What Mississippi State basketball’s Chris Jans said of Arkansas report, contract extension

STARKVILLE — In early April, a report surfaced from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette linking Mississippi State basketball coach Chris Jans to the vacancy at Arkansas.

On Wednesday, for the first time since it was reported he was interviewing for the opening, Jans responded.

“I think all of us know at this point in our lives that we shouldn’t believe everything that we read on social media,” Jans said. “Regardless of the question, that would be my first comment about that. That’s all I’m going to say.”

The Razorbacks were in the midst of replacing Eric Musselman when Jans was linked to the job. However, shortly after the report came out, Arkansas began finalizing a deal to hire former Kentucky coach John Calipari.

Jans is entering his third season at Mississippi State after leading the Bulldogs to back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. He reaffirmed his commitment to MSU on May 20 when he agreed to a contract extension.

The new deal pays Jans an annual salary of $4.2 million. His original salary when he was hired in 2022 was $2.4 million, and it jumped to $3.2 million when he signed an extension last year.

“It feels great to have the support from (MSU president Mark) Keenum and powers to be,” Jans said. “Certainly, athletics director Zac Selmon had a lot to do with it. We’re very, very appreciative of it and excited to be here, to continue to build upon what we’ve started.

“You harken back to when we got here, that’s what we said we were going to do. We were going to make the NCAA tournament and we were going to build teams each and every year with the goal of being a perennial NCAA tournament at-large program. Fortunately, we’ve been able to do that.”

While the extension shows backing from the administration, it comes with increased hopes of success.

“They’re going to expect us to win more,” Jans said.

While MSU has been a fixture in March Madness during Jans’ tenure, the trips have been short. Mississippi State was eliminated in the First Four in 2023 before getting eliminated in the first round this year.

“Early exits are not the plan,” Jans said. “We raised our goals last year as a program for the first time – for me, for any program I’ve been in as a head coach in terms of what the end goal was for our team. We fell short of that. We’ll continue to raise those goals that we have, that we basically keep to ourselves in our locker room.”

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The extension also brings stability for his staff, Jans added, though he’s still searching for a new assistant.

Top assistant James Miller left MSU for Oklahoma State on April 9. With his departure coming in the heat of transfer portal movement, Jans elected to put a search for Miller’s replacement on the back burner.

“The last three weeks, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in vetting guys and having conversations,” Jans said. “We’re getting closer and closer for that to be done.”

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.