Mississippi State Coach Chris Jans After Win vs Arkansas: "It Was Crucial"
Mississippi State basketball survived a scare at home against Arkansas, 71-67, on Saturday afternoon as the Bulldogs improve to 17-8 overall and 6-6 in SEC play.
With the win, the Bulldogs have now won three straight games, and have they have won nine of the last eleven meetings against the Razorbacks, dating back to the 2015-16 season. However, the way to clinch the win wasn't exactly the prettiest.
Free throws continues to be a glaring issue for the Bulldogs this year, with the team shooting 19 of 32 from the charity stripe in Saturday's contest. These are the type of issues that will come back to haunt a team later in the season and the Bulldog desperately need to clean up on the charity stripe as the progress through the latter half of the season.
Head coach Chris Jans said in his post game press conference that winning this game was crucial moving forward, as they wasn't much room for error as the Bulldogs inch closer to March.
"It didn't cross my mind that we can afford to lose some games or a game or some, whatever you want to put in there but couldn't afford to lose this one, and I told my friends one family that going into the game, that's just the way it is," Jans said.
"We didn't talk about it as a team but you know, where we're at, for the most part, it was crucial. It was crucial and that why I was telling them don't let anyone take this away from you and [demean] what we did today [...] in our lives."
A loss would have definitely put a dent in the Bulldogs' postseason hopes, and that was something that lingered in the head of Jans, especially given the recent trend of the series history between the two teams.
“You know, I haven’t been here long enough to talk about trends or anything of that nature,” said Jans. “Last year, obviously, was a heck of a win for us on the road. At that point, we were like ‘okay, we’ve got a chance. We’re in the conversation of trying to get into March Madness.’ It was a galvanizing win for our team to do it.”
Up next for Mississippi State, they host in-state rival Ole Miss in Starkville on Wednesday at 8 p.m. CT. The Rebels won the previous matchup this season, 86-82, and the Bulldogs are looking to avoid a sweep heading into the mid-week contest.
