The days with Sidney Lowe and the RBC Center are history.  PNC Arena is louder this year than the RBC Center ever was. The rebranding of the arena marks the beginning of a new era. 

During the first half of the N.C. State vs. North Carolina game, Dan Shulman, a commentator for ESPN, said, “If anyone would’ve blown a whistle, we wouldn’t have heard it.” CBS basketball insider Jeff Goodman tweeted that the overall atmosphere in the PNC Arena was “top-10 for sure.”  

The group behind the madness is the new and improved student section, led by the Hype Team. Created this year, the group helped conquer national powerhouse Duke and State’s good ol’ rival UNC.

You’ve seen them before.  They are the ones in the red, “Pack Power” windbreakers, striving to make the N.C. State student section a definite top-10.  They hand out the giant heads to the student section, make sure everyone stays safe and create the loudest possible environment. 

“There are 10 of us total right now,” Zach McGee said, a junior in agricultural business management and Hype Team member. “There are five to six of us per game for the coordination of the student section.”

“It all started with Rickey [Smith]; he was the original hype man,” McGee said. “A few of us, including myself, were a few of the loudest students that showed up at all of the games. And Carrie Althoff, a student in charge of the NCSU Student Athletics Commission, decided to make us all a team.”

N.C. State has only lost one home game this season, differing greatly from the previous year. 

“The status of our basketball team has definitely increased the student section’s population,” McGee said. “I cannot recall any university that has all four sides of the court covered in students, rather than the usual two sidelines.”

“Coordination of the student section has been one of the keys in the close home games,” McGee said. “The other key in these games is the status of the team of course.”

The amount of celebrity, in the form of giant heads provided by the student section, can hardly be matched by the Oscars. From a young Steve Urkel to “He Who Must not be Named” himself, the giant heads get the crowd going.

“The gigantic C.J. Leslie is definitely the student favorite,” McGee said. “Word on the street is that there’s another player to accompany C.J. shortly.”

Anyone interested in joining the Hype Team should contact Carrie Althoff or the N.C. State Student Athletics Commission.