Mississippi State’s men’s basketball team added two new forwards to the team via the transfer portal this week – one from Washington State and one from Florida State.
Head coach Chris Jans and the Bulldogs got the recruiting ball rolling with the signing of former Cougar ND Okafor Thursday. Okafor previously committed to play at Ole Miss before flipping over to MSU, according to multiple reports. Okafor, a 6-foot-10 junior is a Lagos, Nigeria, native who found his way playing for the Irish National team in 2019 before spending two years in the NBA Academy of Latin America. He started his college career at California in 2022 and missed the majority of the 2023 season due to a leg injury. He transferred to Washington State and came off the bench for the 2024-2025 season and averaged 5.6 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks a game.
Okafor started all 32 games for the Cougs last season and notched 46 blocks with an average of 5.7 rebounds and 11 points per game.
The Bulldogs also landed the commitment of Thomas Bassong on Friday. Bassong, a 6-foot-8 native of Paris, France, joins MSU after spending his freshman season with the Seminoles. He made 17 starts and averaged 5.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and swatted 13 shots.
The two forwards will help fill the void left by Jamarion-Davis Fleming, who transferred to Alabama, and Amier Ali, who left for California.
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