New Mexico State has hired Chris Jans to be the new men’s basketball coach. Jans’s last head coaching gig was at Bowling Green, before he was abruptly fired in April of 2015 for harassing women at a bar.
After BGSU fired Jans, he returned to Wichita State as an assistant under head coach Gregg Marshall. New Mexico State had lost Paul Weir earlier in the month to New Mexico.
New Mexico State held a press conference Monday for Jans, and at the end of the coach’s introduction, he talked about his past. (The relevant video is at the 9:53 mark.)
“I had an incident that I’m not very proud of. I made a huge mistake, and I’ve paid for it dearly. As coaches, we talk all the time about consequences and actions, and I failed. I failed that night. And it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing for my family. It was embarrassing for the university. It was embarrassing for the students. It was embarrassing that anyone was a Chris Jans fan. It was embarrassing for college basketball, and I’m not proud of it. But I wasn’t gonna let it define me. I picked myself off the floor with the help of my family and my friends, and I made a decision that I was gonna fight back and claw back, and hopefully get a second chance.
“So, as I said, I’m an example of consequences and actions, but I’m also an example of second chances, and if you learn from mistakes and grow from mistakes, and you understand that you have to do those things once you commit an act like that, people will give you a second chance. I’m a better father. I’m a better husband. I’m a better person. And I’m a better coach now than I was then. I know it. My family knows it. Hopefully all of you will know it in the very near future.”
H/t to Nina