What Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said after the 68-56 loss at Tennessee

What Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans said after his 14th-ranked Bulldogs lost 68-56 to No. 6 Tennessee Tuesday night at Food City Center:

The quick start for Chaz Lanier and how it happened against Mississippi State’s defense 

“Obviously he had our full attention and we had a game plan. And guys like that, I don’t know this for a fact, but guys like that, when they see that ball go through the whole the first couple shots, it changes their confidence, usually. That’s what happens with him. I know and everybody knows they’re going run him off a lot of screens and pin downs and it’s going to give him opportunities to get shots off. And we definitely switched when we weren’t supposed to. And then he also got the outlet and pushed the ball and transitioned and we didn’t pick him up early enough and he banged that one in too. And he just gave us fits all night long.”

What went wrong for Mississippi State on offense in the loss

“Couldn’t get off to a worst start. We did that two years ago here and it felt like it was deja vu. And so I learned my lesson, though, I didn’t call a timeout right away then, but I did this year. And we knew they were going to be very physical on the ball, off the ball. It’s what Coach Barnes’ teams do. And you can talk about it to your blue in the face, but when you’re on the road and they got obviously a great crowd and they got off to that start and then their physicality just — we were bumping off our catches, we weren’t being able to catch the ball in our sweet spots and got frustrated with it. And certainly (Zakai) Zeigler’s the head of the snake and he starts it. But the other guys off the ball are very, very physical and they make it very difficult for you to catch the ball where you want it. And then around the basket, just didn’t feel like we had our balance very well. We were struggling a little bit. Just made it look normal around the basket, like we normally do.” 

Mississippi State being down 18 points at halftime, getting back within seven points in the second half

“I don’t know what Coach Barnes thinks, but maybe they took the foot off the gas, which unfortunately happens sometimes when you have a big lead in college basketball. It’s a good problem to have. But I would imagine maybe that had something to do with it. And hopefully our guys learn from the first-half issues that we had. We had a very low number of paint touches. We felt like we were standing around on offense way too much and expecting people that play one-on-one against this type of defense isn’t a good recipe. But in the second half, we obviously played better on the offensive end and. We cut it to seven and then (Felix) Okpara made the three at the shot clock. And that to me was the back-breaker. And not that we were going to come back and win the game, but if he misses and we get another (field goal), get it down to five or four, it can change, the momentum can change. But if I’m not mistaken, either the next possession or the one after (Jahmai) Mashack hit the three in the corner and then it got to 13 and it never was a basketball game the rest of the night. But, Coach Barnes obviously is an excellent coach. He’s a Hall of Fame coach and he had his guys ready to go.”

The moments in a game that Mississippi State can’t control as a head coach, like Felix Okpara making a desperation 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock

“When you do it long enough and that happens, right? I mean as a coach you always think it happens to just your teams. Like a guy that shoots 15% makes two threes. Or a kid that hasn’t made a shot makes it. And you always feel like it only happens to your teams, but it certainly happens all over the country. And that’s part of why it’s a beautiful game. You never know. The unexpected happens all the time. And tonight that was one of those plays.”

The difference Felix Okpara has made for Tennessee this season, based on what he saw from the Vols last year

“He just seems to me, from on tape, he just gives him more of a defensive rim presence. That’s what sticks out to me. And then on the other end, he’s such a lob threat with Ziegler. And obviously Ziegler has been through all the wars and he’s an unbelievable competitor and a player. And now that he’s got (Okpara) out there with the option of, when he gets in that lane to just throw it up, and he throws it so high that nobody else can get, it was something we really, really tried to game plan against and talked a lot about. But he just brings a different feel and threat offensively. And then the paint presence and the length. And he’s, he’s a little bit stronger in person than I thought he was on video.”