the trust level he has earned while he’s been here. But he’s just not playing at the level we feel he is capable of playing.
Not just that game and I’m not talking about minutes but productivity since conference play has begun. For us to be our best, he’s got to be more productive on both ends of the floor. I’m not talking about anything from the stats department. I’m talking about just what he provides for us with being the head of the snake, defensively, and doing it all the time. Not doing it when he is fresh or when he feels like it.
We need him to be a ball destructor. We need him to be really, really good on the ball and set our defense in the court set and not be affected on the other end if things are not going well for him on a particular night or if he missed a shot or just had a turnover. And that goes for all of our players. But him being a returnee, an older guy playing a position that is really important to everyone’s basketball team, for us to be our best he’s got to play well.
Q: Your thoughts on Shakeel Moore and how he fits alongside Rams Davis and Josh Hubbard?
Jans: It is interesting you brought him up and I was going to wait until today to talk to him 1-on-1. But he looked different. At shoot around his demeanor, his facial expressions, his focus throughout the afternoon and then when we were getting ready in our meetings and talks before we hit the floor to the opening tip, he just had a different look to him in a positive way.
I didn’t know what it was going to mean come game time. But he just seemed ready to go. I thought he played really well on both ends of the floor. He and I are going to talk about that today and I am going to ask him how he got to that place, mentally, because that’s a place he needs to find each and every day and each and every outing for him to play at his best.
That’s a big shot in the arm for us when he is doing everything, being a dynamic athlete, getting to the paint creating for himself and others and getting in transition. He’s getting open 3s and knocking them down. I thought he played really well and hopefully he can keep it going.
Q: You mentioned about your guys being up and down at times. Is that something you talk to your players about?
Jans: Every situation is a little bit different. It depends on where we are at with each particular situation. We handle it differently. It’s just a vibe thing, a feel thing. More often than not we will have unscheduled meetings throughout the day where we just try to get together and make sure we are all on the same page, make sure there are no questions of why.
Then we are real blunt with our guys. We don’t try to play games with them and sugar-coat it. They know what the expectations are. They know our doors are always open and we encourage them to be up there as much as possible, not just to talk about basketball. Some take advantage of it and some don’t as much as others.
But when kids are not playing well, it’s not like they need me to tell them that. They know. They know if they are not playing well. Usually they do something to straighten it out, do something to make sure they play better next time out and we will continue to try to do that.
