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Mississippi State

Bulldogs look to bounce back in regular season finale at Arkansas

3rupauk8_400x400by: Robbie Faulk03/08/25RobbieFaulkOn3
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Chris Jans (Photo by Petre Thomas, USA Today Sports)

It applies most years, but making sure a team doesn’t beat Mississippi State twice has been Chris Jans’ challenge all season long.

The No. 25 Bulldogs (20-10, 8-9) have had to deal with a gauntlet of a schedule with ups and downs along the way. The latest was a painful 87-82 overtime loss to the Texas Longhorns in a game the Bulldogs felt went through their fingertips.

State has had those moments before. The Bulldogs also lost heartbreaking games to Kentucky and Alabama at home and had bounce performances. Jans hopes that follows this team into the regular season finale on Saturday.

“Fortunately, or unfortunately, this team has proven to be able to regroup and bounce back after some tough losses,” Jans said. “Going into the SEC schedule, you knew everything wasn’t going to be clean every game and you weren’t going to go undefeated. You knew that you would have some tough stretches. Hopefully, history will repeat itself in that way.”

Arkansas brings desperation to the table on Saturday

MSU closes out the regular season on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. inside Arkansas’s Bud Walton Arena. The Razorbacks are in the middle of a new era with legendary coaching figure John Calipari now at the helm.

Calipari has won everywhere he’s been on the college level with great runs at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky. Now, Calipari is trying to bring the big wins back to a program that’s had a lot of them over the years. His players have been a big part of that at previous stops.

“What really sticks out to me is their size,” Jans said of Arkansas. “Their guards are physical, lengthy and obviously skilled. They’re downhill guys and you better be hooked up and motored up because they’ll be in attack mode. They’re only playing seven guys with (Adou) Theiro out and all of them are rangy and can get to the rim.”

Thiero is officially out for Saturday’s game as the standout transfer from Kentucky has missed the last five games with an injury. It’s a big piece missing as Thiero leads the team with 15.6 points and 6.0 rebounds. Boogie Fland was also a huge hit to the team when he went down early in conference play and was averaging 15.1 points.

Without those two, the Razorbacks are playing with a seven-man rotation but still on the verge of getting into the NCAA Tournament. Arkansas (18-12, 7-10 SEC) started the conference slate 0-5 but have since gone 7-5 with wins in three of the last four games.

It’s a team playing much better and at the right time.

“The first thing that comes to mind is their resiliency. They’ve had some tough injuries earlier in the SEC with Fland going down,” Jans said. “Theiro was a mainstay for them and hasn’t played for the last two or three games and they’ve been able to survive a tough start in the SEC schedule. They’ve withstood some tough adversity and handled it well.”

Saturday’s game can be seen on SEC Network.

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