WATCH: Head coach Chris Jans talks South Carolina, Shak Moore and Tolu Smith

After posting an 11-2 mark in non-conference play, Mississippi State begins the rugged SEC slate on Saturday with a trip to South Carolina. The Bulldogs enter SEC play with a NET ranking of 34 and just got All-SEC center Tolu Smith back in the mix in Sunday’s win over Bethune-Cookman.

South Carolina has been one of the top surprises in the league, at least up to this point. The Gamecocks own a 12-1 record with the lone loss coming against No. 16 Clemson on the road. Tipoff is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday and the game will be televised by CBS.

On Tuesday morning, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans met with the media to discuss South Carolina among other topics:

Q: It has been a small sample size so far but do you see any differences in Tolu Smith‘s game this year compared to previous years?
Jans: I would say it is too early to tell if it is going to be that much different. I know he is a tireless worker and he is constantly trying to add to his game, improve his range. One game is too small of a sample size, like you said. But he is so comfortable out there because of his experience.

I thought he showed pretty good patience, for the most part, to wait for the space to be cleared for him to go to work or make the appropiate pass other than the one he threw to the other team. But other than that I thought he was real comfortable out there. But we will see if he can continue to build on that and show some expansion of his game going forward.

Q: With Tolu returning, are there any set limits to his minutes?
Jans: No, I haven’t been given any sort of limitations that way. Prior to the game he played against Bethune-Cookman, he’d been basically released from a minutes’ restriction or rep restriction in practice. So he was full go a couple of days prior to that particular game. I didn’t have any minutes’ restriction that was given to me from the trainers or the doctors. But they knew he wasn’t going to play 35 minutes or anything like that and that wasn’t what I wanted him to do.

It worked out really well. Going forward and we talked about it after the game on Sunday how that looks and how that minutes distribution goes with Jimmy (Bell) and him and other guys that play that position. Time will tell.

Q: Last year the team opened 1-7 in the SEC. How do you avoid a slow start this year?
Jans: Play better. It always comes back to how you play in all areas of the game. Everyone looks at their schedule and says we got it tough out of the chute or ours is hard in the middle. But at the end of the day you got to play and this year is no different. We are focused on South Carolina on the road but certainly we understand the first 4-5 games are all (tough) from where I sit.

But in terms of what we learned (from last year’s start), everybody’s good. There’s so much riding on each and every game. The way I look at it is what wonderful opportunities for our team, particularly this year’s team, and having chances at big wins. They are all over the place if you look up and down the schedule. My perspective is to look at it as that. It is a challenge, obviously, but what great opportunities that we have for us.

Q: What kind of challenges will South Carolina present in this matchup?
Jans: Maybe in the outside world, I don’t think they’ve exceeded their own expectations. They had the one loss is all they’ve had on the road against Clemson, which I assume is their rivalry game. Otherwise they have an unblemished record and they have a really good basketball team. They’ve added some key pieces to their team through the portal. Seems like they meshed them very well.

The thing that jumps out to me right away is how well and how many guys can shoot the 3. They have five guys on the floor, for the most part, that all shoot the 3. So that is going to spread you out. They’ve got the guards out front and the transfer (Ta’Lon) Cooper from Minnesota and Meechie Johnson, who is leading them in scoring. They’ve got four guys in double figures so they’ve got balance that way and they are a veteran group. They’ve got older guys, which you see a lot of with the portal. But they are playing well and it is going to be a challenge.

Q: We saw Shakeel Moore come off the bench last year and then he moved to the starting lineup. He has done the same thing this year. Do you see any differences in his game when he is starting?
Jans: This year maybe. Again, pretty small sample size. He’s played in 11 games this year, started six or seven of them. I don’t necessarily think it is a big difference that way. But we just talked about him before I came down here. I think he has more in the tank and I think he needs to help us more in a lot of facets of the game. He is such a dynamic athlete, player.

I feel like sometimes he just has this personality that we need to change a little bit. He embodies our team a little bit but sometimes I think it can be harder in practice than we do in games and I don’t understand that. They get to go against someone in a different colored jersey rather than their teammates and we have harped on that a lot after the game against Bethune-Cookman. Shak is one of those guys I thought has a higher level of compete than he is capable of on both ends of the floor.

I think he is a key for us moving forward. He’s got more to offer our team on a daily basis, a nightly basis when we play. Hopefully we can get him going.

Q: Your thoughts on the SEC so far this year?
Jans: It’s about what I expected. On paper I didn’t think that maybe we were going to be as top-heavy like last year. But certainly we’ve got some really good teams this year. But I thought teams that were not in the top 3 or 4 last year had closed the gap a little bit and more of them have moved up the chain. That’s been the case and there’s a lot of depth. A lot of teams have put themselves in a good position heading into SEC play.

I am sitting here talking about the opportunities that are ahead of us. Everyone is probably feeling that way and there’s so many teams that have good numbers, good analytics, good NETs, etc. Almost every single night you are going to have an opportunity to add to your resume. Certainly you got to go one at a time like we all will and that is all we talk about. At the same time there’s going to be a ton of opportunities for everyone all year long.

Q: How does adding Tolu Smith to the mix factor into your rotation and those minutes?
Jans: He’s been great. Like I said earlier in his progression back when he had restriction on his minutes, there were some conversations that hey, you need to be out and so and so needs to be in. He would shrug his shoulders and say ‘come on man’. We went through that phase, which we expected, to make sure we did not rush him back because he wanted to be out there all the time. That just wasn’t what the doctor ordered and it wouldn’t have been smart.

Once we got through that it’s been pretty seamless. No one ever really asked me about it but Jimmy Bell is such a wonderful human being and is probably as encouraging about Tolu as anybody. He knows it is only going to help him to have another guy that can be in there when he’s not in there that is leaning on them and pounding them and wearing people out and doing all the things Jimmy is capable of doing.

But it is not something we’ve had big pow-wows about as a team or even with me and Tolu. It’s just let’s go. Let’s just go and compete, and it’s all been really good.

Q: Also with Tolu Smith, how encouraging is it to have him back for this season?
Jans: I’m glad he’s back, like I mentioned after (Sunday’s) game. That is what we anticipated once he decided to return this year that we were going to have an anchor, a guy that’s been there, done that. An All-SEC performer back with a bunch of other guys back with him and then that was a big blow for us, for our program and for everyone in it. But nobody cares. We just try to keep the train moving forward.

Now that he is back it is exciting. It is exciting for all of us. Hopefully he can continue to feel good and feel confident coming back. Again, it’s not like he hasn’t been through the gauntlet we are about to face. So that is a good thing for us, as well.

Q: With so many good SEC teams on the schedule, is it tough to keep your guys from overlooking South Carolina?
Jans: I don’t think that is going to be a problem. We are not in position to be overlooking anybody on our schedule. I know from the coaches on down, we are going to continue to treat every game like it is the Super Bowl in terms of how we prepare. At the same time, when you get into SEC play like everywhere, everyone feels that way when you get into your own conference.

It is just different. It is just different when you are trying to compete for a conference championship. Everyone starts out at scratch. What they were is one thing and that still stays with you. But it is just a different portion of the year and our season is so long. There is just a different bounce in your step when you head into conference play. I can’t imagine that ever being a problem for us.

Q: Although Rutgers was like a road game, any concerns about facing another true road game after the team didn’t fare well at Georgia Tech?
Jans: We haven’t talked about that yet and yesterday (Monday) was a day off. I don’t think we will talk about that too much other than what it takes to win on the road. We’ve always prided ourselves on being a team that can win away from home, especially in true road environments. Hopefully this team will be no different with the experience we have and with the guys that have played as much college basketball as they have on this particular team. Hopefully they will understand how hard it is but at the same time how important it is to win games on the road.