The Mississippi State University men’s basketball team won their season opener at home against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Monday night.
The game marked the official start of the Chris Jans era at Mississippi State. The Bulldogs started off slow and played from behind for most of the first half. However, MSU showed what they can do in the second half and pulled away from the Islanders. 
After his first win in Starkville, Jans gave his thoughts on MSU’s performance throughout the game.
“We didn’t get out the gates very well, and obviously, we settled down in the second half,” Jans said. “But, I’m glad we won, and I feel good about it.”
Jans attributed the slow start to a mix of factors. Along with nerves, conditioning and a new system, Jans said that he didn’t help the guys much to prevent the slow start. He said he should’ve expected the team to come out slow considering it was the first game of the season.
The Bulldogs’ win was fueled by an outstanding game from senior forward Tolu Smith. Smith scored 19 points and was a force on the glass with 11 rebounds en route to a double-double. The only other Bulldog to score in the double digits was junior guard Shakeel Moore.
In the postgame presser, Smith described his emotions after a big first win to open the 2022-2023 season.
“I’m very excited. We got a win, won by 19 and we didn’t even play good, so I feel like our ceiling’s high. Like Coach Jans said, we got a high ceiling. We got to tighten some things up,” Smith said.
Despite the win, the Bulldogs know they have much to improve on. The glaring area of improvement is three-point shooting. Jans’ team shot 6-25 from behind the arc in the opener. If MSU can become more a more efficient team from three, the Bulldogs could be a force to be reckoned with. 
D.J. Jeffries also showed out in the opener – scoring all seven of his points in the game early in the second half. Jans said they ran a play for Jeffries to start the second half to get him going. He scored seven of the Bulldogs’ first nine points in the final period to help give the Bulldogs the lead.
On the defensive end, Cameron Matthews posted five blocks and three steals. If the Bulldogs can get this type of defensive contribution from Matthews consistently, he could be a huge contribution to their potential success.
Next up on the young schedule, MSU travels to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to take on the University of Akron in the Barstool Sports Invitational on Friday. The game tips off at 7 p.m. as the Bulldogs look to improve to 2-0 on the season.