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.
blow000 He already was a solid 10/10 player in grade school.
The 7 point a game scorer gives up 14 points a game on defense. Sure he comes in and blocks a shot or two, but after he misses a couple of ill advised 18 foot shots, he quits on defense, and mopes around. Freeman at least plays hard on the defensive end all the time. With more paintence on offense, I see freeman being a solid 10pt/10reboumd player.
wulfpacker wolfpack74 Freeman, 55% missed layups, 50% missed free throws, no threes made or attempted (thank god); more TO’s than assists. Tyler Harris 74% free throws made; 29% threes made. I have decided, bring back the transfer.
wolfpack74 wulfpacker Ryan Harrow was playing at a lower D1 program, plus Gottfried wasn’t even on campus a month and he chose to leave. I think Washington could of been good but he like all these kids chose to leave instead of taking a challenge. Rodney Purvis scored 11.6 a game and shot 42 % from field, 36% from 3, and 53% from free throw line. Oh and he averaged more turnovers than assists! Freeman was a three star recruit who classified up a grade. He was playing at Oak Hill. Tyler Harris, 42 % from fg, 28% from 3. Again… Read more »
wulfpacker wolfpack74 You say Washington was terrible on defense. Yet Harrell in the last Louisville game scored 24 points and I don’t remember Washington covering Harrell that night. But if he did, it was for only nine minutes. In the LSU game, the bigs for LSU scored 28 points. Again Washington played 12 minutes. Let’s blame all their points on Washington while he was sitting on the bench. Bullshit on the theory he was worse on defense than the other three guys. The other comparisons came from SBNation not me. I like Abu. Anya needs to keep losing weight. Now… Read more »
wolfpack74 Washington was terrible on defense. So what if he blocked a couple of shots…how many of those blocks did we retain possession? Also Gottfried has no control of Lacey leaving. Trevor sees that his stock will not get any higher so he might as well go ahead and start making money overseas. As for the high Turnover how many of the guys that have transferred out have been great at other places??? Rodney didn’t look good this season. Tyler Harris never looked great. Jayquan Raymond wasn’t an ACC caliber player. Tyler Lewis remains to be seen. Plus you say… Read more »
Let’s see about Freeman. Can’t shot from the floor therefore we play 4 on 5 on the offensive end. Duke used that scheme to blow us away in ACC tournament. Can’t shot free throws, therefore he can’t be on the floor near the end of tight games. With the loss of Kyle (due to the infinite wisdom of the coaching staff), Freeman will get more time to show that intangibles don’t produce baskets and wins. When did his defensive skills ever win us a game. According to SBNation Washington actually was a slightly more efficient scorer than Abu and that was… Read more »
Freeman is one of the harder guys to evaluate on this team due to the fact that he was rarely part of the offense. He was the glue guy, the guy that did the dirty work, the guy that never complained. I would give him an overall rating of B. As stated, he could certainly use more work on the offensive end but I thought he made some progress this season as he added a pump fake and reverse layup to his repertoire. I don’t think that he’ll make any big leaps next season in terms of his offense but… Read more »