WATCH: Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans previews Florida matchup

Another week in the SEC, another daunting task for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs travel to Florida on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff (SEC Network) before hosting red-hot Auburn on Saturday.

Following Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt, the Bulldogs enter Wednesday’s action with a 13-5 record and 2-3 mark in the SEC. Florida captured a road win at Missouri over the weekend and the Gators are 12-6 overall and 2-3 in the SEC, as well.

On Monday morning, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans discussed the Florida matchup among other topics:

Q: Any differences or similarities with this Florida team compared to last year? Riley Kugel’s inconsistent play?
Jans: There’s some similarities in terms of their guard play. They had excellent guard play last year and they do again this year. In my opinion, they’ve got more weapons out front than they had last year. They’ve got a glutton of guards and a bunch of guys that are big, strong, powerful, downhill guys.

You mentioned Kugel. Obviously, he had an unbelievable freshman year and high expectations. I am not in their team room or practices so I have no idea about that kind of stuff. All I know is he is capable of going off for 30 (points) on any given night.

The thing that has changed for them, in my opinion, is just their size. Obviously, (Colin) Castleton went down last year late and wasn’t available when we played them in the SEC Tournament and it hurt them. But I just feel like they’ve got more size this year. They’ve got four guys they rotate in at the four and the five, and they are one of the Top 3 or 4 teams in the country in offensive rebounding. They receive like 41% of their offensive rebounding for putbacks.

I think that is the biggest difference in them, just the quality of depth they have at the rim with the rebounding and the rim protection and the bodies along with the guards that can really space the floor and play off one another.

Q: We saw KeShawn Murphy on the bench Saturday. Any update on when you may get him back on the floor?
Jans: No.

Q: With Murphy and Andrew Taylor out, how has that changed your expected plans for the rotation entering the season?
Jans: I don’t think like that. I don’t have a gameplan going into games on minutes, rotations. Certainly, it’s something we talk about from game to game. But you make those kind of decisions on the fly.

Q: This team has struggled on the road this season so far. Is there anything you can do to change that up or prepare the players for?
Jans: Yeah that’s a good point. We haven’t been able to get a true road win by the metrics. But I believe in this team and we talk a lot about what is required to win on the road. If you want to be considered a high-level team, a tough team, you got to go into tough environments and stay together and figure out a way to play well enough to win.

We talk about what everybody talks about and that’s sticking together, hanging together through the adversity and the runs, stay focused on the task at hand, not getting caught up with the crowd and becoming distractive. But looking forward to the opportunity coming off a win. Hopefully we will have two good days of practice and it is going to be a tall task. They are very, very good and like I talked about earlier, I am sure they will be ready, too.

Q: Of late, Shakeel Moore has been more aggressive in the paint. His shots haven’t been falling in the paint but have you noticed the difference there?
Jans: Yeah I like when he’s aggressive. I like when he’s downhill and getting paint touches. I would like for him to finish a little bit better. Again, easy for me to say. I’m not in there with 6-10 guys roaming the paint and the bodies he is trying to score over or through.

He’s so dynamic, though, and he’s proven he has the skill level to do that. He just has to be more consistent with it. Like I said earlier, I just really like where he’s at with his approach, mentally, not even on game day but all the time. He seems super-focused and he’s had some really good practices. I think he will continue to play well.

Q: With Tolu Smith back, freshman Gai Chol has had his minutes decrease as expected. How has Gai been developing?
Jans: Gai continues to work and on Friday, he had one of the better practices he’s had in awhile where he had a flurry where he dominated. He was scoring, he was blocking shots, he was running the floor. His team was doing well and his teammates were excited for him. It was good to see.

Certainly he understands where it’s at and how valuable those minutes (he received earlier this year) are will be more determined next year. But I know he’s capable and I know he wants more. He is trying to prepare himself every day for anything that comes his way. Who knows how the season will unfold but what I love about him is he’s a worker. He’s a great person and has the right approach every single day. He’s in a good spot.

Q: How important was the win over Vanderbilt after suffering a couple of early SEC losses?
Jans: Yeah it was a must win. You don’t want to say that to your team. You don’t want them to play scared or have any tightness at all if you tell them that. But our staff talks and that was kind of where we were at for a lot of reasons.

It was pretty obvious for anyone that follows college basketball how important it was for us to defend our home court on Saturday and make sure we won the game. And we did. We would’ve like to play a little bit better, especially on the offensive end in the second half. The margin of victory could’ve been more if we would’ve knocked our free throws down and scored better at the rim, which has become a little bit of an issue for us that we got to shore up.

Q: With Tolu Smith still working towards being back at 100 percent game shape, do you feel like you have to still limit him at times?
Jans: We try to do that in practice. We try to make sure we’re subbing him enough. At the same time, we got to get him in better shape, too. So it’s a fine line between now much he goes every day. Certainly as everyone knows that’s been around this program, he wants to be out there every single rep if it’s in practice or in a game. But he’s in a good spot and he knows how he feels.

I just saw him walking through the gym over here and saw him working on his game. He’s a tireless worker. I didn’t realize it until this morning and I am sure I did during the game. But it got lost on me that he didn’t have a rebound in the first half.

We just talked out there about what kind of monster line he could have had if he would’ve had a few rebounds in the first half and made a couple more of his bunnies. He was still 9 of 12 but I felt like he still left some food on the table that way. He promised me that wasn’t going to happen any more so we will see.

But it’s like sometimes we all expect him to make every shot. But these guys are trying to defend him and they are real physical with him. They are putting their bodies on him and everyone knows he is at the top of the scouting list. So they are all trying to push him away from the basket. It is pretty physical down there and he certainly has the body to handle it. But like you said, he’s still coming back from a pretty serious injury. Hopefully he will feel like he is all the way back here shortly.

Q: Jaquan Scott hasn’t played much in the SEC schedule. What does he have to do to earn more minutes?
Jans: Jaquan has been inconsistent but he is a live body. He’s physical and he fits the way we want to play and he knows what he needs to do. He just needs to be more consistent in practice with being on the same page of what we are trying to do all the time, know the coverages we are in. All that goes in to getting yourself on the floor but he will have opportunities. He will have more opportunities. He’s just got to be ready for them, take advantage of them and prove to all of us that he can be consistent with his play and his productivity. That’s all he needs to do to get more minutes.