NC State’s Mohamed Diarra makes his presence felt in Wolfpack debut

Shortly after NC State forward Mohamed Diarra walked into the locker room following the Wolfpack’s 72-59 season-opening win over The Citadel on Monday night at PNC Arena, he sat at his locker and thought about last season. 

A year ago, he was at Missouri after being the No. 1 junior college recruit. While he was on an NCAA Tournament team with the Tigers, Diarra averaged just 3.2 points and 3.3 rebounds a night. That was after he averaged a double-double — 17.8 points and 12.6 rebounds — a night at Garden City Community College the previous season. 

Diarra was not happy with his showing with the Tigers last season, and he arrived at NC State with a fire burning underneath him — he was determined to improve. 

“Last year was not a good year for me,” Diarra said. “I’m taking this year personally. I’ve got to show some people I can play at this level.”

Well, if his showing in the Wolfpack’s win over the Bulldogs is foreshadowing the rest of the season, then Diarra is well on his way of proving himself in the ACC. He posted 10 points with 14 rebounds for his first-career Division I double-double. 

Not only was Diarra able to get into the paint to put a shot up, the 6-foot-10 forward was able to knock down a pair of 3-pointers to show his improved shot. 

One of those triples? Yeah, it came after he was limping down the court with a cramp in his leg. He asked for a substitution seconds before, but he found himself open at the top of the key. That lower body pain did not seem to affect Diarra as he drained the 3-pointer with ease. 

The Mountreuil, France, native laughed it off afterwards with a simple response: he is going to shoot when he has the chance. 

“I’ve got confidence in my shot,” Diarra said. “I’ve worked all summer. When I’ve got the ball in my hands, and I’m open, I’m going to shoot every shot.”

On a night where NC State’s 3-point shooting had a rough start as a team, Diarra was not excluded from that. Though he finished 2-for-6 from beyond the arc, he was not afraid to let his shot fly. 

And that’s what his teammates like to see from the big man. 

“He wants to shoot that thing, man,” point guard DJ Horne said of Diarra. “That’s what he does in practice, so we tell him to shoot it. Today, they were going in. … A double-double is a double-double, no matter who it’s against.”

Horne was not the only one that was glad to see Diarra shoot the ball well. Fellow Wolfpack forward DJ Burns said he was “very proud” of Diarra’s double-double. 

But he noted that Diarra did not need to see the ball to go through the hoop. Diarra is a poised player, and the season opener was just his night.

“I don’t think he needs a confidence boost,” Burns said. “He knows he’s good. That’s one guy who’s going to give it his all every time, so I think that’s a great way to get going.”

While Diarra was a presence in scoring the basketball, which was just his second Division I game in double figures, he was equally as impressive on the defensive end. 

Diarra paced NC State with 14 rebounds, the most of any player in his Wolfpack debut under coach Kevin Keatts, and 12 of them came on the defensive glass. By halftime, he had seven boards, and Keatts wanted him to double it. As it turned out, that is what he did.

“Mo was good,” Keatts said. “I challenged him at halftime, he had seven rebounds, and I was like ‘Can you get 14?’ It never works as soon as I say something about it, they never get it, and he ended up with 14 rebounds.”

Not only did Diarra clean up the glass, he used his frame to his advantage with three blocks, including two on what appeared to be easy layups. He swatted the ball off the glass to deny the Bulldogs of four points at the rim in the second half.

That is the aggression that Diarra wants to play with all season. 

“No easy baskets,” Diarra said. “I love playing basketball, but it’s a grown man’s basketball. No easy basket, and I’m 6-10, so I’m going to show who I am on defense. If I can block on defense, that’s cool.”

While it is just one game against a mid-major opponent, Diarra’s NC State career started on the right foot in front of 12,488 Wolfpack fans in Raleigh. He has come a long way in under a year’s time to improve his shot. 

As he sat at his locker, Diarra reflected on last season at Mizzou, and he smiled as he compared it to his first game with the Wolfpack. 

“I’m proud of me,” Diarra said. “I’m proud of me because that’s who I am. I can get 14 rebounds every night, and make my shot. If I’m confident in defense and rebounding, the offense will come.”

In his NC State debut, the offense came, and it helped propel the Wolfpack to its first win of the season.