NC State Forward Mohamed Diarra will not be returning to NC State for his final season of eligibility. Rather, he will give 100% of his focus to pursuing his professional career.
Diarra is declaring for the NBA Draft, and will explore that possibility as far as it goes, but the likelihood of him playing professionally in his home country of France are high.
Diarra was a significant player for NC State all season long, averaging 6.3 points and 7.8 rebounds (team high), but his impact in March was tremendous, recording 10+ rebounds in 7 of the Wolfpack’s 10 postseason games, and five of those performances were double-doubles.
Wolfpack fans will always remember the grit and mental toughness that Diarra put on display in the NCAA Tournament, playing game-after-game while fasting for Ramadan.
The Wolfpack’s frontcourt just got a little bit thinner. In the past two weeks, NC State has lost Diarra and Ernest Ross. Ben Middlebrooks is returning, and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield transferred in from Louisville. Dontrez Styles transferred in from Georgetown, and while he is more of a Small Forward, in certain lineups, he could play the Small 4 position. With all that being said, I fully expect NC State to try to find another post player in the Transfer Portal with Diarra’s exodus now official.
With Diarra not returning in 2024, NC State now has 2 scholarships available for next season.
Louisville Transfer Guard Mike James (6’5″/200) has announced his commitment to NC State!
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This past year, James averaged 12.6 points per game (3rd on the team) and 5 rebounds. He’s extremely physical and aggressive, taking 47% of his field goal attempts at the rim (making 46%). As a result, he draws a lot of fouls, ranking 10th in the ACC in Fouls Drawn, and 4th in Free Throw Rate. James made opponents pay this year when they put him on the line, making 81.8% from the charity stripe, which ranked 15th in the ACC.
James shot the ball better as a Redshirt Freshman, than he did this past season. His Effective Field Goal Percentage in 2022-23 was 55.8%, which ranked 19th in the ACC, and his True Shooting Percentage of 59.6% ranked 14th.
News broke about James entering the Transfer Portal back on March 25th, and NC State was quick to reach out. Kevin Keatts and his staff recruited the former 4-star prospect out of high school heavily, but he ultimately chose the Cardinals.
After redshirting his first year in Louisville due to torn achilles, James has been a starter for the Cardinals the past two years.
He does have the ability to knock down a three, making 34.8% for his career.
James has 2 years of eligibility remaining. With James’ commitment, NC State currently has 1 scholarship available for next season.
Bowling Green Transfer Guard Marcus Hill (6’4″/185) confirmed with me that he is currently on a visit at NC State.
Hill averaged 20.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game for the Falcons this season. He earned 1st Team All-MAC honors. Even though he was only at Bowling Green one season, he had one of the best seasons in school history, scoring 698 points, which ranks 5th all-time in program history for a single season.
For his first two years of collegiate ball, Hill played for Southern Union State College (JUCO) in Alabama. In 2022-23, Hill earned 3rd Team NJCAA All-American honors, and ranked as the #32 overall Junior College prospect.
247Sports ranks Hill as a 4-Star Transfer Prospect, and the #78 overall player in the Transfer Portal, and the #11 Shooting Guard.
According to a source, the NC State Coaching Staff is extremely high on Hill, and they are recruiting him as a Point Guard.
What did an ACC Title & Final Four mean to NC State Legend Dennis Smith Jr.? The man who won the ACC Rookie of the Year Award in 2017 gave me a statement.
It means a lot. It means a lot to the university, the state of North Carolina and a lot more to my dad, grandma, and myself. They have been NC State fans since forever, so their excitement level was though the roof when they saw BOTH of our basketball teams shining like that. It was a great feeling!
2017 was Smith Jr.’s only year of College ball, averaging 18.1 points, 6.2 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.9 steals. He earned 2nd Team All-ACC honors, and obviously, he earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team.
DSJ was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks with the 9th overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
Smith Jr. just wrapped up his 7th season in the NBA. This was his 1st season with Brooklyn, playing in 56 games for the Nets. He averaged 6.6 points, 3.6 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, averaging 18.9 minutes per contest.
Henderson was denied sixth year. What has happen to Markell, staying or going?
That’s too bad. Haven’t heard much about Markell lately so maybe that’s a good sign. He’s the starter this season so not sure why he wouldn’t return quite honestly.
Worst case scenario involving losses of Henderson and Markell means that this is our lineup:
PG – Batts
SG – A. Freeman/Newman
SF – Dorn/Kirk
PF – Abu/Hicks
C – Yurt7/Freeman
Like to know if A. Freeman or Newman have enough ball handling to play backup at PG? If Markell stays then we should be solid at PG.
Newman, really? Sounds like Southern conference basketball to me.
Sorry, Colonial Athletic Association basketball.
He’s a good shooter. Just need to get him to a passable level on defense and get him open looks on offense. We can sit him in the corner and have him run baseline to baseline for open looks out of the post or dribble penetration. I don’t see him playing a ton of minutes but 8-10 minutes in an up tempo offense is feasible.
If we look at the 1-3 postions… even if Henderson doesn’t get extra year and we lose Markell, we start a freshman at PG and we have several wings.
Leaving: Smith Jr (PG), Rowan (SG/SF), Henderson (SG)?
Returning: Dorn (SG/SF), Newman (SG), Kirk (SF), Markell (PG)?
New additions: Batts (PG), A. Freeman (SG)
If you look at the roster even if Freeman is not 100% we appear to be ok in the front court.
Bigs leaving: Anya, Kapita
Bigs returning: Yurt7, Freeman, Hicks, Abu
I think Yurt7 made the right move. His freshman season exposed his weaknesses. He needs to work on his strength and physicality. How does he fit into new uptempo offense? This will be a good measure of Keatt’s coaching ability. I want to see how he incorporates a 7 foot center into that offense.
Can we just no show for every game next year?
We’ll just have to play small ball all season. It’s not like we haven’t had to before. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time we had a solid true center (maybe Todd Fuller). Every decent center I can think of the last 10 seasons or more were playing out of position. CJL, Ron Kelly, Hickson, Simmons, Powell, …
Looks like Kapita is signing with an agent. He didn’t even get invited to the combine. Guess he has money troubles or something.
Probably academic problems too.
That’s the part I can’t understand. I mean every one of these kids has access to tutors. It’s practically impossible to fail. And if they are so stupid that they can’t pass freshman classes with tutoring then they shouldn’t be in school in the 1st place.
I agree 100%. Let them go to D league or overseas. Stop the chaos in the college.
Now Kapita is testing the NBA waters. Coach Keatts let’s sign some bigs as insurance. There was a time when kids enjoyed college life. What’s not to like… girls, parties, fame, and playing the game you love. Crazy how so many want to leave after a year when the chances of making it in the NBA are so slim. Obviously statistics classes should be mandatory for FB and BB players.
We need bodies at the 2 & 3 positions so this is good. Hard to beat senior level experience. I’m really interested to see the results of the next season. Gott set the bar low at 4 ACC wins so I would assume Keatts can manage to beat that by at least a game or two.
So you are basically saying that we should not watch NC State basketball next year. I am tired of 4 to 6 wins in the ACC.
If you think change will happen over 1 season I don’t know what to tell you. We can sort of assume that Keatts will be an improvement based on his history with UNCW but I doubt he’s a miracle worker. I’ll judge him fully when he has his own guys. He has to implement his system, change the culture, and bring in guys that can play his style. It will take time.
I have to disagree. His players have never beaten a Power Five school. He must raise his own standard to win in the ACC. I don’t believe he is the right coach for State. I’m also hoping that I am wrong on this.
Well he wasn’t my 1st choice either but what’s done is done. In his defense, he wasn’t exactly recruiting ACC caliber players at UNCW. So to me his recruiting class for next season will be telling. If we can at minimum keep the recruiting at a similar level and up the coaching then that alone will equal more wins. How many more wins? Let’s wait and see.
I ask myself how do I like Keatts compared to the hires of Sendek, Lowe, and Gottfried? And I think the answer for me is that I like him better than all those guys. Is he the one that will lead us to the promised land? We have at least 4 seasons to see.
His players, at the before-he-got-there cellar dwellers, have never beaten a p5 school, though have come close on several occasions, with little talent, means that he is a crappy coach and will do nothing at State. Gotcha. Go pull for another team please. I think a guy that went 262-17 and won 2 National Championships at Hargrave, while having to recruit a new team every year, can get the job done
Hey let’s not act like success at one level guarantees success at another. Plenty of good college coaches have flamed out in the nba and visa versa. The fact is Keatts does not have power 5 head coaching experience so to say he will do this or that is premature. We have him for at least 4 seasons so let’s give him time and pray that he does better than his predecessor.