NC State’s Jayden Taylor brings ‘killer’ mindset, leadership skills into final collegiate season

CHARLOTTE — You might find NC State senior guard Jayden Taylor looking at his phone with a large smile on his face from time to time. If you see his screen, it isn’t the latest Tik Tok trend that brings joy to the former Butler transfer. Videos on his phone from last season’s ACC Championship and Final Four run do the trick.  And when he’s not looking at those, which he admitted is often, Taylor is reminded of what he helped accomplish each time he goes to the Dail Basketball Center. The Wolfpack’s championship and the ensuing run that followed is plastered all over the facility, from the entryway to the elevator outside the team’s locker room.  For Taylor, it’s an opportunity to reflect. But it’s also fuel to his fire.  “It gives me butterflies,” Taylor said at ACC Tipoff on Wednesday. “I tingle looking at some videos and pictures. It means a lot to me.” Now, in his final collegiate basketball season, Taylor is ready to build off what he and the Pack did a year ago. The team was counted out going into the ACC Tournament as the No. 10 seed and it ran the table to reach college basketball’s final weekend and Taylor was a key cog in that system.  As he prepares for one last go-around in Raleigh, Taylor didn’t want to leave what he helped build in his first season with the Wolfpack. He’s ready to help the team take another step forward with a rejuvenated basketball program.  “I want to come in and finish with the guys that I did the most special thing in the world with,” Taylor said. “That was the most surreal thing that I’ve been a part of, so I wanted to do it again or even more with my guys.” Taylor is set on doing that by using a newfound mentality, while also taking more of a vocal leadership role on the team for the first time in his basketball career.