Six months ago, it was announced that NC State’s Men’s Basketball team would be playing in the 2025 Maui Invitational. At the time of the announcement, NC State, Oregon, Seton Hall, Texas, UNLV, USC, Baylor and Chaminade were listed as being in the prestigious tournament. Today it was announced that Arizona State and Washington State have been added to the field, and the field is officially set.

The 42nd Maui Invitational will be played in the Lahaina Civic Center on November 24-26, 2025.

This will be the Wolfpack’s first time ever playing in the Maui Invitational.

Senior Guard Jayden Taylor met with the media after NC State’s 79-75 Exhibition win over Lees-McRae on Wednesday night. Taylor led the Wolfpack with 12 points and 5 assists. You can watch the video ABOVE and read the transcript BELOW.

What’s Coach Keatts’ message after that one?

We know that that wasn’t who we were in the second half. It was just our last rehearsal for the season, so just keep our heads high and come in on Monday and the real thing starts.

What’s your message to these guys as you look back on tonight, your takeaways and what you say to them moving forward as you get ready for the real thing now?

I say we just got to come out and play better in the second half.

The first half we played pretty well, defended well. Second half, they shot high. Those are percentages.

We want to take that away and be disruptive. Second half, we just didn’t have that tonight.

What do you think contributed to the second half struggles?

I think it was just like Coach Keatts said, it’s our last rehearsal, so it’s just, this is a new group.

We haven’t played together very much. I say that’s what it is, really. We just haven’t played together very much, so we just got to kind of find that chemistry, and then we’ll get rolling.

It seemed like there were some struggles in the transition defense for the most part. Do you feel like that was just breakdowns, or is that something that’s just communication.

Honestly, communication and effort. We just got to get back and talk and tell people where we are, and the guys got to hustle back.

Last season, I think there was a tight exhibition game as well. Can you draw from that experience?

Last year, I think we won by 10. So, I mean, like, it’s our last dress rehearsal. We got a real game on Monday.

We’ll be ready on Monday.

How do you think the team responded? You were going from those big leads, to them trimming it down in the second half, not coming with the sense of urgency in the second half.

I think we responded well.

Obviously, we got to be better. If we don’t allow, myself included, I missed two of them right there. But I think we responded pretty well for the most part, just kind of keeping our heads high, because that is kind of, when you see a lead, you crumble like that.

So, I think we kept our composure, and we ended up taking that. It would have been worse if we obviously lost. So, at least we were able to hang on and win.

Now, we just got to go back to the drawing board and get better.

Obviously, you want to win by a larger margin, but I feel like there’s some lessons that you can take away from this as well?

I say you can’t really come in here in a basketball game and take anybody for granted. Any given night, anybody can beat you. So, I say that’s what it is, honestly.

Just coming in every night and knowing it doesn’t matter who the school is at. They want to win.

How do you think the team will go from each game last year, you all hunting the teams, to you all being hunted this year? 

I mean, that’s kind of what you want. I mean, pressure is a privilege. That’s what I say.

I like to say teams want to beat us because of what we did last season. That just gives us more motivation. So, I mean, we don’t really think about it too much.

At the end of the day, we’re going to come in and be NC State. Tonight in that second half, that wasn’t who we were. And we know that.

So, we’ll be better.

What did you learn from having to play in a tough game?

I expect it like that. I mean, it shows you who guys really are.

So guys have to step up. You’ve got to be composed, like I was saying. It does hurt to see a lead like that crumble.

But it tests you. And we needed that test, honestly. So, obviously, it would be worse to come out with a loss.

I’m just happy we won.

You guys were in here for a little bit before we got to come in. Was there anything special said?

No, I wouldn’t say that.

I just talked amongst the locker room. Obviously, we weren’t happy with the second half. So, we were just talking about it and seeing how we could fix it and be better.

What was the kind of takeaway you guys had?

We just got to come out in the second half and play better. Just be more together. We didn’t play together in that second half.

So, just be together. And, obviously, everything will come together.

Does it simply just take time for players to know roles and expectations?

Yeah, I think it takes a while.

Obviously, it’s our last practice. We play on Monday. That’s when it really starts.

So, I say, yeah, it’s going to take some time for everybody to come together.

Freshman Guard Bryce Heard met with the media after NC State’s 79-75 win over Lees-McRae in their Exhibition Game on Wednesday night. Heard had 7 points and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes of play, shooting a perfect 3 of 3 from the field, and 1-1 from three. You can watch the video ABOVE, and read the transcript BELOW.

Bryce, first of all for you, your first real action tonight. Well, I guess, not real, real action, but your first chance to step out there on PNC and actually get some time, what was it like for you, man?

It was good, seeing all the fans, seeing a couple of my family members in the crowd, it was good seeing that. It was good to get back to playing real basketball, it was fun.

How much family did you have in town?

My dad was there.

As far as your offseason’s been concerned, for your growth and things along those lines, I think a lot of people kind of expected, ‘hey, coming in, maybe you’d have some time to learn,’ but what have you seen from yourself as far as growth is concerned in this system?

Just how fast I can learn, hopping in here real quickly.

Some of the guys are ahead of me because they were here for the summer session, so you’ve just got to believe in yourself and grow as fast as I can.

And as far as the team is concerned, obviously for you guys, a lot to still work on after this game, but what did you take away from tonight?

That we’ve just got to bounce back. Every game isn’t going to be perfect, so we’ve just got to keep believing in ourselves, and this wasn’t a real game, so I’m not too worried about this.

You know, we’ll bounce back Monday.

You guys get a chance to raise two banners on Monday night. You weren’t a part of that team last year, but how much did that kind of make you interested in this program last year too?

Yeah, for sure.

That run was crazy to see. I don’t think these guys really understand how big an impact it was. They were going crazy in Chicago.

It’s definitely cool to be a part of this, getting to see it in person, the banners, so it’s good to be a part of it.

And as far as your game, what types of things are you still trying to work on as you head into the season to keep improving?

Yeah, man, just keep getting better every day, keep listening, keep working on my ball handling, shooting, just keep working on stuff like that, just keep listening, so that’s the biggest thing I take away.

How did things work well for you guys in the first half when y’all jumped them out of there?

We were moving the ball a lot. We were just getting out in transition a little bit more than we did in the second half, so I think we just keep going off of that, and we’ll build on that for sure.

In the converse of the second half, they closed the game. Are those the things you didn’t do?

Yeah, I think we just didn’t pressure as much as we should have, so I just think we’ll just pick it up from that and listen to what the coach has to say about that.

Last night NC State squeaked out a 79-75 victory over Lees-McRae in their lone exhibition game of the 2024-25 Men’s Basketball season. The Wolfpack was without Junior Mike James (Louisville Transfer) and Sophomore Dennis Parker Jr. NC State Head Coach Kevin Keatts gave an update on the status of both players after the game in his postgame press conference.

So Dennis has had a string of bad luck. Before the scrimmage, he turned his ankle. He was practicing his way back.

He’s playing well. He turned his other ankle. So I don’t know.

I don’t know if we got to switch his shoes or whatever.

Mike’s going to be out for about three or four games, maybe, hopefully. I don’t know.

He had to get his knee scoped. Nothing major, but, you know, I don’t know. I would expect him to be out maybe the next two or three weeks, could even creep up to four weeks.

Parker Jr. has sprained both of his ankles recently. While the severity of the most recent sprain was not given, it’s a good sign that the injury is relatively minor.

James on the other hand had his knee scoped, and according to Keatts, he could possibly miss 3 or 4 games. A few sentences later, he said he could miss 2-3 weeks, and possibly 4.

If James missed 2 weeks, he would miss 3 games. If he missed 3 weeks, he would miss 5 games. If he missed 4 weeks, he would miss 7 games.

In a perfect world, James would be back before NC State heads out to California to play in the Rady Children’s Invitational where they will play #14 Purdue, in a rematch of the Final Four. The next day, they will play either #24 Ole Miss or BYU.

Last night, Marcus Hill started for the Wolfpack, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a healthy James would start over him.