STARKVILLE — In his second offseason as Mississippi State men’s basketball’s head coach, Chris Jans took a different approach when it came to navigating the transfer portal. 

Last season, Jans was in “scramble mode”, just trying to put a team together around the players that decided to stay after Jans was brought in from New Mexico State. As a result, MSU had to sign five guys (Tyler Stevenson, Jamel Horton, Eric Reed, William McNair Jr and DaShawn Davis) during the spring transfer window. 

With a more in-place roster this offseason, Jans and his staff were able to be more deliberate in finding players that fit MSU’s needs. 

“It definitely was a different approach having a season under our belt, understanding the league better and what we feel is required to be competitive and win SEC basketball games,” Jans told local media in his first press conference since signing a contract extension through the 2026-27 season. “We were pretty specific with what we thought we needed in the offseason and we will see if we made good decisions or not.”

Over the past week, MSU, which lost in the First Four to Pittsburgh in last year’s NCAA Tournament, have signed two portal players in West Virginia transfer center Jimmy Bell Jr and Marshall sharp-shooting guard Andrew Taylor. 

Bell, who is on his fourth college program, also spending time at Saint Louis and Moberly Area Community College in Missouri, provides instant depth in the Bulldogs’ frontcourt. 

“(He) just gives us an anchor around the basket,” Jans said of Bell Jr. “ Has great size. Started 34 games for West Virginia in the Big 12. His numbers aren’t maybe as gaudy as one would like., but if you get underneath it and really look, he did all that in 18 minutes a game against great competition almost every night.”

Taylor, a grad transfer, who was named to the All-Sun Belt First Team, adds a shooting dynamic that Jans’ roster lacked last season, finishing as college basketball’s worst three-point shooting team. 

“He’s someone whose numbers jump out at you, albeit at a mid-major level, but a successful program (at Marshall),” Jans said of Taylor. “He put up ridiculous numbers.” 

Taylor, who received major interest out of the portal from Kentucky, Indiana, Ole Miss and Auburn, amongst others, was one of the best shooters in college basketball last season, averaging a career-high 20.2 points per game on 41.7% from the field and 36.4% from three-point range. 

Jans noted some of that production was due to Marshall’s open-play style, where it averaged 75 possessions per game (16th in the country) last season, allowing for its players to get more scoring opportunities. 

In comparison, MSU only averaged 67.2 possessions per game, which ranked 312th in college basketball.

“He will have to make somewhat of an adjustment to our style of play,” Jans added. “It is different than what he is used to, but the ability to make baskets, a good decision maker in the pick-and-roll game both for himself and the other guys on the courts just gives us a dynamic we have been searching for since the season ended.”

As the offseason has rolled on, Jans said that he and his staff have been constant communication with his players to make sure they are prepared for any other roster decision that need to be made before the start of the season. 

“There are a lot of schools out there that are in the same boat as we are,” Jans said. “We are just trying to get ourselves prepared for any what-if scenarios that could happen. You would love to have your roster set, hopefully we will have it set much earlier this year than last year. We weren’t set until the first day of school last year. In a perfect world, come June 1 when we roll back into summer school, we will have that set. But there is no guarantee of that.” 

MSU still awaiting decision from Tolu Smith 

As Jans and his staff have filled out their roster for next season, the biggest piece of the puzzle, in senior forward Tolu Smith, is still a question mark. 

Smith, who declared for the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility on April 2, has yet to come to a decision about his basketball future. 

“He’s been great,” Jans said of Smith. “Great lines of communication. I am sure everyone is wanting to know what his future plans are, and we are too, but he is on his own timetable and trying to figure it out.”

Smith was on the only MSU player last season to average double figure scoring, tallying 15.7 points, adding 8.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists per contest. His return to Starkville would immediately elevate the outlook of MSU’s roster, having an experienced frontcourt player in its lineup. 

Smith has until June 1 to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft, which is scheduled for June 22 in Brooklyn, New York. 

“Tolu knows us, knows me and it’s not as if I feel like it is straight recruiting mode like it was last year when I arrived,” Jans said. “It is more, go through the process mentally, physically. We are going to support you and be here as a sounding board if you need it. At the same time, he knows we are biased. He is not just leaning on us when he’s figuring out what is in store for his future.”

Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.