Part 2: Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans talks basketball offseason

It’s been an intriguing offseason for Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans and his staff. Coming off the program’s second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, the Bulldogs had a lot of holes to fill on the roster and a lot of proven leadership to replace.

On Tuesday, Jans and company began preparations for his third season in Starkville and did so with a lot of new faces, whether from the Class of 2024 or the transfer portal. Then on Wednesday, Jans met with the media to discuss his program and here’s Part 2 of that interview:

Q: Your teams have played against Riley Kugel when he was at Florida so you saw his versatility there. Where do you see him playing for you, position-wise?
Jans: Like you mentioned, I am familiar with Riley because we competed against him the last couple of years. When you get involved with a portal kid, especially, and you play against them, it makes the process easier and quicker. I don’t have to watch a bunch of video or look at a bunch of analytics. Certainly, we do some of that with everybody but it speeds up the process on our end and we are pinning our ears back to go try to get this person to join us.

I think the word you mentioned – versatility – is something he will bring to the table. The game is becoming more and more positionless. We really changed the way we played last year compared to our first year and I think that will continue to evolve to more of the positionless-type basketball. It’s those medium-sized guys that can guard multiple positions and play in all spots on the floor and they become more valuable.

I think Riley, once he learns the system and gets his feet underneath him, can be that kind of guy. He can fill the stat sheet and do a lot of different things. For me and him, and I am not speaking out of turn because he knows this, the consistency department is something we hope we can establish with him this summer so when we get to the fall and practices are longer, he will have that base and get it out on the court for him.

I think consistency is something he has battled his first two years as a player in this league. We are hoping with his experience and maturity, we are going to try to provide some things for him, as well, to where he can be more of a consistent performer on game day.

Q: Any updates on the search for the assistant coach opening on your staff?
Jans: It’s going great. We’ve had a ton of interest. It may seem like it is taking us awhile but in reality, I didn’t deal with it for weeks. I told everyone on our staff I didn’t want to take time taking calls. Just put it on me because we had better things we needed to spend our time on with putting our roster together either with retention or recruiting players. So the last three weeks I’ve spent a lot of time vetting guys and having conversations. We are getting closer and closer for that getting it done.

Q: How were the conversations with KeShawn Murphy during his process of entering the transfer portal and then removing himself from the portal?
Jans: Fortunately for all of us, we’ve been through enough recruiting cycles now to best handle those types of situations. From the time I got here and inheriting who I did and some guys being on the fence coming back or going into the portal, with Murph I had an understanding of how we should handle it. We just try to give them time and space. It is not a sales pitch. I always feel like at that point, you’ve had a young man in your program and you are selling him like a new recruit, if I was a current player I’d be looking at me like ‘what are you talking about?’. I just had 9-10 months around you every day of what it is going to be like.

So I tell them that exactly what I am telling you. I’m not going to recruit you again. You know who we are and we want you. But I get it. If you feel like you need to look around and do some comparing and contrasting, I understand. We are going to give you the time and space. We love having you here but at the same time, the rules are the rules and the options are the options. So that approach has served us well so far.

I know it was an exciting day when he basically told me he was taking his name out of the portal and he was going to be a Dog. I am very happy that he made that decision.

Q: There was a report this spring that you had an interview with the Arkansas opening. Any comment on that?
Jans: First of all, I think all of us know at this point of our lives that we shouldn’t believe everything that we read on social media. Regardless of the question, that would be my first comment on that and that is all I am going to say.

Q: At the center position you added two transfers with Michael Nwoko and Jeremy Foumena. There’s a lot to replace with the loss of Tolu Smith at center. Your thoughts on those additions?
Jans: It’s going to be a big challenge for our program. Tolu Smith’s been a mainstay for us since I’ve been here. He’s a guy that put a ton of points and rebounds, and obviously played a ton of minutes. He was a big part of our success since he arrived. I talked about him a lot with you folks that he is a better person than he is a player and that is as a big of a comment a coach can give one of his own players.

So there’s big shoes to fill. They all know already that we’re not asking any of the two new guys or any of the returnees to be Tolu Smith. Now, we need some folks to step up and provide some production in the minutes that (Smith) played. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be how Tolu or Jimmy (Bell) did it. It is going to be different. We have to figure out exactly who they are and what they are made of.

I am excited about the challenge. I loved coaching Tolu and Jimmy but they were older guys. These guys are young guys that are still growing and developing and figuring it out. For us to speed that process up and how much better can we get them from yesterday to game day and even from game day to March. I am excited about that challenge and it is going to be a staff challenge.

Certainly, they are going to have to do their part showing up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to learn. But they are the types of guys that are sponges and possess the type of work ethic they will need to do what I just described in terms of getting better and growing. But there’s a lot of work there to do there, for sure.

Q: A couple of weeks ago the program announced a few non-conference matchups for the 2024-25 season. How’s that process with the rest of the schedule? More neutral-court matchups?
Jans: Ideally, I would like to get more home-and-homes with I guess the new term is Power 4 programs. It takes two to tango, obviously, and we’ve had a difficult time, especially recently, in getting people interested in doing that. More often than not, we had to be willing to go on the road first, which I am not opposed to. Obviously, we are doing that with Memphis this year and we are talking to other teams about doing that.

But there’s a balance, right? If you start a bunch of them on the road then the next year you are home-heavy and will you have the right NET opportunities with Quad 1 and Quad 2 games at home? At the end of the day, the way we look at it is opportunities. We have a set number of opportunities that we feel like (will be there). Certainly, it is not an exact science. You are projecting how these teams are going to fall and it’s really, really hard to do that. We were right sometimes last year and we were wrong sometimes last year.

The formula is to get X amount of opportunities in the 13 non-league games we are provided. We feel confident that if we are successful enough in those games, we will be in position because of the SEC schedule to have enough opportunities. Certainly, at the end of the day you got to win. But you also have to have the opportunities with the Quad 1 and the Quad 2. I think we know enough about how all that works even though the formula has never been in public in terms of the quads, etc. We know enough about it now to where scheduling is crucial to get there.

That’s always in the back of my mind. You are trying to provide some games that your fans will get excited about outside of the SEC schedule. But it becomes difficult at times to get people to come here and play. But we are working diligently at it and we are getting closer to the end. We’ve got a couple of more that we are getting close to signing some contracts and getting closer to the finish line.

But we are still searching for a couple more games. With the neutral-court games, the obvious is it is easier to get to Quad 1 and Quad 2 types. I think everyone across the country is trying to use that avenue. I think we had six (neutral-court games) last year. I am not sure if we have quite as many as last year but we are going to have some.

Q: How big is it to get Cameron Matthews back with his leadership and where does his game need to improve?
Jans: Yeah I grabbed him yesterday and just briefly said, hey, this is a big offseason for you. Everybody knows his athletic ability and his competitiveness. He plays with fire and has all of those intangibles, and he’s off the chart that way. But his skill level needs to improve and now is the time. You’ve got months to put the time in and improve your game. For us, it is obviously it is crucial but more importantly for him in basketball, it is more crucial for his career.

It’s just a matter of being disciplined and getting up those days you don’t feel like it. I will blow it off today and do it tomorrow. We will understand that in life and all the cliches that are out there, he’s going to have to gravitate towards one of them. It’s gonna have to guide him, if you will.

It’s a big offseason for him. We’ve got to get him to where he can score better, make open shots. I think it changes his whole game, big time, if he is able to do that. I am pretty confident at this point and it is pretty easy at the start. But he’s got to get his rhythm and get his discipline to get in that gym as much as he can to just expand his game. We talked about Josh earlier and certainly, I think everybody knows Cam will be a big leader for us this year. Not that there can’t be other people lead in their own ways. But I think those two will be the guys that will from Day 1 help lead this basketball team.