How music has helped NC State during its NCAA Tournament run

PITTSBURGH — As NC State’s bus made the half-mile ride from Capital One Arena to The Westin in Northwest Washington, D.C., a black portable speaker near walk-on guard Jordan Snell began to play gospel music. 

It was ahead of the Pack’s ACC tournament second round game against Syracuse, and the Wolfpack tried something new. They knew their season was on the line in the conference tournament after escaping 15-seed Louisville the night before, and the gospel music seemed to work. 

The Pack was loose the rest of the day, and it ended in an 18-point win over the Orange — the team that beat NC State handedly twice in the regular season. Ever since, the mellow gospel has become a game day routine for the red and white. 

NC State has won five games since the gospel music was played on the ride back from pregame shoot around, which sets up an NCAA Tournament second round matchup with 14-seed Oakland on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena. 

“Everybody gets into it,” Snell said. “It helps us play looser, I think.”

While the gospel music was a new spin on the Wolfpack’s speaker, it wasn’t the first time NC State had it on the bus. The Pack acquired the large speaker from graduate guard DJ Horne, who brought it after the red and white saw Pittsburgh use it at PNC Arena. 

NC State was looking to turn its season around, and a new vibe was an attempt to do that. The speaker made its season debut ahead of the Wolfpack’s game at Clemson in mid-February. Well, the Pack surged back to win that one in the final seconds, 78-77. 

After that, it was a keeper. 

The routine is a simple one. Wherever the Pack goes on game day, the speaker accompanies the team. It starts on the bus ride to the arena and continues once the team parks. Snell, a rarely deployed walk-on, is the one in charge of carrying it. Horne handed it to him at Clemson, and that duty has remained the rest of the way. 

Once inside the locker room, the music continues to bump. And when it’s time to go on the floor for warmups? A student manager carries it through the hallways as the team gets its last jolt of tunes before putting shots up in full uniform less than an hour before the game. 

The speaker has filled a void that the Wolfpack was missing, multiple players thought. 

“I feel like in some games we lacked energy when there weren’t a ton of people there,” Snell said. “It was an easy way to get us all hyped up for the game. … We all just started playing songs everybody knows and now it’s injecting energy into everybody.”

“I think the music, it really gave us the last little bit of energy that we were missing,” graduate forward DJ Burns said. “Basketball can get kind of repetitive when you’re practicing day in and day out. I think music is the component that allows us to be able to switch it up.”

While gospel music remains a tradition on the way back from shoot around, the rest of the time, the aux cord is left for the team to decide. Though there are plenty of qualified candidates to pick the playlist, there’s only a small group that gets to be the one on it: junior guard Breon Pass, Burns and Horne. 

The music varies too. NBA Youngboy is a constant, while Future and BossMan Dlow are other common artists that blare as NC State prepares. 

But there are some artists that are vetoed by the Wolfpack — just ask Burns about that. 

“With this team, I can’t play what I like,” Burns said with a smirk. “I have to play what we like, which limits my songs by a couple hundred songs.”

That means he can’t play G Herbo, his favorite rapper. Old Lil Wayne songs are also off the table, too. Both are key parts of the Pack’s big man’s playlist that are barred from coming through the speaker. 

“I never understood that,” Burns said.

Though there are some restrictions on the music, NC State has been able to bond through the different artists through the new tradition. It has allowed the Wolfpack to grow closer together, which has helped both on and off the floor. 

“I think that music has been a bonding point for us,” Burns said. “Just vibing it out. … We’re always jamming, so I think having that rhythm gets you in a rhythm yourself.”

Music is a big part of Horne’s daily routine. If he isn’t playing basketball, there’s a good chance he’s back in his apartment — or hotel room on the road — listening to something in his headphones. 

Adding the speaker to the team’s activities has been impactful, Horne thought. 

“I think it definitely helps, just because that’s something that we do off the court a lot,” Horne said. “It’s something that we do to come together, so to do that right before the game, I think it’s a good way to make the chemistry and everything click before going out there.”

In all, NC State will have played seven games in 11 days when it takes the court against the Golden Grizzlies with a trip to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 on the line. The music has served as an outlet for the Wolfpack, and it has seemed to be an effective tool. 

But for Pass, one of the few players that gets to pick what plays, it has helped the Pack embrace what they have together. 

“It’s good to take our minds off of basketball sometimes and just vibe out to music,” Pass said. “It’s not all about basketball, we’re humans at the end of the day too. We’re just trying to enjoy these moments that we have now.”