Mississippi State Basketball's Cam Matthews to Return for Next Season

There's been plenty of news surrounding the Mississippi State basketball team over the past few days. On Wednesday, former JUCO-transfer guard Trey Fort entered his name in the transfer portal. Another former JUCO-transfer followed suit on Thursday when forward Jaquan Scott also hit the portal.

But since those departures, it's been nothing but good news for the Bulldogs. Wing Shawn Jones announced on Instagram he was returning for his third season Thursday evening. On Friday, Mississippi State picked up it's first portal addition of the offseason with former Penn State point guard Kanye Clary joining the program.

And then MSU got perhaps the best news of all Friday afternoon when forward Cameron Matthews announced his decision to return to Mississippi State for his fifth and final year of eligibility.

Cam Matthews is coming off his best season at Mississippi State. The 6'7", 230 lb power forward averaged a career-best 9.4 points per game for the Bulldogs on 62% shooting. A true do-it-all player, he finished second on the team in rebounding at 6.8 per game and led State in both assists and steals per game with 2.9 and 2.1 respectively.

Matthews was named to the SEC All-Defensive team in 2024. College basketball insider Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports named him one of the 10 best glue-guys in the sport this season.

It cannot be overstated how critical it was that Mississippi State got Cam Matthews back for his fifth year. He's been one of the most important players on the team over the past two years and will continue to serve as a veteran presence and leader in the locker room with so many key players gone from last season.

He's an outstanding defender and rebounder, can work as a distributor on offense, and this past season showed he's capable of being a legitimate scoring threat in the post.

Chris Jans suddenly has a good core group of players to build around next season between Matthews, Josh Hubbard, and new transfer Kanye Clary. Mississippi State basketball will continue to build out it's roster over these next few weeks.