Pack’s packin’ for the beach.
Thanksgiving in Hawaii, anyone? NC State will be participating in the Maui Invitational—still the best early-season tournament going—for the first time come 2025.
The Wolfpack will be in Maui with Baylor, Texas, Oregon, Seton Hall, USC, UNLV, and Chaminade. The field could be Chaminade and six teams from the MAC and this would still be exciting news.
This gives us plenty of time to find the proper tacky Hawaiian shirt for the event (though can a red Hawaiian shirt really be all that tacky?) and I’ll also need to line up a buyer on the black market for one of my kidneys in order to afford this trip. The memories will be worth it, I’m sure.
Playing in this tournament will provide a nice bump for State’s non-conference strength of schedule as well, so at least we won’t have to worry about that in 2025-26. Everybody in the field plays three games, which usually means at least two quality opponents. Should be three in State’s case, since the Pack is obviously going to win the tournament.