Mississippi State Basketball: 7 candidates to replace Ben Howland as head coach

Chris Jans

The first coach on our list is a young wizard whose season came to an unfortunate end on Thursday. This next coach is not familiar with that struggle, seeing as his team pulled off an opening-round upset victory, making his spotlight even brighter this time of year.

Jans was a successful junior college head coach who served on a number of D1 coaching staffs, including time under Porter Moser at Illinois State and Gregg Marshall at Wichita State. He had a solid year at Bowling Green and has now put together five phenomenal seasons as head coach at New Mexico State. In addition to four WAC titles, he can now boast this year’s opening round NCAA Tournament upset victory over 5-seed Connecticut, the program’s first Tourney win in 29 years.

If these last few seasons are any indication, Jans is ready for the next step up. Now, the jump from WAC to SEC is certainly extreme, but he’s been around programs at all different levels. He’s built several successful programs and has learned from a few of the bright minds of the game. He could bring a certain energy back to Mississippi State, and there are already rumors of the Bulldogs being interested in his services.