Production from senior Bulldog

Abdul Ado will be the anchor for the 2020-21 Mississippi State men’s basketball team.

Entering his fourth season with the Bulldogs and one of two seniors on the roster, Ado will be leaned upon heavily for leadership.

MSU head coach Ben Howland said Ado is a winner that has been a great example to the other players in the offseason.

“Abdul has been on threestraight teams to win 20 or more games and have been good teams,” Howland said. “I like Abdul a lot in terms of what he brings to us. You know what we have in him. We have one of the best defending buy guys in the SEC. He was the second-leading shot blocker in conference games last year and number one offensive rebounder in conference games. We expect a big year out of him and a lot of leadership.”

After considering a move to professional basketball, Ado announced in May that he was returning to the Bulldogs for his senior season.

The Lagos, Nigeria native, who played high school basketball at Hamilton Heights in Tennessee, averaged 6.4 rebounds and a career-best 7.8 points during his freshman season with MSU in 2017-18, then scored 4.7 points and pulled down 4.5 boards as a sophomore. He had 5.7 points and 6.7 rebounds per outing last season.

Howland anticipates more production from Ado as a senior.

“He has worked very hard in the offseason,” Howland said. “I think you are going to see an increased role for him offensively and for him most of all being more aggressive.

“In his very first year here, we begged him to shoot and he wouldn’t shoot. He was always programmed to get an offensive rebound and kick it back out. We wanted him to be more of a threat. He is definitely doing that now.”

The Bulldogs look to the start of practice on October 14 after it was announced last week that the season would start on November 25.

Even though MSU lost a great amount of talent and experience from last year’s team that went 20-11, Howland likes the nucleus returning in Ado, D.J. Stewart Jr., Iverson Molinar and Tolu Smith.

“They are the heart and soul of this team,” Howland said.