‘He’s so smart’: Chris Jans talks about Reed Sheppard’s big night against Mississippi St.

The Mississippi State men’s basketball team saw its five-game SEC winning streak snapped in the cruelest of ways on Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs led Kentucky by as many as 13 points early in the second half but couldn’t survive a second-half onslaught from the Wildcats that was led by UK guard Reed Sheppard.

It was Sheppard’s floater with less than a second to go that gave UK an important 91-89 road win and overshadowed a strong effort from head coach Chris Jans’ team.

Freshman guard Josh Hubbard was sensational for the host Bulldogs, scoring a career-best 34 points in what was ultimately a losing effort. Hubbard hit a deep 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining to tie the game before Sheppard (32 points) ended things on his terms.

Mississippi State still hasn’t defeated UK in Starkville since January 2008.

Afterward, Jans spoke to media members at Humphrey Coliseum to discuss the defeat, which dropped his team to 19-9 overall and 8-7 in league play.

Question about the pace of the game increasing in the second half and Kentucky scoring 56 second-half points.

Yeah, once we hit a couple shots to start the second half I think the lead got to 13, they subbed pretty quickly and got Dillingham and Sheppard in the game. Those two are as dynamic a guards as there are in the country. And they come off the bench. And they just picked their pace up.

They were playing with more pace offensively. They were more determined. We had some breakdowns, giving up angles out front without the ball screens and when the ball screens came, for whatever reason we weren’t as aggressive early in the second half and they got downhill on us and got some lobs behind us and we were disappointed with our coverage there. From like the 16, 15 mark, we shorted up a little bit as the game unfolded, but you’ve got to give them a lot of credit.

We had the game where we wanted it and they flipped the script on us.

Question about the final game sequence with Josh Hubbard’s tying 3-pointer and Reed Sheppard’s winning floater.

Pretty fast and furious. It was a heck of a play by Josh to give us a chance to go to overtime at that point. It’s a scramble situation. And I’ll have to watch the film, but (Sheppard) rose up and unfortunately had a really good angle and I was pretty darn sure that it was going in and it was a heck of a play.

He controlled, for his team, the last minute of the game. He’s so savvy and he’s so smart, it’s like a coach out there on the floor. He was in-bounding the ball, getting it right back. He’s obviously an excellent free throw shooter and put us in some tough positions in having to foul him down the stretch.

Question about using Mississippi State’s ability to recover from a slow start to SEC play being a good sign for MSU’s ability to recover from this loss.

Time will tell. I don’t know. We’ve got a day off tomorrow with the Tuesday game. We’ll see. We’ve got a heck of a schedule to finish.

We had that game where we needed it, but it’s a 40-minute game. And we just didn’t get it done. And it’s like what I’ve been saying all year long to everybody that’ll listen to me, the games are like the season. The game, time runs out. Well, opportunities run out.

And when you have an opportunity to win a game like this on your home floor, you’ve got to get it done and we just didn’t do it at the end of the day.

Question about Mississippi State recovering from being down eight points with less than a minute left to tie the game.

Yeah, we’ve got great leadership on our team. Those guys who we’re talking about, I mean they leave everything on the floor. They’re unbelievable in the huddles, are encouraging all the way down the stretch. There was no give up with them.

They continued to scratch and fight and claw and try to make as many plays as they can and it’s tough for us... Josh’s performance obviously was at a high level with the shots he made. Not only at the end but in the guts of the game. It’s disappointing that it’s all for not.

Question about Josh Hubbard’s composure despite being a freshman.

Yeah, I’ve been saying it all year you guys asked me Monday if we were concerned about Josh’s performance against Kentucky the last time and I said I hadn’t even talked to him. I don’t think there’s a moment he fears and he loves to have the ball in his hands and he’s very confident.

Question about Mississippi State needing to regain momentum ahead of postseason play.

You know, we didn’t talk about the winning streak much. I don’t think I ever brought it up, I don’t think one time. We just really, truly look at each game as its own entity.

And I’ve said this before we treat them like the Super Bowl in terms of how we prepare mentally, physically. So, that doesn’t concern me.

Yeah, you want to win every game. I understand that. Every coach does. Every player does. Every fan does. But we really (don’t) get caught up in that. We just rally got caught up in trying to prepare to win this particular game.

I’m sure by Thursday when we reconvene, we’ll talk about this, we’ll watch film, we’ll learn and grow and then we’ll move on.

This team has shown the ability to do that all year long and by the time we play our next game it’s going to be March and these games are obviously very meaningful and I’m sure when they tip the ball on Saturday they;ll be ready to go.

This story was originally published February 27, 2024 at 11:21 PM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription