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.
Terquavion is going to be one of those, ‘always a Wolfpacker’ guys like Julius, and Corch, Scott Woods, and many others that we love so much.
In recent years we’ve seemed to have fewer of those, but maybe we’re seeing a resurgence with T and DJ leading the way.
Those guys add so much to the culture, and probably recruiting as well.
Yes indeed. I had mentioned in another post that I wanted to see him increase his shooting percentage to something more along the lines of what Casey Morsell is getting. He played so well today and had the game that I want him to have every game. Granted, he didn’t have the most points, but if he plays like this every game, I think he can be spectacular.