STARKVILLE — The joy of a remarkable turnaround win had faded from Humphrey Coliseum by Wednesday. Mississippi State men’s basketball head coach Chris Jans was back to business, and nothing from the comeback win over New Orleans on Monday glossed over the fact that the Bulldogs were still 3-3 with a lot of growing up to do.

They won, and did so in a way that can fuel a team to better things, but there is plenty of work left to do with an unbeaten ACC opponent coming into the building today.

“Like I said to the team after the game, never feel some kind of way about winning,” Jans said. “It’s difficult, it’s hard… Everyone on the other side is doing whatever they can to win, so it’s a 50/50 proposition every time you step on the court. Having said that, we’re certainly not playing to the level of expectation that we’ve created around here.”

The Bulldogs welcome SMU to town on Black Friday at 6 p.m. as a post-Egg Bowl chaser. The Mustangs are not, however, a pushover prospect for MSU. The typical defensive prowess of a Jans-coached team has not shown up yet, and it may prove costly again on Friday.

The Mustangs (7-0) average a stunning 92.7 points per game. Six players average double-digit points per game, and guard Boopie Miller averages 20 a game along with 7.9 assists.

“They’re really good,” Jans said. “They’re 7-0 and score at a high level, but at the same time they turn you over, which has been an Achilles’ heel for us thus far in the early season. They’re on the same page and have got a lot of veterans on the floor, a mix of guys returning and players that they brought in via the portal, and they just run good stuff. They’ve got great spacing, they’re good decision makers, and they’re off to a good start.”

SMU’s trip to The Hump will be its first road game of the season, and with the right atmosphere, it could prove a difficult change of setting.

The Bulldogs have won all three games at home this season, but it hasn’t been a cakewalk. A sloppy finish against Southeastern Louisiana made the contest closer than they would have liked, and it took a 14-0 run to force overtime against New Orleans on Monday.

Jans doesn’t expect the Mustangs to be put off by the road test, he expects them to be a challenge.

“They’ve had tests at home that they’ve passed, they’ve gotten better, they look pretty well oiled for seven games in, and now they’re ready to go on the road and see how they handle any distractions that way,” he said. “I’m not too concerned about their philosophy and how they go about their business, but just from my vantage point, they look like it’s really paid off for them.”

For Jans, the focus has been mostly on his team as they still try to piece together the right rotations.

Star guard Josh Hubbard has been excellent, as expected, averaging 24.5 points per game. Shawn Jones Jr. remains a reliable supporting piece at the two and three spots, and Quincy Ballard has been reliable as the only true healthy big available.

Everywhere else, either due to health or performance, is still up for grabs.

“I still feel there are two or three spots that just haven’t been taken hold of,” Jans said. “We still have inconsistency with some of our guys in certain positions, and because of that, we’re still trying to figure out who needs to be playing, how much they need to be playing and who they need to be playing with.”

The inability to find consistency has taken a toll on the defense this season, and the problem hasn’t gone away with more reps. Opponents average 80 points per game against MSU, one more point than the team averages on offense per game.

Jans hasn’t taken time to dwell on it, and hasn’t let his team do so either. He knows there’s only one way out, and that’s to play through it.

“That’s the theme I have with them, we have to just work and get better,” he said. “If it’s in the weight room, meeting room, on the floor, in games, and not focus on the outcome as much. Focus on possession by possession and the process of playing better. Eventually, you could look up and say ‘Look how much better we’ve gotten.’ It’s easy to focus on just outcomes or how it happened… for this team right now, we collectively need to put our heads down and figure out solutions to the issues that we have.”