Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans: 'It's about us'

Mississippi State (1-1) returns to Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tipoff against Southeastern Louisiana (0-3). The Bulldogs are coming off a blowout loss to No, 16 Iowa State and will look to get back on track this weekend.

On Wednesday, head coach Chris Jans met with the media for his weekly press conference to discuss his squad among other topics:

Q: With Jayden Epps not traveling with the team the other night, any update on him?
Jans: Like I said in Sioux Falls, Jayden was not available for the game and did not travel, like you mentioned. We are hopeful he will be back sooner than later and that’s all I have for an update on him right now.

Q: What are you looking for from your team with a response on Saturday?
Jans: A lot. I am looking for a lot and I am looking for a lot here in about three hours when we regroup as a team. We got home late Monday night and it was a tough locker room, a tough ride home. This will be the first time we’ve been together as a group this afternoon when they are finished with their academic responsibilities and weights. I am hoping they have the right mindset. I can’t make them have the right mindset. I am hopeful they will be a little gnarly, upset about the results and more importantly, how we played.

But I can’t control that in terms of how they walk into the locker room. I can control over them once we get on the practice court. But that’s got to be the mindset, today, tomorrow, Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and certainly, the backdrop sounds simple but that’s where it is. We got to get better. There’s lot of lessons to be learned from that particular game. For those that have been following us for four years know that I am fond of the saying ‘I love to win and learn’.

Everybody learns when they lose and that’s the easy part. I don’t want to have to do that but unfortunately, that’s where we are at. We can’t change the outcome. We have to get a ton of growth and there are tons of opportunities, individually and collectively, for us to grow from this game. I knew when I scheduled it that it would be an uphill challenge for a number of factors. One, because of the quality of their program and two, it was in their backyard. For anyone that was there, it was 97, 98% Iowa State fans. It was a great environment. I didn’t like the result but it was a cool place to play. I had heard a lot about The Pentagon and it was a really neat setting. Once the ball was tipped it wasn’t much fun.

But we are going to find out a little bit about what we’re made of with this group’s mentality and what their approach is going to be. There is a lot of basketball left to be played and we got a fork in the road early. How are we going to react to some adversity? How are we going to respond to getting beat, especially in the way we got beat?

Q: Is Epps’ situation an injury thing going on?
Jans: Like I mentioned, that’s my update on that situation.

Q: You mentioned the team bouncing back. Are important are the leaders to this team regarding that aspect?
Jans: Well, we’re going to find out. Hopefully it will be a collective response. As much as we’d like to, we’re not with them 24/7 so what they talk about, if they do, and hopefully they do. I know they’re going to spend some time together leading up to practice. I can’t control them that way. Certainly you would hope that guys that have been around like Shawn (Jones) and Josh (Hubbard) would have some influence on what the approach needs to be, what the mood needs to be. We will see. I can’t really speak on it because I haven’t had them yet.

Q: Did the number of turnovers against Iowa State surprise you?
Jans: I would say it shocked me rather than it surprised me. Going into the game we were going to turn the ball over. I’ve never had a game where we didn’t turn the ball over that I can recollect. We certainly understand that as basketball players and people that follow the sport. We knew how Iowa State was going to defend us. We played the Houston the game for a number of reasons and No. 1 was to prepare for Iowa State in a real game.

We thought the lessons learned in that (Houston) game would really help us and help us grow and be better the next time facing a similar approach, defensively. But it obviously didn’t. 15 turnovers at the half, 26 for the game. I never dreamt of that scenario. Going into the game in my mind, we could have 12-15 turnovers and that is a win for us, knowing that we would get some good looks if we took care of the ball.

It’s like a hard egg. When you get to the middle of it and you break that eggshell, it is a little softer that way. We had a lot of possessions where it worked that way. We just didn’t have enough of them. We shot the ball well, shot the 3. We just didn’t get enough shots on goal and credit to them, it is what they do and they knew. They didn’t change their scheme. It’s what they do and it’s their No. 1 priority.

The battle within the battle and within all of the games, that was the biggest difference in the game. They imposed their defensive tactics on us better than we handled it. That was the story of the game and no question about it.

Q: Southeastern Louisiana is 0-3 but they were leading Georgia Tech at halftime on the road last time out. Your thoughts on the Lions?
Jans: I started last night. As soon as we’re done here I will meet with our staff that does the advanced scouting. But in reality, it doesn’t matter who we are playing Saturday. We are going to prepare for them like we prepare for every game. But it’s about us and our response and what we do today and tomorrow and Friday and most importantly, when we tip the ball on Saturday.

We’ve played this team before and they’ve played us. We just played North Alabama in the opener and we’re down 11 with 15 minutes left in the game and they had all the momentum. They are not a Power 4 team and it is going to be the same scenario. SELA is not a Power 4 team. I watched the Georgia Tech game last night. I am sure their coaches and their bench thought they were going to win it going into it. As it unfolded, I guarantee you they had more confidence they were going to win the game. I haven’t gotten to the end of it yet and how it switched up.

But their coaches are telling them that Iowa State turned them over 26 times. They do the same thing but in a completely different style. They full-court press you, mix up their fronts, how they trap, when they trap. So if I am their coach and I know their coach and he is a great guy and a really good coach, they are showing them the film. Although it is a different style, we are going to put pressure on them. We are going to force their decision-making to be early and often.

So they’re licking their chops to play us here and get a signature win. We shouldn’t have any over-confidence whatsoever. Like I said for this long response, it doesn’t matter who we are playing. We need to worry about us. We need to get better and we need to play better than we did Wednesday against North Alabama and certainly, better than Monday against Iowa State. To me, that is what I am focused on the most, our response to what just happened.

Q: Were there any signs in the preseason that this team would be prone to turnovers?
Jans: There were signs. In the Houston exhibition game they turned us over quite a bit. We had practices where we obviously track and stat everything you can imagine, maybe too much. But information is information. We had days where it was like ‘oh boy’.

This isn’t a pass buck statement at all. Those that know me, that ain’t my style. But I thought we had done a pretty good job of developing some approaches with practice and emphasizing decision-making with target passing, putting them in situations where they are trapped by multiple people in different drills, some that we did before and some knew. We knew what we were going to face so we obviously we wanted to replicate it as best we could.

We didn’t do a good enough job of replicating it or making it as much like Iowa State as we should have if you are looking at hindsight. The results are the results. Kudos to them and their staff for doing what they do at the highest level. Like I said earlier, we knew it was going to be hard. As the game unfolded, the game unfolded the way it needed to. It was 29-27 with four minutes and some change left. Then the floodgates opened and opened fast, and it was an onslaught until the buzzer sounded at halftime. That’s where the game was decided, in my opinion.