Everything Chris Jans Said on The Paul Finebaum Show
Ahead of Thursday's SEC Tournament game against LSU, Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans spoke with SEC Network's Paul Finebaum on The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday about his team and the state of college basketball.
Here's a full transcript of what Chris Jans said:
On tomorrow's game:
We do have a big one tomorrow. A little bit of déjà vu. We were in this position last year knowing we had to win a game or two in the SEC Tournament and I feel the same as I did last year.
On bracket predictors:
I can't sit here and look you in the eye and say I haven't seen any information that bracketologists are putting out there. But I'm certainly not going down the rabbit hole and getting lost in the hundreds of them. At the end of the day, we have to win basketball games and I've been asked that question quite a bit over the past 10 days from various people for why we should be included. My answer's always the same: What I have to say about it will have no bearing on the committee. I'm not going to sit up there and politic for our team because I don't think that'll have any influence. Our job is just to play well and win games.
How he'd characterize the last few months of college basketball:
I think the league is better than it was last year and I thought it would be heading into it. There were a lot of first-year coaches last year, like myself, and the comfort of league level that got to be better, the venue and style of play of other teams got an uptick. The portal was wide open and our school did a great job adding older and ready kids. There are more quality teams from top to bottom than last year.
On how he's built his team to NCAA Tournament caliber:
Well, that was the plan. A lot of coaches say things when they're announced as the coach and that was one of our goals, but so was that we're gonna play hard and make our fanbase proud of our effort. But at the same time, we didn't have a 2-3 year plan. That's not how you run the program anymore with the portal era as you build a team each year which will be our focus and what we try to do. After the first year, maybe it's a bit more pressure and in the second year, we had a bunch of guys come back. Unfortunately, we had injuries along the way like a lot of teams, but we're in this position to finish it off. I think it just speaks to the kids in our program. We've got good players and good kids and they've worked really hard all year long.
On how he approaches the hot topic of the transfer portal:
It is what it is. Adapt and change or get left behind. Where I've coached, even at junior colleges, smaller schools and New Mexico State, how we recruited was in line with portal recruitment. We didn't have a ton of 4-5-year guys but I never really have over the course of my career, so it's not abnormal for us. Most of the guys in my staff feel the same, so it wasn't a big deal. It was more like 'Man, now everybody's going to get in on the portal.' It's just what college athletics is now and like I said, in five years it'll be something else.
On having to re-recruit his players due to the transfer portal:
It's just part of the business now. I can't sit here and lie to you that it doesn't cross your mind throughout the year when you're coach your kids saying 'Hey I want this young man back at the program.' Like I said you have to adjust. We were really proud that we had five starters returning. Every one of them had options to leave and look elsewhere and we felt really good about that. This year, we have a number of candidates that'll be in the same boat. We'll see how it turns out but like you said earlier, it's a two-way street for everyone involved
What's the conversation like for convincing one of your best players to stay:
We tell them we're not going to 'recruit you,' you've been here 9-11 months. You know who we are and how we do business. You also have been recruited previously, so when you listen to their spiels, you know it's recruiting. You know what you have here and we just give them space and time. We don't put a date on them or pressure them. We just tell them that we understand the situation and go through the process and if you have any questions let us know. There's no big sit=down or summit meeting because at that point, if I were the student-athlete I'd be looking at me and say 'Coach, you had all year long to show me who you are, how you run the program and how I fit in,' and I try to stay away from that.
On how he compartmentalizes with how the game's changed since he played and started coaching years ago:
I know it sounds trite, but we just try to go with the flow. What I think about it and what I like and don't like is irrelevant. If I'm going to do my job to the best of my ability, I have to get up with the times and do my job. At the end of the day, what I have to say about what it is isn't like 72-year-old man you're referring to (Nick Saban) and what his opinions are. Nobody probably cares what I think about it and I'm good with that. We might talk about it up in the office and say how we feel, but I tell my guys to adapt, change, figure it out and make good decisions, otherwise, we're not going to win games.
People like to talk about and there are people that need to do that. There are big decision makers that have that type of access and knowledge and that's why they're in those positions. I trust those people that they're going to do their best and try to put our game in the best light possible to have a competitive balance and give everyone a shot to have a successful program.
