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Mississippi State

Chris Jans runs sprints after technical foul vs. Ole Miss

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz02/23/24NickSchultz_7

Wednesday night, as Mississippi State took on Ole Miss, Chris Jans received a technical foul. It was the second such call of the game after Rebels coach Chris Beard got T’d up earlier in the half as the Bulldogs came away with the 83-71 victory.

Thursday, Jans paid his price.

At Mississippi State’s practice on Thursday, Jans ran sprints as punishment for the technical. The Bulldogs players were hyping him up as he ran, and they ran the last leg with their coach.

Wednesday night marked Mississippi State’s fourth consecutive victory to improve to 18-8 overall and 7-6 in SEC play this season. It also gave the Bulldogs payback after falling to Ole Miss on Jan. 30 in Oxford – and Jans said that added to the motivation for the rivalry game.

“No one wants to get swept by your rivals. Our only chance was to split this year after getting beat at their place,” Jans said. “It’s something we talked about. One of the three things that we talked about, from a program perspective was, it was a rivalry game. Everybody talks about it. I’ve been here long enough to really understand how meaningful it is to both fan bases. It’s a big deal.

“Certainly, I’ve coached long enough to be in a bunch of rivalries in series and I get all that, but it was important. We have a bunch of Mississippi kids on our roster and for them to be able to have that for the rest of their lives is a big deal.”

Tolu Smith led the charge for Mississippi State, scoring 24 points off the bench. Three other Bulldogs – KeShawn Murphy, Shakeel Moore and Cameron Matthews – reached double figures as part of the balanced scoring effort, as well.

But one of Chris Jans’ biggest takeaways from the victory was the fact that Mississippi State continues to rise in the conference standings, which will be especially important with the league tournament right around the corner.

“But the other [two] parts were, hey, we’ve got to move up in the SEC standings. We’ve got to try to improve our seeding every chance we get,” Jans said. “The third thing — and I don’t know, right now it may not be as meaningful — in March is to keep improving our resume. We don’t have that many opportunities left and you got to take advantage of them because they’re going to be gone here soon.”