Mississippi State Bulldogs hire Chris Jans as men’s basketball coach

Mississippi Point out hired New Mexico State mentor Chris Jans as the school’s upcoming men’s basketball coach on Sunday.

Conditions of Jans’ deal ended up not disclosed.

“The Mississippi Point out Spouse and children is thrilled to welcome Chris Jans as our up coming head coach,” athletic director John Cohen reported in a statement. “Throughout our comprehensive exploration, what stood out about Coach Jans was his lifestyle of accountability, difficult-operating mentality, emphasis on participant development, and vision for the long run. Coach Jans is a tested chief and winner, who is deemed by many to be one particular of the leading coaches in the game. He is a tireless recruiter, amazing Xs and Os tactician, and his in general resume speaks for itself.”

Jans led New Mexico State to an upset of fifth-seeded UConn in the initial round of the NCAA event past 7 days, marking the school’s 1st officially regarded NCAA tournament gain due to the fact 1970 (wins in the 1992 and 1993 tournaments have been afterwards vacated). Jans has absent 122-32 in 5 seasons at New Mexico State, together with four standard-time WAC championships and three NCAA tournament appearances.

Jans replaces Ben Howland, whom the Bulldogs divided from soon after he a posted 134-98 report but unsuccessful to earn an NCAA tournament match in his seven seasons in Starkville. Mississippi State final won an NCAA event video game in 2008, and the deliberate pace of Howland’s groups and his defensive-very first model had started to fall out of favor in the program.

Jans, 52, has been a Division I mentor for six seasons, and he experienced absent 143-44 over 5 yrs in Las Cruces and 1 at Bowling Environmentally friendly. His .765 successful percentage ranks him in the best five in the nation among the active coaches.

Point out officers also noticed Jans’ get the job done firsthand, as New Mexico Condition beat the Bulldogs 58-52 in Jackson, Mississippi, in December 2019. The Aggies exhibited the same type of verve and fearlessness they confirmed in their upset of UConn and in their 53-48 loss to Arkansas in the next spherical of the tournament Saturday.

An off-courtroom incident led to Jans’ firing from Bowling Green in April 2015. An email to the faculty specific Jans’ inappropriate conduct at a bar that March, which provided video of Jans touching a woman’s buttocks. Bowling Green fired him for bring about with 5 decades and additional than $1.6 million left on his contract.

In accordance to sources, Mississippi State officials crafted up a comfort degree with Jans soon after two individual history checks and the actuality that there have been no claimed challenges in the seven many years because his firing.

A resource instructed ESPN that Mississippi Point out hired an outdoors law firm to investigation all candidates, and that group created phone calls to administrations, players and former staffers at Bowling Inexperienced, Wichita Condition and New Mexico Point out. That assisted them create convenience with his candidacy.

Mississippi State’s study bundled talking to previous players at New Mexico Condition, and they were unanimous in their praise of Jans’ distinctive capability to optimize talent, sources claimed. Mississippi Condition officers ended up attracted to Jans’ toughness, but their study observed him to be honest and players often observed that Jans experienced their again.

A person of the elements that attracted Mississippi State officers to Jans is his background in junior university and at Bowling Eco-friendly and New Mexico Condition, which organized him nicely for present day college basketball and the portal period. He designed three NCAA tournaments and received four typical-time titles in 5 seasons at New Mexico with considerable roster churn many thanks to transfers and junior higher education gamers.

Jans also had a stint as an assistant mentor at Wichita Condition during the Shockers’ undefeated 2013-14 typical period. Jans also gained a Division II junior college nationwide championship as the head coach at Kirkwood in 1998, a single of four junior school head-coaching jobs he has held.