Chris Jans Describes Huddle Before Go-Ahead Alley-Oop

The Mississippi State men's basketball team allowed the Murray State Racers to storm all the way back from a 19-point deficit and even take the lead late in the game on Wednesday night. The Bulldogs took a timeout down 81-80 with 37 seconds remaining, hoping to draw out a methodical play to regain the lead.

However, Mississippi State ran a very quick play that had guard Dashawn Davis lob it up to forward Cameron Matthews, who slammed it home to take the lead with 28 seconds remaining. This exclamation and momentum shifter created enough pressure for Murray State to force up a contested shot that didn't fall through the net with a full 12 seconds to go. Two sets of free throws later (another missed shot by Murray State), the Bulldogs escaped with an 85-81 victory.

Mississippi State head coach Chris Jans explained the risky decision to go for a quick alley-oop during the postgame press conference.

"Certainly, at that point of the game a lot of people have suggestions and I'm glad they do, but (associate head coach) James Miller suggested we run that play and I gravitated toward it right away," Jans said. "It's a play that we run a ton and it's always been in our 'library.' I don't think I've ever ran it when you're down one with under a minute to play. I've run it in tough situations before, but never quite like that."

Jans understood that "hundreds of people would be questioning" him if the play didn't work, but that wasn't in his thought process during the timeout huddle.

"One of the reasons it made sense is we had run that set a little bit earlier when Josh (Hubbard) made the three," Jans said. "It was basically in that same 'family,' it was set up nicely and fortunately they executed it well.

Jans admitted that he was worried that his team would "celebrate too long" and not "get back to defend" after the play worked to perfection, but that obviously wouldn't be the case.