NC State lands former Missouri center Mohamed Diarra via NCAA Transfer Portal

NC State has reeled in a big fish via the NCAA Transfer Portal, landing former Missouri center Mohamed Diarra.

On Monday, Diarra announced the exciting news, taking to Twitter to share a graphic of him rocking his new uniform.

93. #COMMITED pic.twitter.com/qnwwgWRqOs

— 93%💙 (@Rvtpi2) April 24, 2023

Diarra (6-foot-10, 215 pounds) has two seasons of eligibility remaining. He played on season for Missouri, averaging 11.8 minutes, 3.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest. He also blocked 15 shots in 25 games, which included six starts (the last four games of the regular season and two contests in the SEC Tournament). Missouri went 25-10 and made the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

After a slow start, Diarra’s production and playing time increased in SEC play, in which Missouri went 11-7. He averaged 15.3 minutes, 4.8 points and 4.6 boards while blocking 11 shots in league-only regular season contests. He also made 4 of 11 threes.

Diarra arrived at Missouri after averaging 17.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore at Garden City Community College. Marquette, Maryland, Pittsburgh and West Virginia were also reportedly interested in Diarra, who was rated the top junior college prospect by at least one service.

The native of Montreuil, France was named the conference’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year as well after blocking 71 shots in 30 games.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.

The Wolfpacker’s Matt Carter contributed to this article.