Bowling Green State University Director of Athletics D. Christopher Kingston has announced the hiring of Chris Jans as the new head men’s basketball coach for the Falcons. Jans becomes the 16th head coach in BGSU men’s basketball history.
"Chris Jans is doing the things that we want to do at BGSU," Kingston said. "He is a championship coach, a championship recruiter and a championship person. He is absolutely the right fit for Falcon men’s basketball. He has the coaching expertise and personality to immediately ignite the players and fan base, as we begin the new era of men’s basketball in the Stroh Center under his leadership. I am excited for Chris and his family to join us in Bowling Green, Ohio."
BGSU will hold a formal press conference on Tuesday, March 25, at 12 p.m. (noon) in the upper concourse of the Stroh Center. The event will be open to the general public.
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"I am privileged and honored to be named the Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Bowling Green State University," commented Jans. "I look forward to competing for Championships in the near future."
Jans brings more than 20 years of college basketball coaching experience to BGSU, including six seasons as a head coach. Jans accumulated a 159-45 head coaching record and won a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Championship at the age of 28.
As part of the coaching staff at Wichita State the last seven seasons, including serving as the Associate Head Coach since 2011-12, Jans has helped guide the Shockers to three straight NCAA appearances and national prominence, including a No. 2 national ranking and a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament this season. This year, Wichita State became the first team in NCAA history to start the season with 35 consecutive victories and finished 35-1.
With Jans on the sidelines, the Shockers have made six straight appearances in postseason play – the NCAA Tournament from 2012-14, the National Invitation Tournament in 2010-11 and the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) in 2009 – and have won two Missouri Valley Conference Regular Season Championships (2011-12, 2013-14) and one Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship (2013-14).
A Final Four appearance in 2012-13 by the Shockers topped a six-year reconstruction at Wichita State during Jans’ tenure under Head Coach Gregg Marshall. En route, WSU defeated Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, La Salle and Ohio State before losing to eventual national champion Louisville in the national semifinal game in Atlanta. The voters in the USA Today Coaches poll rewarded the Shockers with a final No. 4 ranking, their highest final ranking to date.
The reconstruction brought WSU from 11 wins in Jans’ first season in 2007-08 to a then school-record 30 wins in 2012-13 that ended with the Final Four trip, the second for the Shockers, but the first in 48 years.
Jans has seen the Shockers win a record 146 games over the last five years, the richest span in WSU men’s basketball history, while his coaching knowledge has also helped the Shockers earn the reputation as one of the Missouri Valley Conference’s best defensive teams since 2011. Jans’ assistance also helped Gregg Marshall earn the Valley’s Coach of the Year award in each of the last three seasons and receive the 2013-2014 USBWA District VI Coach of the Year and the 2014 Sporting News College Basketball Coach of the Year honors already this season.
Jans assisted the Shockers to the 2012 NCAA Championship Tournament for the first time since 2006, after winning the 2011 NIT Postseason Tournament with a 5-0 record that included a finals trip to Madison Square Garden where WSU defeated Washington State and Alabama.
The 2009-10 team also played in the postseason NIT, received votes in the AP poll and advanced to the MVC Tournament title game, while the 2008-09 team played in the CBI.
Jans came to WSU from Illinois State where he was assistant coach for three seasons under former head coach Porter Moser. Prior to his stint at ISU, Jans led Chipola [Fla.] Junior College to an impressive 32-5 overall record in one season, its first Panhandle Conference Championship in 10 years with an 11-1 record, its first FCCAA State Championship in 16 years and a sixth-place finish at the NJCAA National Tournament.
Prior to Chipola, Jans served two years as the head coach at Howard College in Big Spring, Texas. He guided Howard to an overall record of 29-4 in 2003. The Hawks finished the regular season with a national ranking of No. 15, after climbing as high as No. 2 earlier in the year. In 2002, he led the Hawks to an overall record of 20-10. During the 1998-99 season, he was the head coach at Independence Community College, guiding the Pirates to a 22-10 record and a second-place finish in the Kansas Jayhawk Eastern Division with a 14-4 mark.
Jans received his first head coaching position at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in July of 1996. Inheriting a team that finished 11-20 the season prior to his arrival, the Eagles more-than-doubled their wins total, finishing 25-10, and earning Jans the Region XI Coach of the Year award. Kirkwood won both the conference and regional championship in addition to qualifying for the NJCAA Division II National Tournament, a first for the Kirkwood program. Building off the momentum of his first season, Jans led Kirkwood to another conference and regional championship in his second season before claiming the NJCAA National Championship. Kirkwood finished the season 31-6, while Jans was awarded both the Region XI Coach of the Year and the NJCAA National Coach of the Year awards.
With Illinois State, Jans returned to Division I, an area where he also had experience. From 1999-2001, Jans was an assistant at Idaho where he served two years under head coach David Farrar. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at NCAA Division III Elmhurst College, in Chicago, Ill., in 1992. Following his time in Chicago, he took a similar position at NAIA Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1994, before receiving his first head coaching position at Kirkwood in 1996.
Jans played at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, from 1987-1991, where he was a three-year starter and captained the team his senior year. While there, he helped the team to a 47-25 record while breaking 16 scoring records and two NCAA Division III records for three-point shooting. A 1991 graduate of Loras College, he earned bachelor’s degrees in both marketing and finance.
