It’s almost basketball season in Starkville once again, and Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans got a look at his group against one of the best teams in the country in an exhibition on Sunday.
The Bulldogs flew out west to take on No. 2 Houston in a high-intensity warm-up game for both programs.
“Everyone treats these opportunities differently, I’m a fan of seeing what we have up and down the roster,” Jans said to MSU media after the game. “We’ve got a lot of new players, like most people in the country, but we get a couple of these opportunities, like to throw them in the deep end and see how they react, see how they compete, or don’t, for that matter.”
Jans got to see plenty of his roster in action against the Cougars, with 10 players getting 10 or more minutes on the court.
Hubbard, as usual, led the team in points, scoring 18 on 6-16 from the field and 2-7 from beyond the arc. He was also 4-7 from the free-throw line.
Shawn Jones Jr. got a start as well, playing 27 minutes and scoring nine points. The rotation of Jamarion Davis-Fleming, Dellquan Warren and Ja’Borri McGhee got a bit of extra action after Jayden Epps was helped off the court early on and didn’t return to action. They also got some more minutes with Achor Achor and Jones getting into foul trouble early.
MSU fell behind 11-2 after five minutes of action, and didn’t get a shot to fall from the field until seven minutes into the game, but steadily grew into the matchup with their defense.
The Bulldogs trailed 24-18 at halftime but produced a 34-point showing in the second half.
It was a slow start on the floor for MSU, which Jans described as like walking out into the cold and thinking you’re too cold to recover.
“That’s what it felt like,” he said. “We were having a hard time getting a shot off without turning the ball over, a hard time securing defensive rebounds. Certainly, when you play Houston, you know that’s going to be the case, but I was happy and proud that they punched back.”
Jans spoke highly of Houston and their head coach, Kelvin Sampson, who has turned the Cougars back into a basketball powerhouse. The 2025 national finalists are ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25.
“I’m so grateful that we had this opportunity,” he said. “Once we agreed to play, I was giddy about it since the spring. To play a program coached by (Sampson), their whole staff, they’re the gold standard for a lot of coaches in terms of culture, how they go about their business, how they compete, how their kids act on the court. I wanted to see where we were with this particular team.”
The Bulldogs might have struggled to keep pace, but did their part on defense to give themselves a chance. They held Houston to 15% shooting from beyond the arc and 35% from the floor, more than justifying the experience of playing a long road exhibition against a quality opponent.
“Certainly, you can talk about those kinds of things until you’re blue in the face, but once you get out there and you’re competing, you realize how intense it is, how every loose ball is magnified,” Jans continued. “It’s a street fight around the basket. We’ll see how we feel about it once we get on the plane and break it down, but firsthand, I thought we didn’t back down. We competed pretty well, we had a chance to make it a real game there down the stretch.”
MSU hits the floor to begin the 2025-26 campaign against North Alabama at Humphrey Coliseum on Nov. 4.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
