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.
Just curious. When are we going to see our new player Miranda play?
Whose minutes do you give him? I thought he might get some of Ebe’s minutes but Ebe played pretty well against Duke. You want to encourage that, we need Ebe for ~20 minutes a game at for a few weeks. Dusan is supposed to be back by the end of the month I think he had a very narrow opportunity to play this season, unless he turned out to be ‘can’t keep him out of the lineup’ good, which he apparently is not. And he missed his chance. Keatts is fighting for his job, I doubt he’ll risk using an… Read more »
All reasonable conclusions. He seemed like a player that was coming in to play a year and then go to the NBA. I suppose if Keats like what he sees in practice, maybe he’d rotate him in for a few minutes here and a few minutes there. If he utilizes those minutes with real good efficiency and plays outstanding, then you put some fire in Ebe. I liked what I saw from Ebe the last game, but I thought he’d be further along at this point this season. He seems like he’s playing reserved and needs to be more aggressive… Read more »
5.5 seems reasonable. Now we need to prove we can win on the road. After the Duke game, who knows what to expect?
Agree. VT is tough and I believe students are back this weekend so they may have a good crowd.
Ebe and Gantt starters again? I like the energy they brought and also buying some time for DJ to delay foul trouble.
We really need this win and fear we won’t get it. I hope the Duke game wasn’t an aberration. Hope we play with the same intensity, focus and smart basketball that we did in our last win. I know this is just one game, but I do feel this game will tell a lot about the trajectory of our season. While the last game was a statement game, I somehow feel this game is even more so important. Don’t know why I feel that way, just do.
We do need a couple of good road wins and this would be one, so I agree its very important. We bought ourselves a little more wiggle room with the Duke win, but if we don’t take this one on the road we’ll have one less opportunity to do so.