SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAYS

October 14, 2026

Chris Jans

Mississippi State Bulldogs

Men's Media Day Press Conference

CHRIS JANS: Questions.

Q. Obviously Josh Hubbard has been a staple of your program. Is there anywhere you want to see him continue to improve? Where have you seen him grow over the course of this past off-season?

CHRIS JANS: Yeah, obviously Josh has been a staple for us in my tenure. Other than the first year, he's been a big part of our teams. Going into his fourth year, which is not the norm now in the landscape of college basketball. Relationship continues to grow. My understanding of who he is, how to coach him, where to get him in his spots, has gotten better and better with each season that I've had the opportunity to coach him.

Josh is an incredible human being. Like, I don't ever get tired of talking about him. I've been asked about him a lot. Rightfully so. Not just because of his basketball success, but because of how he carries himself. He's one of the best young people I've ever been around, regardless of what his stats were. Just as a human being. He truly is a better person than he is a player.

In terms of his development, the defensive end has never been his strong suit. Walking in the door, he came from a program that he's a leading high school scorer in the history of state of Mississippi all time. I'd imagine a lot of that was, Don't foul, we need to keep you on the court. Guard the other team's player very often.

Here in the SEC, there's not players for him to guard like that. There's no weak links. On the court you can't hide him defensively.

He's been a work in progress. It's safe to say right now, certainly the games haven't hit us yet, but he's in a much better place. He's really focused on that end. He's really trying to improve on his techniques, his understanding, his physicality both on the ball and off the ball.

That's probably the biggest area that we're working with him on. Plus just his efficiency. He's had the big numbers, scored a bunch of points last year. Now we're just trying to get him to be more of a complete player that way.

Q. With such a new roster, who are some of these players you're seeing stepping up and lead both on and off the court?

CHRIS JANS: Yeah, we got a great group of kids. For me, this is I think my 17th year as a head coach at different levels. Seventh school. Knock on wood, right now it's the best group of young men that I've ever had the privilege of coaching.

We've had a lot of great stories going on. A lot of good kids. It's fun to be around them. Time will tell, but some guys that come to mind that are going to make major impacts, the first person I would think of us R.J. Johnson. He's a transfer from Kennesaw State. He's done a great job at slimming up and tightening up his body. He's a big lead guard. He's lost I think 27 pounds since we got him. He's really transformed how he looks. Obviously made him lighter on his feet, quicker. Probably feels better. He's got a chance to be a big-time player for us.

Pairing him with Josh out front gives us a different look. Josh has been on the ball probably more than off the ball in his career. We're trying to get him off the ball a little bit more, take away some responsibilities that he has as a lead guard, let R.J. with that frame and body take more responsibility out there. We'll see how that works as the season unfolds.

Another young man that I brought with him, Thomas Bassong, who is a sophomore transfer from Florida State, he's been a huge shot in the arm for us. He's got all the measurables you'd ever want. His 6'6", 6'7". 7'2" wingspan. 225, 228, in that range. He loves playing both ends of the floor. He's old school that way. He can guard literally one through five. Who knows how it will end up, but he's got a chance to be certainly one of the best if not the best defender that I've ever coached. For me, for what's important to me, that's high praise for someone, especially before they've even played a game. We'll see how he is in the games, but he's going to have a major impact for us on the court.

Q. Part of the identity you've established as a head coach consistently is your best teams guard in a really extremely good level, are very disruptive. Last year issues in both those aspects. How much of putting this roster together was about getting back to that identity?

CHRIS JANS: Well, I was waiting for the first question about last year. Third one in. Wasn't too bad. I expected it to be the first one, if I'm being honest with you. When Garth was talking about some of my background, last year during the season I thought maybe I was going to go back to be selling paint and window treatment there for a while, which is a whole 'nother story in itself. That was my first year in college. Brought back some crazy memories.

I never painted before in my life. I'm trying to sell paint to these contractors. They're looking at me like, dude, you don't have any idea what you're talking about. I digress.

No question, last year was a learning experience for everyone that was involved. If I harken back to when I was here a year ago, I wasn't as confident in that team right now as I am in this team. I know that. I was kind of hoping. Hope is a really bad strategy if you're a head coach of an SEC team in any sport for that matter.

Certainly we had to make some better decisions in the spring. We're always vigilant, but it was more so. We had to get it right. We had to get everyone right in terms of who we brought back, who we went out and tried to sign to put this team together.

Certainly it's changed with the number of kids that you're adding to each team. But that was always in the back of our mind. Is he going to fit into the vibe, the culture, that we seek. Is he going to have a play style that's going to let us pin our ears back? Regardless of how we end up, let's make sure we go into each game knowing we have a chance to compete at the level we're used to, let the chips fall where they may.

I think it's definitely something our fan base will be happy about. We're definitely going to have more of an identity that we used to.

Q. There are a lot of outside circumstances surrounding obviously, but what do you think Kimani will bring to the team, and how much have you seen him grow in the last couple years?

CHRIS JANS: I'm sure that's been a hot topic across media days across the country. I don't have any insight more than anybody else does where that's going to land. Daily, hourly, depending on which kid you have, et cetera. Our fingers are crossed that's he's eligible now and he's going to be a part of our team throughout the season.

It's a unique situation. Kimani, I inherited him. He was a signed player when I got the job. I remember going down to his home and meeting with his family. He recommitted to us, then played for us as a freshman. Probably didn't see the minutes that he wanted to, which unfortunately is typical for a lot of freshmen across the country. Decided to leave. Went on and played a couple years at High Point and year at Vegas.

We had a roster opening late. We weren't in that market at all. We had a kid, national kid, that decided it was too risky, and he left. It wasn't great timing for us. It was a scramble situation.

Kimani was available. Wasn't a recruiting process. He wanted to come home. So it was beneficial for both of us. I tell my wife all the time, when I come home from practice, I'm coaching a different person. Like he's not even the same dude, which is what you expect, right? You get an 18-year-old kid, four years later he has a whole different perspective on basketball and life. Playing at different institutions with different kids, playing a ton of games.

It's really fun. It's been really fun to reunite with him, if you will, he's so thankful to be back at State. He's as excited as anyone we got 'cause he gets it. He gets it. He gets to kind of finish what he started.

In terms of on the floor, he's really improved. He's really improved. He's grown his game. He shoots the ball much better from the perimeter than he did walking in the door. He's got a more physical nature to him. Obviously you would expect his body to be a lot better at this point in the career. Here just continuing to keep our fingers crossed with him.

Q. R.J. is listed at 6'4", 225. Is that before or after the weight loss?

CHRIS JANS: After, after. Yeah, after.

Q. How did he lose 27?

CHRIS JANS: All of it. All of it. I'm trying to lose five pounds myself. What do you do? Be more mindful of what you put in your body, get better sleep. Certainly up the ante with your steps or cardio work that you're doing. That's what he did.

Like, he would literally in June or July, without telling anybody, I find out after the fact, one of my assistants was working with him. He would do, what we'd asked him what he was doing during the day, then he'd go out jogging two, two and a half miles. He would send him the screen shot of his My Run or whatever app he was using. He was just committed to it.

We all know how that works. When you start doing, that you see the results, you remain more committed to it. He's in a great place right now. I just can't imagine with where we're at now with the games, the cardio, the travel, that he won't continue to be able to play at that weight.

Q. For the first couple years of the transfer portal, just felt like chaos every year. Each year would look different the way it functioned than the year before. Do you think we're starting to settle in a little with the portal where you have an understanding of how things are going to function or are we still headed for more chaos?

CHRIS JANS: Emphatically no. I mean, it hasn't settled in, in my opinion. The window has changed every year, right? The length of it, the start of it, the end of it, the whole five-for-five throws another wrench into the equation. There are a lot of things that are going to happen. The kids that redshirted last year, I had two kids, of course if I'd known it was five-for-five, we wouldn't dream of doing something like that.

Who knows where all that will land in the next few years. When those kids start matriculating into getting into their fourth and fifth years, they're going to say, I got screwed over here. In terms of the chaos, the word that you used, that's what it is. I think we just understand that's the way it is. That's the work environment. You can't complain about it. Everybody is dealing with it.

With all the change, with everything that everybody's talking about, you kind of just got to roll with the punches.

Thank you, appreciate it.