Everything Chris Jans Said After Loss to Florida
The Mississippi State men's basketball team fell to Florida 79-70 on Wednesday night. Bulldogs head coach Chris Jans spoke about his team's performance during the postgame press conference.
Here's a full transcript:
On Florida's momentum going into/coming out of halftime:
We were battling foul trouble in the first half. Cameron (Matthews) and D.J. (Jeffries), both had two, but we had to play them. Shawn Jones had two as well. We got to about the 3-minute mark and at that point, I said 'We need to get to halftime' and not get a third (foul) on those guys. That probably hurt us a little bit in the last few possessions of the half in terms of having a bigger deficit than we would've liked. For whatever reason we didn't start well in the second half and it became a 17-point game that we had to play behind from the rest of the way.
On Tolu Smith III and Jimmy Bell Jr. playing at the same time:
Playing Tolu and Jimmy together wasn't by default. We wanted them to play together because of the matchups that Florida presented. We felt like we could put two fives out together and the results were a mixed bag. D.J.'s our backup four and Cam is the starter, but when they're in foul trouble it makes for some interesting times and how to figure out how to handle it
On veterans struggling:
First of all, Shakeel Moore needs to be commended for playing because he was very sick and didn't practice ahead of the game or even attend shootaround today. He decided to try to warm up and he gave us a thumbs up. He didn't play great in the first half, but I thought he gave us solid minutes. He was on fumes in the locker room after the game. We definitely need some guys who have been there, done that, to play better. It’s hard to win on the road and we’ve just got to play better.
On applying pressure during the late comeback attempt:
You get in situations like that and play desperate with urgency. The other team tends to get on their heels a little bit thinking 'We're good' and we start making a run at them. You could feel the vibe in the gym change a little bit. We got back within striking difference, but we never got back to the point where it was like 'Oh boy this is going to come down to the last possession.' If we cut it to a four or three when it was six I thought that could've been really interesting. But when you have to press every possession and fly around, it certainly takes a lot out of you.
On Florida guard Will Richard's performance (23 points, 18 in the first half):
I don't know his pregame rituals or the young man really well, but he really had it going. Not just the offensive output, but rebounding as he missed a double-double by one. He made some tough shots that were contested at times and made some that we didn't do a very good job on. He was a big difference-maker tonight.
On Josh Hubbard's performance (26 points, 18 in the first half):
We don't look at him like a freshman anymore. We rely on him at this point. He had 26 but he had to take a lot of shots together. We were in a position where him taking a contested three is maybe our best option at times. It's no fault of his that he was put in a position where we're trying to get him to get shots and try to give us a chance to get back in the game. Josh doesn't get fazed by too much and hopefully he'll continue to play well for us.
On free throw differences:
You play the numbers game and we had five team fouls when they had 10-12. When we got to under double digits we talked about fouling early because they had a couple of candidates that were on the floor. But we didn't want to foul to get to the bonus, usually it'll just happen and you'll get to six. We fouled (Florida forward Alex) Condon and he stepped up and made two big free throws. I thought those were huge for Florida because if he misses they'd either sub him or we'd continue to foul him. There were some big shots for the freshman.
