WATCH: Head coach Chris Jans talks Texas A&M, Tolu Smith and Isaac Stansbury

Mississippi State enters the final week of the regular season and the stakes are rather large, which is usually the case this time of the year. Sitting at 19-10 overall and 8-8 in the SEC, the Bulldogs face a tall task to wrap up the regular season, traveling to Texas A&M Wednesday for an 8 p.m. tipoff (ESPNU) before hosting Top 20 South Carolina on Saturday.

Last time out, the Aggies snapped a five-game losing slide with a win at Georgia and improved to 16-13 overall and 7-9 in the league. Meanwhile, State fell at No. 11 Auburn and enter Wednesday’s road finale on a two-game losing streak.

On Monday morning Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans met with the media to discuss the Texas A&M matchup and upcoming Senior Day among other topics:

Q: Coming off a loss, what do you want to see from your team this week?
Jans: We got two games left. Most coaches this time of the year are lamenting the fact that, hey, we should’ve won this one or we could’ve won that one. A realist would say you could’ve lost that one, too, and we have some of those, as well. Our season is a marathon and we are going down the stretch run. So like I’ve been talking about for the last week or so with you guys and our players, the analogy of the game and the season, we are down to the last two minutes and that’s where we are at.

So they all matter the same. They all count as a win or a loss and they stay with you all year long. When the opportunities dwindle, they become bigger and that’s where we’re at. We go into a week where we have to play two really good teams, one away from home and one at home. We can talk numbers and we can talk prognosticators, the reality is and what I always tell people is you just gotta win games. That solves all the problems and that’s going to be our focus heading into the week, trying to figure out how we can win two basketball games.

Q: Obviously you have confidence in your team. But this team has been in these situations – backs against the wall – and have responded well most of the time. How does that previous experience with this group relate to your confidence?
Jans: The fact that I have confidence in them is one thing. But the fact they have confidence in each other is more important. It’s not like I have to mentally trick them into thinking they are better than they are or they could find a way to do something they haven’t done as a group, prior. Because like you just said, they have.

We’ve been in some holes and we’ve dug ourselves out of those holes. We’re back in that situation where I think we all need to get that ‘feel good’ running through our veins again. The only way to do that is to play well and to win. But no question about it, I think all of us have been there, done that. We’ve had good responses most of the time and I expect the same heading into this week.

Q: Any differences you see in this year’s Texas A&M squad compared to last year?
Jans: They are very similar in terms of who they are. Coach (Buzz) Williams has built quite a culture down there. You know when you play his team you are going to be in a back-alley scrap. They’re going to get after you and their prowess this year is especially on the backboards.

They lead the country in offensive rebounding, something we pride ourselves in and we’ve taken a back seat thus far to their numbers and how they get it done each and every game. So they are similar in the play-hard factor, the toughness factor, what they rely on. They’ve got such veteran guards with (Tyrece) Radford and (Wade) Taylor. They’ve done it all and the moment is never too big for them. We know going down the stretch here they are trying to lead their team.

The only thing that will be different is they may not have quite the scoring around the basket. But to make up for that, they unleash their forwards to be offensive rebounding machines and creating extra possessions for their team. So they found ways to make up for that area.

Q: There’s always talk of freshmen hitting that freshman wall late in the season but Josh Hubbard is playing some of his best basketball of late. Does that surprise you that he hasn’t hit that wall?
Jans: I don’t know much about hte proverbial wall but I understand people use it a lot. It happens, I guess, to players and they don’t have to be freshmen, either.

Again, I can’t speak for him but I would imagine a lot of that has to do with the way he takes care of himself. Just his training, his background and knowing what he’s done to work himself into being the player and person, which is equally important, that he is today, it has to have something to do with all of his success that he’s had thus far.

And to your point, he continues to have that bounce. He continues to be productive and most importantly, he continues to work on his defiencies. Everybody sees the scoring and the jumpshot and the speed and all that. But what they don’t see is his work on his game when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands. That is what any coach would love to see and that is what I love to see about Josh. He continues to try to get better.

Q: With Josh Hubbard’s increasing scoring, how much has that opened up things for other guards on the court?
Jans: I don’t think it’s necessarily the other guards. I just think it creates space for all of us, forwards included. Our offense has gotten better. Certainly, still a work in progress but we are more efficient this year than we were last year and we are running offense at a higher level. Hopefully we will continue to get better. Even like a guy like Tolu (Smith), people are not doubling him as much as they used to. So he has more space.

Speaking of Tolu and most of you are probably not aware of this, but he suffered a pretty serious fall on Friday in practice. One of those where the gym gets eerily quiet because it was a very awkward fall and it didn’t look very good. It was probably halfway through and he obviously spent a bunch of time in the back with the trainer to try to resume practice, which eventually he did.

So it was touch and go as we got closer to the game if he was going to be able to play. Fortunately, he survived any major damage. We had x-rays immediately and people looking at the x-rays just to give him a peace of mind with his history. In the end he decided to play for his team and he left it out on the floor. I was real proud of him for doing that.

Q: With Senior Day on Saturday, your thoughts on the impact these seniors have had here?
Jans: Senior Day is always an interesting day. I probably said this last year and obviously, a lot of different reactions, some good, some bad. We’re hoping everyone can enjoy Senior Day that is participating but it is so different now than it used to be.

Last year we had a couple of seniors walk during Senior Day and they are back in a Bulldog uniform. You just never know how everything is going to turn out. But it is a special day and a day that they deserve to be able to walk out with their families that are able to be there with them and to be acknowledged for what they mean to our program and to being a Bulldog.

For me, obviously, you want to enjoy it and it’s important. But at the same time we want to make sure we keep our emotions in check and be ready to play when they throw the ball up.

Q: Speaking of Senior Day, what has Isaac Stansbury meant to this program and being a fan favorite?
Jans: He’s been a positive influence to our basketball team since I’ve arrived. To be honest with you, when I first got here and I heard there was a Stansbury on the roster, I was ‘okay, how’s this going to go?’ but it’s been great. He is all about the right stuff. What I love most about him, he tries to get into his role.

He tries to do whatever he can to help the team and every coach in America talks about that. Whatever your role is on this team, how many minutes to are getting or not getting, do whatever you are doing to the best of your ability. He embodies that. In practice he practices hard, he practices right. He is a big part of our scout team and he picks up things at a high level, which is huge.

It is important to have guys out there that realize the importance of what they’re doing that helps us prepare and hopefully helps us win games. And then equally important when he gets into the games. He ain’t trying to be one of those dudes that chucks one up from 40 feet and everybody is telling him to shoot it.

He wants to play the game. He wants to play right. He wants to continue to try to play within the confines of what we are trying to do. And I respect him so much for that. It would be easy to go down the other road and chuck one up and make everybody get excited and all that. But that’s not in his D.N.A. He’s a basketball player that tries to play the right way and he’s been a big positive for us since we’ve been here.

Q: Back to Tolu Smith, is his situation something that could linger or is he fine now?
Jans: He is 100 percent okay. He may have some soreness and things of that nature. But there’s nothing like injuring a major part of his body. It’s just the fall was pretty scary, pretty awkward. Two big guys kind of got tangled up when he fell and it hurt and you could tell it hurt. So you just didn’t know.

But when I watched the replay of the (Auburn) game or even live, he didn’t complain about anything during the game and didn’t ask to come out. The information I get from the trainer, he’s good.

Q: Also with Tolu, how much does his commitment to return for this season mean to you and this staff?
Jans: There’s been some big moments and when you do this, the highs can be pretty high and the lows can be pretty low, and you usually remember the extremes. I don’t think I’ll ever forget when I got the phone call from (Smith) that he was going to remain a Bulldog. I know exactly where I was, exactly what I was doing and the emotions that I felt. It was a pretty big moment for our program and to share that with him is something I will never forget.

It makes you feel good. It makes you feel good that he wanted to finish his career as a Bulldog. We had done enough as a staff to convince him that he could continue to be the kind of player that he wants to be and strives to be. Kids have decisions to make this day and age. That is one of the things I talked a lot about in the fall. We’re proud of the fact that the majority of our guys, even when we got here and inherited, the ones we were trying to re-recruit came back, and all but one did.

Even last year to have all five starters make the commitment to return made everybody feel good inside our program. Certainly with someone of Tolu’s magnitude, even though he wasn’t in the (transfer) portal, the types of places he probably could’ve went to had he chose to actually go in the portal. So he’s a special player, a special kid. Certainly appreciative of him and the relationship that we have, I certainly look forward to continuing when he is done (at Mississippi State).