New Dawgs Fitting Right In
August 02, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Joel Coleman
Chris Jans has again assembled a group that has come together quickly.
STARKVILLE – The reasons are many for why head coach Chris Jans has been able to lead Mississippi State men's basketball to three straight NCAA Tournaments since his arrival in Starkville back in 2022.
He's a grinder. He's a motivator. He's relentless. Put simply, he's a winner.
But a trait of Jans that perhaps isn't discussed enough is that he's an architect. No stranger to building teams year to year at his prior stops, both at the junior college and Division I levels, Jans has shown a unique ability to find just the right pieces to better the Bulldogs each season – whether that's bringing in guys with on-court talent, locker room leadership qualities or some combination of it all.
Three or four months remain before MSU hits the hardwood again. However, as summer workouts wind down for the Dawgs, it certainly seems as if Jans has worked his magic once more.
"This is probably like the best team I've ever been on where everybody is just jelling together this quickly," forward Brandon Walker said. "It's crazy. We've got a lot of new guys, but we've just come in together and bonded already."
Walker stands as one of a handful of guys that've transferred to State. It's a group that also includes guards Jayden Epps and Ja'Borri McGhee, along with forwards Achor Achor, Quincy Ballard and Amier Ali. Add in the freshmen already on campus – guards King Grace and Cameren Paul, as well as forward Jamarion Davis-Fleming – and it'd be easy to assume chemistry would be a component that could only come with time.
But remember who's at the helm of all this. Jans and his staff are selective in the young men they bring in. Skill is crucial of course, but makeup is vitally important. It also hasn't hurt the coming together of this latest bunch that there is a preexisting relationship or two.
"I knew this place was the right fit for me because my brother played here," Davis-Fleming said. His sibling is former MSU forward Javian Davis, who was a Bulldog from 2020-22.
Added Davis-Fleming: "With that, I already had a connection with [MSU assistant coach George Brooks], so when it was time for me to be recruited, Coach Brooks stayed in contact and told me what type of player I could come here and be. Then Coach Jans was the only coach [in the recruiting process] who told me that if I'd come here and work, I could play. That's what I wanted. I didn't want to be guaranteed a spot. I wanted a place I could come in and earn everything."
Current Bulldog star guard Josh Hubbard was also a familiar face for Davis-Fleming.
"We grew up just a few minutes away from each other," Davis-Fleming said. He's from Canton, Mississippi, just up the road from Hubbard's hometown of Madison.
Speaking of Hubbard, he and the other returners – Shawn Jones Jr., Gai Chol and Dellquan Warren – have all been instrumental in making the new guys feel right at home in Maroon.
"I give so much credit to guys like Shawn and [Hubbard]," McGhee said. "They try their best to prepare all of us that are new here for things we might not know about."
The Bulldog vets aren't just providing key information. They also have orchestrated environments that allow bonds to build and trust to grow.
It's become a frequent happening for the guys to all go out and eat together. And by together, players insist it's really together.
"We all like to have a good time with each other," Ali said. "And it's not just separate groups like three of us at one place and four of us at another. We just all go together, and that's what's allowing us to jell like we have. That's super important once you get into a season and those tough games come. A lot of times, the hard games are all about who has the most togetherness, and that's something we've built."
There is no statistic to measure exactly how much team unity has lifted the Bulldogs under Jans, but its impact has been undeniable.
In 2022-23, it was a huge piece of State bouncing back from a 1-7 start in league play to ultimately go dancing. A season later, the guys again leaned on each other and picked each other up when Tolu Smith III and D.J. Jeffries both missed chunks of that campaign before rallying together to get right back into the March Madness mix.
Then, last season, speedbumps were aplenty. Still, for the first time in 20 years, MSU celebrated three-straight NCAA Tournament berths on the back of another squad that stuck together through everything.
To be fair, team meals and good summer vibes don't guarantee continued success for the Bulldogs. Yet it does indicate Jans has yet again put together a true unit. And it's one that has a main priority above all others.
"There is no ego here," Grace said. "Everybody's for the team. Everyone wants everyone else to do good. Nobody is thinking, 'Me, me, me.' Everybody is looking to help somebody else. We're a really close team in that regard, and I like that.
"I think that will help us a lot. You can already see in workouts, when it gets tough, everybody is there for each other and up talking and helping out. We're close as a team and it's already showing on the court. I think it'll show when the season starts, too."