STARKVILLE — Mississippi State men’s basketball dropped below .500 again on Black Friday after an overtime loss to SMU at Humphrey Coliseum. It was the program’s first home loss of the year, but only the latest in a poor stretch of games to begin the 2025-26 campaign.

Head coach Chris Jans spoke with the media again on Monday, and the opening question led him right back into the details of the painful loss to the Mustangs.

“I’m still not happy with the results of Friday night’s game,” Jans said. “I shared with the team… we had that game and we didn’t make the plays in a timely fashion. We had a nine-point lead with seven minutes and some change left, and we just didn’t do what we needed to do to make sure that there was no comeback effort. We just had some bad plays that turned into points for the other team.”

SMU’s Boopie Miller scored seven points on two possessions to help close the gap late, and that moment had an impact on the mood around the crowd as much as it did for the visiting team as they forced overtime and eventually won, 87-81.

“That’s what happens sometimes, it can be fragile that way,” Jans added. “A bad play or bad series of events can really change the mood. As the coach, I understand that. Our team needs to understand, the next time we’re in that position, it can’t affect us in a negative way. In terms of positives, I thought overall… we played better. We had better, longer spurts of (playing) the way we need to play. We had done enough things to put us in that position. The bottom line is when the buzzer goes off, we all understand that, but we had played better.”

The Bulldogs, now 3-4, face another up-and-down team in Georgia Tech in Atlanta today, the first true road test for Jans’ squad.

The Yellow Jackets (5-3) have lost three of their last five, and are fresh off of defeats to DePaul and Drake.

Jans mentioned the frontcourt talent and athleticism that his team has to worry about with Georgia Tech. Forwards Kowacie Reeves Jr. and Baye Ndongo lead the Yellow Jackets in scoring, while Mouhamed Sylla averages nearly a double-double at center. It’s a team the Bulldogs have done their work on, but Jans’ focus has remained on how the team can work on itself.

“At this point, the way I look at it is it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, where we’re playing,” he said. “We’ve got to play better, compete better, we’ve got to play the full 40. Everybody’s got to carry their weight. We’ve got to figure out a way to play better longer and get a win.”

The Bulldogs debuted at 176 in the NCAA NET Rankings, going 0-3 in Quad 1-2 games. There is still a month until SEC play begins, but the team is running out of opportunities to find itself before the schedule heats up. They will play eight games against teams currently ranked in the Top 25, but are at risk of entering conference play with no room for error if they hope to make the postseason.

“It doesn’t matter where the game is played, what the environment is or isn’t, we’ve got to focus on our play, our compete level, and playing to the best of our ability on Wednesday night,” Jans said. “That’s where my focus is and that’s all I’m concerned with.”

The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets will tip off at 8:15 p.m. on the ACC Network.