WATCH: Head coach Chris Jans talks Kentucky, KeShawn Murphy and DJ Jeffries

With just four games left in the regular season, the stakes get higher and higher for Mississippi State each time out. On Tuesday the Bulldogs host No. 16 Kentucky for a 6 p.m. tipoff at Humphrey Coliseum.

Riding a five-game winning streak, State is 19-8 overall and 8-6 in the SEC. The winning streak is State’s longest in the SEC since reeling off five consecutive league wins during the 2018=19 campaign. Kentucky is also 19-8 overall and 9-5 in the SEC, and the Wildcats have won 18 straight regular-season meetings with State, including a win in Lexington earlier this season.

On Monday morning Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans met with the media to discuss the Wildcats among other topics:

Q: Looking back on that first meeting, what makes Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves so tough?
Jans: Yeah it hasn’t been that fun looking back on that trip. That was our fourth game in the SEC and we didn’t play them there last year so it was a new experience for the majority of our staff and some of our players. Obviously, it didn’t go very well.

Reeves is obviously one of the best players in the league and he’s played well against a lot of teams. I have a lot of respect for his game. From what I read and see and hear, he is a hard worker. From the outside looking in, he’s a guy that has gotten better each and every year and you can tell he puts the time in. So everybody respects that.

Again, it wasn’t a good experience. We didn’t play well and we have a lot to learn from it.

Q: Easier said than done but how do you get Kentucky from playing its style on Tuesday and playing more to your style preference?
Jans: Like I said before, it is something that is talked about a lot. But the other team is trying to impose their style on you and they’re doing things within the game to ensure they get their possessions up and you get in some up and down situations with them. It’s hard. Two teams that have different styles, obviously, in this particular game and we are certainly going to try to play our style and they will try to play theirs.

We’re hoping for the majority of the minutes that the game unfolds the way we would like it to unfold and I am sure they have a different opinion of that. It is easy to talk about and easy to gameplan for but it’s not practice. You can’t stop and explain why you shouldn’t have taken that shot or why we should’ve done this or that. It plays out like it plays out. So it’s difficult. It’s difficult and they are really good at what they do.

I don’t know if they are the leading scoring team in the nation but if not, they are right there. I know they are one of the leading scoring teams in the nation and certainly our job is to slow them down some.

Q: You’ve had different starting lineups of late. How do you go about managing that down the stretch of the season along with your rotations?
Jans: Like I said earlier, I understand what starting means for some kids. But for me it’s always been the same and I preach this to our team throughout the year, in the summer and the fall before we start thinking about something like that. No matter who you play for, remember, are you in there when the game is hard? Are you in there when the game is still in question at the end of the game?

Because that’s when it is most important. That is when you really have the ability to impact the game. Not that you can’t privy that but there is no more time. So who is in the game when it’s hard and who’s in the game in the closing minutes is where you find how your coach believes in you and trusts you.

Who starts is a whole other matter. The other thing I always tell them is after the first few minutes of the game, everybody comes off the bench. That is what I try to get them to understand. You have to have the mentality of understanding how to go from sitting on the bench to getting in the game and playing at full speed because everybody is going to do it. That is important than who starts the game. How good are you after sitting awhile and then getting into the flow of the game right away and not having to have 2-3 possessions to get going.

You got to be able to do it right away. It is something we talk about all the time. I believe in it and I am trying to get my players to believe in it. But this year’s group has been great. Some groups aren’t so great and for some individuals it means the world to them. We try to educate them and try to get them to understand. I understand the pagentry of it and the status within the organization. But there is so much more to it and this year’s team has been good about it.

Q: In the first meeting with Kentucky, Josh Hubbard was just 1 of 11 shooting. What did they do to slow him down and how much do you think that motivates Josh for Tuesday’s game?
Jans: It is not something Josh and I have talked about and he is mature beyond his years. He had some looks that just didn’t go down. He’s obviously had a big impact as a freshman and sometimes I think it gets taken for granted that he is going to have a good game in each outing.

But just like every other college kid, he has bad nights. He can lose some confidence if he misses some shots like everybody else can. Certainly against LSU he missed some early ones and kept going and he got it turned around as the game progressed. But I really believe it was just a bad night for him. Not to say they didn’t have something to do with it and they certainly did. But only Josh knows how he felt in terms of the atmosphere, the court, etc. But in my opinion I don’t think he is afraid of any big moment he has ever been in.

Q: During the five-game winning streak the defensive play has stepped up against solid offensive teams. Is there one thing you can point to that has factored into the defensive improvements?
Jans: It sounds simple but in the grand scheme of things, we try to do everything as well as we can within our system. Certainly we are harping on details, especially this time of the year. We are trying to be clean and do it without fouling. Trusting your technique is a term we use all the time. A lot of times I will point things out on video and it is not a lack of effort. You guys are playing hard enough but you got to trust the technique. You got to get technique in the game and then you got something going.

But it always comes down to guarding the ball. It always does, in my opinion. We talk and talk and gameplan, and then in the end, a mistake is made 3-4 passes later because we didn’t guard the ball out here. So that’s the thing we’ve been harping on the most the last few weeks and just to be prideful. Understand that there’s only five of you out there. You’re sitting on the bench and you want your teammates to be on point and doing their job. So take it personal, be accountable, be responsible and just do your job out there.

I think for the most part that is what has improved the most, guarding the ball. Our guards, the majority of them, aren’t very long. We are compact and feisty, athletic and strong. But we don’t have a lot of length. So we talk a lot about doing our work on the ground and doing it out front. Because if we make mistakes and get into a situation where we have an angle and they get 6-7 feet from the basket, there’s not much some of our guys can do about it. So we have to do our work early and be really good out front because mistakes out there usually end up costing us.

Q: There’s been talk about Tolu Smith coming off the bench. But what has KeShawn Murphy added from the bench lately?
Jans: He’s been a huge addition the last few games. He had a big game against North Texas and then obviously he wasn’t with us for awhile. Since his return he has changed the look of our team almost to the point now where it is on both ends. He is still a work in progress on defense. We all are but that is what we were most disappointed with in his early play and that end of the court.

But now he is working on it. He understands that he has to do his part on that end of the floor. His head is in the right place that way in terms of being coachable and willing to get better at it. Certainly on the offensive end what he is bringing to the table is easy to see. We’re just different when he’s out there. We have a high-low look and can stretch the defense.

The thing that has probably been most impressive has been his offensive rebounding. That is where he has given us the biggest shot in the arm, his ability to get second and third shots. Not only on the defensive backboards but on the offensive backboards. We are showing him clips of his rebounding outside of the 3. He’s gotten to the point where he’s going almost every single time (to offensive glass) and it has really helped us on the offensive end. I can’t say enough about the good things he’s added to our team and how different we are with him on the floor.

Q: How is Trey Fort progressing?
Jans: He had that injury to his shooting hand. When you are a shooter, that is a big part of your game and that can really set you back, mentally and physically. He’s worked dilligently with the training staff to get in position to get back on the floor. I think he is back in his groove and feels good about it. He had that big dunk (against LSU) that he made with his right hand. So he must be feeling pretty good about it and hopefully he can have moments down the stretch where he helps us.

Q: Your thoughts on Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham and some of the other Kentucky freshmen that are performing well?
Jans: Dillingham is a special player. He is not a one-trick pony and he can do it in a lot of different ways. He can go both directions, stop on a dime, pull up for 3s, pull up for 2s. He is very, very quick and is fast. Even though he has all those great athletic attributes, he does it under control. You never feel like he’s out of control when he is going downhill. He is really hard to guard. He is one of those guys that can change the game quickly. When the game gets hard and is going down the stretch, not all the time but the ball is in his hands a lot.

They’ve got a lot of potential go-to guys but he’s definitely one of them when it gets really, really hard. And he does it without even starting. I don’t think he’s started all year long, for the most part.

But in terms of a freshman, they’ve got a bunch of them just on their team. Just in their team alone, you got him and (Reed) SHepphard that come off the bench and obviously, (D.J.) Wagner starts and (Aaron) Bradshaw and (Justin) Edwards just on one team. You talk about their freshmen class and what it’s done for a Top 25 basketball team in our league and there’s a bunch of other ones (in the SEC).

Certainly Josh (Hubbard) is in that conversation and he’s been unbelievable for us. I think the other teams in our league respect him, as well.

Q: How has DJ Jeffries handled things coming off the bench since he got back from his injury?
Jans: What I love the most about where DJ is at right now is he is embracing his final stretch run. His demeanor, his mood, his energy is as good as it’s been since I’ve arrived. He’s all in on this team. Hes not worried about how many points he scores. He’s not worried about his line. He wants to be part of whatever we are going to be a part of down the stretch.

As a coach that is all you can ask for. He’s coming back from that injury and he has given us everything he has. He probably came back too early in that first game that we put him out there. But like I said, at that time he was cleared and couldn’t get hurt any worse. And I really believe it’s helped his game a little bit. It got him to slow down a little bit, offensively.

He is using his dribbles a little bit better. He is catching and shooting very well right now. He gives us a different look. You put him out there on the wing with his length and ability to move his feet and his toughness, we’re just different defensively. Not that Shawn Jones is not a good defender but DJ’s got some weight on him, maybe an inch or two and some more experience. You put them both out there and they are really good defensively. I just love what DJ is doing for this program right now and we’re proud of him.

Q: Tolu Smith and other seniors have put up a lot of numbers at Mississippi State. But do you feel like winning down the stretch here would add more to the seniors’ legacy here?
Jans: I talked about this with the radio guys before the game (at LSU). Our practices and our shoot around against Ole Miss wasn’t the best we’ve had. So as a coach, you always go okay, how are we going to win this game? You walk off the floor and it’s four hours before the game and you did all this and this is where we’re at. So internally, you struggle with it.

Fortunately, I’ve done this long enough to know that it doesn’t mean you’re not going to play okay. You want to feel good, though. So it happens. We didn’t have a great practice and shoot around before that game but we played pretty well.

Then going into LSU it was different. Our practices were as good as they’ve been the last month. Our shoot around was maybe the best shoot around we’ve had all year. I had a couple of buddies in the crowd that were there for the shoot around and I told them it’s not always like that (laughing). It’s not always that energetic. But they were unbelievable and you want to feel good about it.

But at the same time, that doesn’t mean we are going to play great and I was trying to talk everybody off the ledge. Fortunately, it doesn’t always work that way but it did. Hopefully they have that feeling they have right now and our togetherness is really good.

I just feel like all those guys – DJ, Tolu, Cam who has another year, KeShawn, Rams Davis, Shak Moore, Shawn Jones and those guys that have been around – certainly the new additions are buying into it. But they know where we are at and there’s a lot of work left to do. When you look at our schedule and it’s a brutal stretch run with the four games we have left.

Certainly we are focused on Kentucky but we know who we have left and so do they. There’s a lot of things that can happen the next two weeks, good or bad. So we are just trying to rally the troops and make sure everyone understands how important these games are down the stretch.