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.
Smith and Joiner didn’t do so hot looking at the stats. In Smith’s defense, he did have 10 assists. Glad others stepped up, but we need more consistency along the lines of Morsell and DJ if we want to go really far. Always happy to see both our guards out there because they require so much attention from other teams which opens up other players, so yeah, I get it. But still, I want to see them both explode<<<in a good way.
Ernest Ross had himself a game. Good we won this won. Now onto Virginia. That’s going to be a tough one. Especially since they lost today. Those uniforms… I appreciate what they stood for and support what they stood for but didn’t find them attractive. Anyway, GO PACK!!!
We’ve got 4 games against the ACC’s non-traditional defense teams, ‘Cuse, UVA, and GT. And we have three of them right here together, with only the BC game to break the rhythm. Of those, GT is the least talented, but boy were they tough to beat both times!
With Clemson loss, there are 7 teams with 3 or 4 losses at top of conference, any of them can win the regular season. A win at UVA would huge, and I think its something we are capable of doing.
It feels like the road game at UVA is a must win to take the conference. If somehow though we can finish top 4 I’d be quite happy. Double bye is a huge advantage in the ACCT. It may take holding to only 6 losses.
That was a lot tougher than expected, but its ACC ball and the team who has nothing to lose can be a tough out. Give GT a lot of credit, their defense was excellent. It was an interesting matchup and Pastner was playing the odds and it was working. Ross was great, and yet there was a late stretch where, for the first time, I felt like we needed the skillset of Jack Clark to keep the 5th defender honest. Great job by KK to put Ebe in at the end to help hold the lead. I’ll take it, and… Read more »