October 23, 2026 | Men's Basketball
STARKVILLE - Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans met with the media following Friday's exhibition matchup with Memphis.
Q: What was your assessment of how the team performed tonight?ย
CJ: "Overall, disappointed in the quality of play. I expected us to play better. I told everybody that after the NC State game, I thought we were about 50/50 on the quality of possessions on both ends of the floor. We had a couple real practices and one non contact, with the day off and certainly a shoot around and a bunch of film from NC State. That was what I really talked about a lot going into the game, just improving that percentage, and we didn't. I don't need to look at the tape to know that we did, and that's disappointing. That concerned me."
"I don't know, they looked a little bit to me not as focused as it's needed when you're playing these games. I'm not sure. Being on the road, less ticket requests, less people in the stands, less worrying about what I'm doing after the game or tomorrow. These guys have all played basketball and had to deal with those type of things, but my gut tells me that they were a little distracted by whatever was going on in their individual world to not be as focused on just how we need to play. What we need to focus on. That certainly will be something that we're gonna talk about a lot."
Q: What was your game plan to tonight's game? Was it more about getting certain guys experience, or was it about working on certain lineup rotations?ย
CJ: "Listen, everybody approaches these differently. I've got really good friends that do it differently than I do. I don't give them hardly anything in terms of scouting, crutches, how we're going to guard a lot of things. We did a little bit more today than we had in the previous two. In the first one, we did none. The second one, very little. This one, we did a little bit more. Obviously, not nearly enough, but I just want them to try to figure it out a little bit, and so now we can tell them that they need us, that they need coaching, they need answers to the test because trying to figure it out wasn't the best recipe."
"I think when you get to the games, they get all the information and we do what we do behind the scenes, I think it's gonna put them in a little better position. The other thing is the subbing pattern. I look more at minutes, to be honest with you, in these exhibition games during the game than I will all season long. I'm really focused on trying to get X amount of minutes for guys, because I want to get them on tape for a lot of different reasons. That's really important to me. Is the final score important to me? It's always important to me. But, it doesn't have the same priority as it will every time we play the rest of the year, and some people may not like that, but that's the way I approach these opportunities."
Q What was the mood in the locker room after the game?ย
CJ: "It was a quiet locker room. It was simple. Hey, we got work to do. We're gonna talk a lot when we meet next. Fortunately for us, those that follow this program closely and want us to do well. We've got plenty of time. We're gonna be okay. We've got plenty of time. I love this group. That hasn't changed, it's still the same. We've gotta get a little different playing personality when the lights turn on. I told them that they practiced and competed against each other harder than most of the possessions when they were going against another team, and that certainly can't be the case. We've got to get our practice onto the playing court quickly."
"But, they're good dudes and I know they're not gonna be happy about it either. Thomas [Bassong] was talking about the defensive effort of not being there. I really thought we would come out in the second half and make a run, make a stand and flip the score. I really did, internally. We just didn't. We weathered their storm a little bit early and fought back into it and got it within a pretty good spot there. We didn't execute the last player and a half, which I was really hoping we could get it even closer. The second half just wasn't very good. They didn't respond very well to the other team going on a run, their energy, the bounce in their step was better than ours. We had some guys hanging their heads, and these are such great learning opportunities and we're definitely going to learn and grow from them for sure."
Q: Can you talk about the decision process of not starting Josh Hubbard tonight?ย
CJ: "He's practiced once in eight days. Everybody else had been grinding it out for all that time. He and I talked before the game. I let him know that that was where I was at and that's what I was going to do, and he was fine with it."
Q: Can you talk about the approach to fixing the offensive droughts from tonight's game?ย
CJ: "We were a little disjointed that way. I would imagine, in these scrimmages, that the percentages of minutes played by certain lineups won't necessarily be that way in the majority of our early games. Literally the first outing we scripted the subs the whole way through, regardless of what was going on, because I wanted to make sure we just got the minutes that I wanted to have. It felt disjointed and partly it's because of me and how we approach these opportunities."
"I know there will be people that will criticize that, and that's okay. It's what I've always done. I've never been very successful in these scrimmages and the exhibitions, if I'm being honest. My record is poor in these games. You guys wouldn't know that because I've been doing it a long time and you wouldn't have paid attention to my teams prior to getting here. I guess that's kind of a good thing to lead it on."
Q: A few positives tonight was winning the rebounding battle and grabbing 13 offensive rebounds, do you feel that will be a focal point this year for your team?ย
CJ: "Yeah, it's got to be. It has to be something that we bring to the table every night, and in the three opportunities we've had it's been that way. I don't think it was ferocious tonight as it had been maybe in a couple of the other outings. It was still okay. It was better than average, and it has to be. We've just got to create second and third opportunities, and then when we get those second and third opportunities we've got to cash in on them and get some points on the board. That would be good to get the offensive rebounds if you're not making buckets after you get those opportunities.
"I think that it's been something that we focused on with this group and built our team that way, and knowing the league that we play in and how athletic and big and strong it is that we had to be able to battle on the boards that way."
Q: How did you feel Tajuan Simpkins and Willie Burnett III played offensively?ย
CJ: "TJ [Tajuan Simpkins], his line was fine, I don't think he played great. He had a couple sloppy turnovers. Both him and RJ [Johnson]. For RJ, that was very uncharacteristic of RJ since he's arrived. [It was] the first time he's played for Mississippi State at home against a quality opponent, and these dress rehearsals are dress rehearsals. I'm not discounting the fact that we didn't play great and we need to play better. But like I've been saying, we approach these how we approach them. We have time."
"In terms of the actual question with Willie and TJ, they can get it going for sure. With Willie, that's kind of what he's known for, scoring the ball. He's still learning the other parts of the game and being in the right position and trying to spell the word defense, we're getting there. We're making progress that way. But in all seriousness, I love coaching him. He is all ears every day. He's big eyes, locked in, getting a lot better. TJ's an experienced guy who looks comfortable on the court. He was 5-for-12, but he's just got to be more efficient than that."
Q: What was your assessment of how the team performed tonight?ย
CJ: "Overall, disappointed in the quality of play. I expected us to play better. I told everybody that after the NC State game, I thought we were about 50/50 on the quality of possessions on both ends of the floor. We had a couple real practices and one non contact, with the day off and certainly a shoot around and a bunch of film from NC State. That was what I really talked about a lot going into the game, just improving that percentage, and we didn't. I don't need to look at the tape to know that we did, and that's disappointing. That concerned me."
"I don't know, they looked a little bit to me not as focused as it's needed when you're playing these games. I'm not sure. Being on the road, less ticket requests, less people in the stands, less worrying about what I'm doing after the game or tomorrow. These guys have all played basketball and had to deal with those type of things, but my gut tells me that they were a little distracted by whatever was going on in their individual world to not be as focused on just how we need to play. What we need to focus on. That certainly will be something that we're gonna talk about a lot."
Q: What was your game plan to tonight's game? Was it more about getting certain guys experience, or was it about working on certain lineup rotations?ย
CJ: "Listen, everybody approaches these differently. I've got really good friends that do it differently than I do. I don't give them hardly anything in terms of scouting, crutches, how we're going to guard a lot of things. We did a little bit more today than we had in the previous two. In the first one, we did none. The second one, very little. This one, we did a little bit more. Obviously, not nearly enough, but I just want them to try to figure it out a little bit, and so now we can tell them that they need us, that they need coaching, they need answers to the test because trying to figure it out wasn't the best recipe."
"I think when you get to the games, they get all the information and we do what we do behind the scenes, I think it's gonna put them in a little better position. The other thing is the subbing pattern. I look more at minutes, to be honest with you, in these exhibition games during the game than I will all season long. I'm really focused on trying to get X amount of minutes for guys, because I want to get them on tape for a lot of different reasons. That's really important to me. Is the final score important to me? It's always important to me. But, it doesn't have the same priority as it will every time we play the rest of the year, and some people may not like that, but that's the way I approach these opportunities."
Q What was the mood in the locker room after the game?ย
CJ: "It was a quiet locker room. It was simple. Hey, we got work to do. We're gonna talk a lot when we meet next. Fortunately for us, those that follow this program closely and want us to do well. We've got plenty of time. We're gonna be okay. We've got plenty of time. I love this group. That hasn't changed, it's still the same. We've gotta get a little different playing personality when the lights turn on. I told them that they practiced and competed against each other harder than most of the possessions when they were going against another team, and that certainly can't be the case. We've got to get our practice onto the playing court quickly."
"But, they're good dudes and I know they're not gonna be happy about it either. Thomas [Bassong] was talking about the defensive effort of not being there. I really thought we would come out in the second half and make a run, make a stand and flip the score. I really did, internally. We just didn't. We weathered their storm a little bit early and fought back into it and got it within a pretty good spot there. We didn't execute the last player and a half, which I was really hoping we could get it even closer. The second half just wasn't very good. They didn't respond very well to the other team going on a run, their energy, the bounce in their step was better than ours. We had some guys hanging their heads, and these are such great learning opportunities and we're definitely going to learn and grow from them for sure."
Q: Can you talk about the decision process of not starting Josh Hubbard tonight?ย
CJ: "He's practiced once in eight days. Everybody else had been grinding it out for all that time. He and I talked before the game. I let him know that that was where I was at and that's what I was going to do, and he was fine with it."
Q: Can you talk about the approach to fixing the offensive droughts from tonight's game?ย
CJ: "We were a little disjointed that way. I would imagine, in these scrimmages, that the percentages of minutes played by certain lineups won't necessarily be that way in the majority of our early games. Literally the first outing we scripted the subs the whole way through, regardless of what was going on, because I wanted to make sure we just got the minutes that I wanted to have. It felt disjointed and partly it's because of me and how we approach these opportunities."
"I know there will be people that will criticize that, and that's okay. It's what I've always done. I've never been very successful in these scrimmages and the exhibitions, if I'm being honest. My record is poor in these games. You guys wouldn't know that because I've been doing it a long time and you wouldn't have paid attention to my teams prior to getting here. I guess that's kind of a good thing to lead it on."
Q: A few positives tonight was winning the rebounding battle and grabbing 13 offensive rebounds, do you feel that will be a focal point this year for your team?ย
CJ: "Yeah, it's got to be. It has to be something that we bring to the table every night, and in the three opportunities we've had it's been that way. I don't think it was ferocious tonight as it had been maybe in a couple of the other outings. It was still okay. It was better than average, and it has to be. We've just got to create second and third opportunities, and then when we get those second and third opportunities we've got to cash in on them and get some points on the board. That would be good to get the offensive rebounds if you're not making buckets after you get those opportunities.
"I think that it's been something that we focused on with this group and built our team that way, and knowing the league that we play in and how athletic and big and strong it is that we had to be able to battle on the boards that way."
Q: How did you feel Tajuan Simpkins and Willie Burnett III played offensively?ย
CJ: "TJ [Tajuan Simpkins], his line was fine, I don't think he played great. He had a couple sloppy turnovers. Both him and RJ [Johnson]. For RJ, that was very uncharacteristic of RJ since he's arrived. [It was] the first time he's played for Mississippi State at home against a quality opponent, and these dress rehearsals are dress rehearsals. I'm not discounting the fact that we didn't play great and we need to play better. But like I've been saying, we approach these how we approach them. We have time."
"In terms of the actual question with Willie and TJ, they can get it going for sure. With Willie, that's kind of what he's known for, scoring the ball. He's still learning the other parts of the game and being in the right position and trying to spell the word defense, we're getting there. We're making progress that way. But in all seriousness, I love coaching him. He is all ears every day. He's big eyes, locked in, getting a lot better. TJ's an experienced guy who looks comfortable on the court. He was 5-for-12, but he's just got to be more efficient than that."
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