WATCH: Head coach Chris Jans talks Tennessee, improved rebounding and Dellquan Warren

Mississippi State opens its SEC home schedule Wednesday and the Bulldogs jump right back into the fire at Humphrey Coliseum. The Bulldogs dropped their SEC opener at South Carolina last weekend and will host No. 5 Tennessee in a 6 p.m. tipoff. Both teams are 11-3 overall while the Volunteers won their league opener against Ole Miss.

On Monday, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans met with the media to discuss the Tennessee matchup among other topics:

Q: Looking back on the loss at South Carolina, what do you expect the emphasis to be in practice this week?
Jans: Conference races are a marathon. People talk about college basketball’s season being long and they are. But when you start on your conference slate there’s just not a lot of time to feel sorry for yourself. You got to turn the page quickly, try to learn and get some growth and then get back to it. That’s what we’ve done.

We got back fairly early from the road game Saturday and did what we had to do with film as a staff. Then quickly turn the page and get into Tennessee. We didn’t do anything with the guys (Sunday). They are already at it this morning and then we will get going as a group here in a couple of hours and reset the table for the week what we are doing practice-wise.

Most importantly, just to get them refocused on Tennessee and try to do what we need to do to put them in the best position possible to try to win the game.

Q: How do you get your guys from worrying about another slow start to the SEC schedule like they had last year?
Jans: We lost one game. It is a long season. We are not thinking that way at all and I don’t think they will be either. We don’t talk about who we play 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th game. We talk about who we play next and that’s it. That is all our staff is focused on and that’s all our players are focused on. We’ve got a veteran group and a good group of people and they get it.

They know that Wednesday is an unbelievable challenge but at the same time, what a great opportunity to have. A top 5 team in the country on your home court with a chance to win a heck of a game. So our focus will solely be on preparing for Tennessee and trying to get our guys ready.

Q: What stands out to you about Tennessee?
Jans: A typical Coach Rick Barnes team. Very well-coached and defensively, I think they are Top 2 or 3 in the country on KenPom and that is pretty typical for one of his teams. They’ve done a great job in the portal and added some key pieces that have made them a little harder to guard, offensively. They are maybe not quite as big around the basket as they were last year. But they are still plenty big and have plenty of depth. They hold their own or better than that around the basket.

Offensively, they present some challenges because they play different. They play old school with a lot more screening and cutting than you see in today’s game with all of the spread offense and five out and the ball screens and the dribble drive. They do a lot more staggers and playing off that and reading the defense. So it will be a different prep week than normal and we will have to play our best.

Q: What allows Tennessee to play so well defensively?
Jans: Well it starts with just guarding the basketball. They have great pride, individually, in guarding the ball and not giving up angles, not giving up penetration. It starts up front with (Zakai) Zeigler and he sets the tone. He is as good of an on-ball defender that you are going to see in college basketball. He is relentless and is in big-time shape so he can do it for 35-40 minutes if need be. Certainly that is not the only thing that they do well.

They’ve got good spacing defensively, got very good rim protection. They are just very well-schooled, very well-taught. They are connected on defense and they take great pride in it. It is really hard to score against them.

Q: Tolu Smith is still working to get back in a rhythm. But your thoughts on him after two games?
Jans: I think he looks pretty good considering he was out of basketball for a few months. I think he has transitioned back pretty well. He knows better than I about how he feels on a daily basis and how he feels in terms of his rhythm during a game. He probably would have played more minutes if he hadn’t gotten in foul trouble. He’s got to be careful and stay away from silly fouls and that hurts him and us. But I think he has transitioned back well.

Q: A recruiting question but how is 2024 signee Dellquan Warren playing so far this year?
Jans: I’ve watched him a little, maybe not as much as our staff members have. But the reports that I get are all real positive. They like where he’s at. They like his development in terms of being a point guard in all facets of the game. We are excited that he will be joining us.

Q: Rebounding was an issue in the loss against South Carolina. How do you try to correct that aspect?
Jans: Yes that will be something that will be talked about quite a bit but it is talked about a lot daily already. That was very disappointing. That was, in my opinion, if you had to pinpoint one reason we didn’t win the game, it was because of that. Prior to the game I wouldn’t have thought that would have been a problem. We were trending in the right direction but at the same time, so were they. In their last five or six games (South Carolina) was 6th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage. Going into that game they had strung a bunch of games together to go over 40% offensive rebounding.

We were aware of that and tried to get our guys to understand that they were coming. They were pinning their ears back and coming to the glass. We didn’t have physical checks and five guys having the mentality to do what they have to do to get the ball off the defensive glass and it would be a problem. Unfortunately, it was.

We just went too long too many times in that game without getting second-chance opportunities ourselves. It wasn’t a lack of effort. It was some lack of mental discipline of doing your job and it was just disappointing. I don’t know if we can come up with more ways than we already have of trying to coach them and teach them better. We are very accountable when it comes to that department every single day with our video study, our practice and with our emphasis on it in practice.

We will continue to try to figure out ways to get them better. But the way this team is constructed, we have to be a good rebounding team in a league that has a bunch of good rebounding teams. It is something we willl continue to talk about and work on.

Q: How big of a factor are Tolu Smith and Jimmy Bell when it comes to improving those rebounding numbers?
Jans: Yeah, as accountable as they are, I think they still need prodding and pushing in that direction and motivation just like we all do at different times. They are great kids but at the same time I think they both know they need to do better. Jimmy Bell, and I love him to death, but there’s no way he can play the minutes he played and get zero rebounds.

Again, it really wasn’t a lack of effort. He had three or four opportunities where the ball was right here and touched either one or two of his hands. For whatever reason he couldn’t corral the ball. That was frustrating for him and for us. At the same time it wasn’t like he wasn’t trying to get the ball and being lazy and not doing his job. You got to figure out a way to secure those loose balls and balls that are flying in the air that are 50-50. We got to do better at getting them.