Indiana Coach Search: A Mississippi-Based SEC Coach Who Wins? Get To Know Chris Jans

Many Indiana fans have their eyes trained on Mississippi coach Chris Beard, but Mississippi State coach Chris Jans has also never had a losing season.

Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans celebrates after defeating Vanderbilt at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tenn., Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. / Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The state of Mississippi isn’t the first place many would think of when it comes to basketball, but some Indiana fans have their eyes trained on the Magnolia State as far as who they want to become Indiana’s next men’s basketball coach.

The vast majority of Hoosiers fans who look towards Mississippi have their sights trained on Oxford, Miss. That’s the home of Ole Miss and their successful coach, Chris Beard. The veteran coach has the Rebels in a sixth-place tie in the super-competitive Southeastern Conference race.

Beard has never had a losing season as a Division I coach. Moreover, because of his ties to Indiana legend Bob Knight – Beard was on Knight’s staff at Texas Tech in the 2000s – many Indiana fans are attracted to that connection. Beard has a vocal contingent of Hoosiers’ fans on his side.

However, there’s a coach at Mississippi’s other SEC school that also deserves mention.

Chris Jans is the head coach at Mississippi State. His Bulldogs are just a game behind Beard’s Rebels in the SEC race, and the two rival schools have identical 19-7 overall records.

Never heard of Jans? Perhaps it’s time to get to know Mississippi’s other winning coach.

What Makes Jans An Attractive Choice

Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Chris Jans and Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl shake hands before the game as Auburn Tigers take on Mississippi State Bulldogs at Neville Arena in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, March 2, 2024. / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK

Like Beard, Jans has also never had a losing season at the Division I level. Also like Beard, Jans took an unconventional route to becoming a Division I head coach.

An Iowa native, Jans worked primarily in the NAIA and junior college ranks from the 1991 to 2004 – including a NJCAA national championship at Kirkwood Community College in 1998.

He was 35 when he permanently established himself in Division I as an assistant coach at Illinois State. After three seasons there, he got a big break when he was hired to be part of Gregg Marshall’s staff at Wichita State.

Jans was one of the primary assistant coaches as Wichita State rose to a Final Four appearance in 2013 and an unbeaten regular season in 2014.

After one season as head coach at Bowling Green (more on that in a moment), Jans returned to Wichita State in 2015 and was with the Shockers for two more successful seasons.

He returned to head coaching permanently when he took over at New Mexico State in 2017. He had a 122-32 record with the Aggies. That earned him the chance at Mississippi State.

So far, Jans is 61-34 with the Aggies in the rugged SEC. The Aggies have made the NCAA Tournament in each of his two seasons and are on-track to do so again.

Jans has a career record of 204-78, a .723 winning percentage. So what makes him tick?

Jans has always been praised for his work ethic, one of the reasons he’s also lauded for his recruiting success. As for Jans and his on-court philosophy?

“I was raised on defense and rebounding and toughness,” Jans said in an article on hailstate.com when he was introduced as Mississippi State’s coach. “I was raised on an old-school way of basketball.”

“Our style has changed depending on where we coached and who we coached. I think you have to be able to adapt to the players that you have. But at the end of the day, we want to have rebounding and toughness and defense in our back pocket,” Jans added.

Jans has backed up that talk at Mississippi State. In his three seasons, the Bulldogs have not been out of the top 40 in defensive efficiency, according to Kenpom.com. Offensive success has come this season as Mississippi State is ranked 27th in offensive efficiency.

Jans teams don’t generally play a high tempo style. The Bulldogs are ranked 172th by Kenpom in adjusted tempo, the highest one of his teams has been ranked since 2018, and the second-highest in Jans’ career.

What Are Drawbacks With Jans

There is one blot in Jans’ career that set back his development as a head coach.

As mentioned, Jans’ first head coaching job was at Bowling Green during the 2014-15 season. He was 21-12 in his first season at the Mid-American Conference school, the first winning season for the Falcons in six years. Jans was the first Bowling Green coach since Jim Larranaga to have a winning season in his first season at Bowling Green.

Bowling Green took part in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2015. During the tournament, Jans was caught on a cell phone camera engaging in inappropriate behavior toward women in a bar. Jans was fired by Bowling Green with cause for his behavior.

“I’ve owned it,” Jans told the Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch in 2022. “I never ran away from it. It’s a part of who I am. It’ll always be a part of who I am. My charge is to make sure that I’m better coming out the other side.”

Apart from that incident, some fans would question whether success at Mississippi State would equate to similar winning at Indiana.

While Mississippi State has had its moments in the sun – a 1996 Final Four appearance stands out in relatively recent times – it is not a program that has anything like the scrutiny Indiana does.

In fact, Jans more likely had the basketball fishbowl experience at Wichita State more than at Mississippi State. Wichita State does not have a football program, and when the Shockers were on the rise? It was an all-encompassing thing for the school, the city and that fanbase. Wichita State regularly sold out their 10,000-plus arena when Jans was on-staff there.

Being an assistant and a head coach job are two different things. It's fair to wonder whether Jans could handle the fishbowl experience of being Indiana's coach.

Is It Realistic To Expect Jans To Take The Indiana Job?

Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Chris Jans reacts to forward RJ Melendez (22) during the first half against the Florida Gators at Humphrey Coliseum. / Wesley Hale-Imagn Images

In May 2024, Jans signed a contract extension at Mississippi State through the 2028 season. His base salary will rise from $3.2 million to $4.2 million by the end of the contract.

Jans’ salary is similar to Mike Woodson’s compensation, so paying Jans wouldn’t likely be a problem for Indiana.

What’s a more germane question is whether Indiana would have its eyes trained on bigger names. Would the Indiana fanbase accept someone that doesn’t have name recognition? Would Jans be afforded any patience by a fanbase that isn’t world famous for that?

It’s also fair to wonder whether Jans can sustain long-term success at the power conference level. So far, so good, but it’s a small sample size.

Jans probably wouldn’t be Plan A or Plan B for Indiana, but once you get past the big targets, he stands as a legitimate candidate as much as anyone else does. Much like Beard, he’s won everywhere he’s been – he just doesn’t have the name recognition to go with it yet.

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