Jans and Bulldogs face stiff test Friday with undefeated SMU visiting The Hump

In the first six games of the season, Mississippi State (3-3) still has a lot of question marks on the basketball court. The Bulldogs hope to start answering some of those questions Friday when they will be tested heavily by SMU (7-0). Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. at Humphrey Coliseum.

On Wednesday, head coach Chris Jans met with the media to discuss SMU and other aspects of his team:

Q: Do you feel like the rotations are getting a little clearer of late?
Jans: If I am being honest, the answer would be, unfortunately, no. I still think it is in flux. I don’t think it is solidified yet whether I like it to be or not. I still feel there’s two or three spots that haven’t been taken a hold of yet. We still have some inconsistency with some of our guys at certain positions. Because of that, we’re still trying to figure out who should be playing, how much they should be playing and who they need to be playing with. That’s where it’s at.

Q: Although it didn’t help your blood pressure, how do you feel about the team finding a way to rally against New Orleans?
Jans: Like I said to the team after the game, never feel some kind of way about winning. Winning is difficult, it’s hard. I’ve said that my whole life and been hearing it from other coaches I’ve looked up to my whole life. It’s difficult. The other team, the other coach and everyone that is on their side is doing whatever they can to win so it’s a 50/50 proposition every time you step on the court.

Having said that, we’re certainly not playing to the level of expectation that we’ve created around here. It’s not as if our guys don’t know that or our coaches don’t know that. At this point, all we can do is keep our head down. That is kind of the theme I had with them. We got to get our head down and just work and get better. If it’s in the weight room, the meeting room, on the floor in games and not focus on the outcome as much and focus on possession by possession and the process of playing better.

Eventually you could look up and say, hey, look how much further we’ve gotten and how much better we’ve gotten. It’s real easy to just focus on the outcome or how the outcome happened. We’re all humans and we tend to do that, as well. But I think with this team right now, we collectively need to put our head down and work and try to figure out solutions to the issues that we have.

Q: SMU is a high-scoring team that also forces a lot of turnovers. What is the focus going into this game?
Jans: I haven’t met with them as a team until a couple of hours from now. So it is more than, obviously, working with all the coaches like normal and trying to get together on what our focus is going to be, what our gameplan is going to be. We’re up to speed on them now and they are really good. They are 7-0 and they score at a high level. At the same time they can turn you over, which has been a big Achilles’ heel for us thus far in the early season.

It just feels like they are on the same page and they got a lot of veterans on the floor with a mix of guys returning and new guys that they brought in via the portal. They just run great stuff. They’ve got great spacing and are pretty good decision-makers and they are off to a great start. So, obviously, although I don’t think it matters much when you throw the ball up, we have some familiarity with one another since we played last year. But in this day and age there’s so many new faces on each team that I don’t know how much that will have to do with it.

Q: With SMU not having played a road game yet, does that make it harder to gauge what kind of team they have so far?
Jans: From where I sit and from what I’ve watched the last couple of days on video, I don’t think it has stunted their growth. It’s probably helped their confidence, to be honest. Everyone has a different schedule and each year may be a little bit different. You make your schedule for what you feel is best for your team. To me on the outside looking in, it’s worked out the way they wanted. They’ve had some tests at home that they’ve passed.

They’ve gotten better and look pretty well oiled for seven games in. Now they are ready to go on the road and see how they handle any distractions that way. I am not too concerned about their philosophy and how they go about doing their business. Just from my vantage point, they look like it’s really paid off for them and they are in a great spot.

Q: Any updates on Jayden Epps and Sergej Macura?
Jans: Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to practice yet. I haven’t seen them today. It is kind of a situation where you are hopeful it is going to be sooner than later. Like I said the other day, it’s not a months’ thing or multiple weeks. Fingers crossed that rehab will continue to go well for both of them, individually, and it will be sooner than later.

Q: With Achor Achor right now, what are you looking to get from him?
Jans: I met with him yesterday and we just had a meeting in the office to see where he is at and see how I can help him, which we do often throughout the season with our players like everyone else does, I am assuming. We just got to get him to play with some more confidence. We got to help him regain that confidence. He’s obviously a good player, he’s been there, done that. In the end you want players to feel good when you step out on the floor in games. Practice helps but in the games is more important.

So we are working together to try to figure out a solution to help him feel better when the lights are on and to play better and feel good about what he is doing. That is what he wants, too. He’s not the only guy that’s not playing up to their capabilities. Our team’s now, I’m not, our staff isn’t and all of it. But we’re going to keep working and keep encouraging one another and try to put them in the best spots that we can. I am confident that he will play better going forward.

Q: With Amier Ali doing more lately to earn more minutes, how much of a confidence boost does that give him to see his own production on the court of late?
Jans: Yeah I am happy for Amier. Coaches always talk about staying ready. You don’t have to get ready but stay ready for your opportunity. Coaches preach to guys that aren’t playing as much as they like to keep your head down, keep working. Don’t go the wrong way or you will never get the opportunity. Amier is a classic example of that. If you pay attention to our bench in games he wasn’t playing, he was as energetic and as good of a teammate as anybody we had on the bench.

He’s been consistent that way and his approach in practice has been consistent. He hasn’t hung his head. He hasn’t had that body language. He has kept working and we’ve encouraged him behind the scenes from our staff. He was given an opportunity and played good. Fortunately for us and for him, he can play a lot better. He still has a lot of things, like all of us, that he needs to still work on. But he saw the ball go through the net, he got some rebounds. I thought he was better, defensively, in the last game than he was in the New Mexico game, which is really good for him.

Like I said in that first question, we have this rotation that is in flux because of a lot of factors. But that’s one of them and who is going to be consistent coupling with practices and games moving forward to be able to say ‘hey coach, I am the guy that needs to play these minutes at this position’. And he is one of those candidates.