What Chris Jans, Mississippi State said about SEC Tournament quarterfinal game vs. Tennessee
Chris Jans hadn’t given Tennessee a thought Thursday afternoon. When the Mississippi State head coach was asked about Friday’s game against the Vols, he left it up to his assistants.
Instead, his entire focus had been getting his team past LSU and into the SEC Tournament quarterfinals at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
“Not trying to be coy,” Jans said. “We’ve been ready for LSU and preparing. You know the drill, our staff is way ahead. They’ll give me all the information that I need.”
Ironically, Tennessee (24-7) is the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament and opens play in the bracket against No. 9-seed Mississippi State (20-12), the only conference team the Vols did not beat during the regular season.
No. 5 Tennessee vs. Mississippi State, Friday, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN
State beat Tennessee 77-72 at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville on January 10. It dropped the Vols to 1-1 in SEC play, but they went 12-3 from there to win the league’s outright regular-season championship at 14-4, the program’s first outright title since 2008.
“Can’t argue that they’re the best team over an 18-game schedule,” Jans said, “which to me means more than anything in my opinion, to do it like that, especially in a league like this.”
In the first meeting, Tennessee got down 15 points in the first half, but rallied to tie the game three in the second half. Dalton Knecht tied it twice at the free-throw line in the closing minutes and again on a transition dunk with 34 seconds left.
Tolu Smith scored the go-ahead points on a dunk with 14 seconds left, drawing a foul and completing the 3-point play to secure the win.
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Dalton Knecht scored 26 of 28 points in second half at Mississippi State
Knecht scored 26 of his game-high 28 points in the second half and added six rebounds. Zakai Zeigler had 16 of his 26 points in the second half and finished with seven assists.
Smith had 23 points to lead Mississippi State and freshman guard Josh Hubbard had 25 off the bench.
“We have great respect for Coach Barnes,” Jans said, “their staff and players. It will be intense. They play a hard-nosed style. We’re trying to play a similar style. I think it will be an intense basketball game, to say the least.”
Tennessee went to SEC Tournament championship games in 2018, 2019 and 2022. In all three tournaments, Mississippi State was the first opponent.
State with the win over LSU seemingly locked up an NCAA Tournament berth, but Smith said that’s not where the Bulldogs are focused. Instead, they’re planning to stick around Nashville until Sunday and play for a league title.
“We try to keep advancing,” Smith said. “We’re not ready to go home. We are packed till Sunday. I think that’s main focus, our main concern. We’ll get there when the rubber meets the road.”
