Mississippi State basketball finalizes staff, adds former Kentucky forward Scott Padgett

STARKVILLE — Mississippi State basketball has its staff assembled for Chris Jans' first season after announcing a series of new hires this weekend.

The Bulldogs still have one scholarship spot remaining for the upcoming season. Mississippi State opens its season Nov. 7 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Humphrey Coliseum.

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Scott Padgett fills new position

Coaches across the nation have hired experts in a new role titled "assistant to the head coach." Scott Padgett will serve in that position for Jans, a source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Clarion Ledger.

The source request anonymity as MSU hasn't made an official announcement. The news was first reported by Stadium's Jeff Goodman.

Padgett was a forward at Kentucky (1994-99), where he played for Rick Pitino and Orlando Smith. He was an All-SEC selection on UK's 1998 championship team but was academically ineligible to play during the 1995-96 championship season, which ended with Kentucky beating a Syracuse team that had beaten MSU in the Final Four.

Padgett was the 28th pick in the 1999 NBA Draft and played for eight years before pursuing coaching.

He spent the 2009-10 season as an assistant under John Calipari before a season at Manhattan. He was an assistant at Samford for two seasons before being promoted to coach for six seasons. He was fired in 2020, served as an assistant at New Mexico for a season and spent last season back at Manhattan.

George Brooks stays

It was reported in March that Jans would hire David Anwar and James Miller as assistants while retaining George Brooks on staff. However, Brooks’ role was unclear,

Brooks will remain an assistant at MSU – a job he has had since Rick Stansbury hired him in 2011. Brooks stayed on staff with Rick Ray for three seasons before spending the past seven seasons with Ben Howland, who was fired in March.

Brooks’ son, Garrison, spent his final season of eligibility at MSU last season before pursuing the NBA.

Operations, scouting and recruiting

Former ETSU assistant Patrice Days is being added as director of recruiting, the source confirmed.

Jovan Austin was named MSU’s director of operations Friday. Austin has spent the past three seasons as an assistant at Texas A&M-Commerce. Prior to that, he was a graduate assistant for Jans at New Mexico State. He also played for Jans at Bowling Green in the 2014-15 season.

Dillon Elder, who was Tarleton State’s director of operations last season, was named director of scouting and analytics.

Joe Rogers was hired as coordinator of operations after spending the past two seasons as a graduate assistant under Tom Crean at Georgia.

Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @skrajisnik3.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State basketball's Chris Jans finalizes 2022-23 staff