Mississippi State's Chris Jans Believes Recent Practices Influenced First Loss
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The Mississippi State men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season on Monday night against Georgia Tech in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
This was the Bulldogs' first road test and they were unable to take down a team coming off of consecutive losses. Mississippi State's 59 points was its lowest of the season, and even though allowing 67 points is respectable, it was the most given up through seven games.
Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans opened up about his team's performance during the postgame radio session.
"The biggest deal was that they got confident early, our defense wasn't on point and we weren't what we're accustomed to and what's required," Jans said. "You're playing an ACC school in their arena coming off of two losses and you're on the ACC Network. If you can't get excited and motivated to play, then I don't have the answer for that. I'm very disappointed with the outcome and how it got to be the loss."
Across all sports, having good practices leading up to the game often provides a better mindset heading into the opening tip-off. However, Jans explained that the practices weren't ideal "as a whole."
"I'm not going to single them out, but we had a couple of guys that weren't themselves," Jans said. "I made a mistake. I should've sat the couple of guys down and tried to get underneath it, but I let it fester a little bit and it bit me. They played just like they practiced and I talked about that at halftime as well. That's my fault because I saw it, but chose to see what happens in the game. I'm disappointed in myself that I let it go like that."
Jans summarized it by stating that the Bulldogs couldn't have beaten a "hungry and talented" Georgia Tech team with low morale.
Hopefully spirits will be back to normal before Mississippi State takes on Southern University on Dec. 3.
