Guard Diamond Johnson leaves NC State, enters transfer portal

Guard Diamond Johnson is in the transfer portal, making her the third NC State women’s basketball player to leave the program this spring.

Forward Jakia Brown-Turner is transferring to Maryland and center Camille Hobby is going to Illinois. The Wolfpack went 20-12 this past season, losing 64-63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament to Princeton.

Johnson was the leading scorer for NC State (12.3 points per game) but was limited to 22 games because of an ankle injury. She last played Feb. 16, missing the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

Johnson was the sixth-ranked recruit in the ESPN HoopGurlz top 100 for 2020, behind Paige Bueckers (UConn), Angel Reese (LSU), Cameron Brink (Stanford), Caitlin Clark (Iowa) and Kamilla Cardoso (South Carolina).

The 5-foot-5 Johnson, a guard from Philadelphia, played her first season with Rutgers and made the Big Ten’s all-freshmen team. She spent the past two seasons at NC State and was the ACC’s Sixth Player of the Year in 2022, when the Wolfpack made the Elite Eight.

Johnson has two years of eligibility left with the COVID-19 waiver from 2020-21. She is not currently listed in the portal as a graduate transfer, which would make her immediately eligible for next season. Thus, she may need a waiver from the NCAA to play in 2023-24 because she has already transferred once.