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.
We stomp VT and the Tigers absolutely maul us. Wow. Not sure what happened. Did we spend all our point on VT? All kidding aside, that game was embarrassing. While I’m good with the season we had, I do not see us going much further than one win into the NCAA Tournament. Just don’t see it. We don’t have the “it” factor. Still, a highly entertaining team to watch and I’ve enjoyed watching them play.
Clemson is just a bad matchup for us. We are a bad matchup for VT. KK needs to figure out a solution to that but it doesn’t mean we don’t have a good team. There aren’t many teams that can replicate what Clemson does.
These tough matchups, Clemson and UVA, would be much easier if we had Dusan, who could get physical in the paint but also get out on sharp shooting centers.
I don’t think we’re a bad team. It just feels as if we lack the killer instinct or ability to dig ourselves out of difficult situations. Granted, we’re 23-10 so we’re good. I just don’t think we have the “it”.
Turnovers kill any chance. Hall reminds me of Gugliotta.
Clemson, as much as I hate them right now, deserves to be in the NCAAT.
UNC goes down, so there’s that. UVA’s defense was scary good.
Other teams that could push us down have generally been losing, so now I think we are safe with a 10 seed at worst, and almost no chance of having to do the play in game.
Ok. We stomped VaTech and surely we are in. But, after all the wonderful improvements, wildly entertaining basketball, and way exceeding my preseason expectations…….Clemson beat us TWICE. I want revenge. In my heart I know, these State guys have a lot of rightly justified pride. Therefore, Beat f*****g Clemson! Don’t do it for me. Don’t do it for the fans. Do it for yourselves! Oh sorry guys. Sometimes the pressure just gets to me and The Reverend starts to preach. Anybody, Give me an AMEN!
Amen Rev!
I think we are solidly in, but there is still some risk of dropping to 11 seed and the dreaded play in game. Providence and Pitt both lost so the helps a bit.