TAMPA, Fla. – The ACC Tournament is a sensory overload. Overhead lights blaze the polished hardwood. Fans from the 12 conference schools don their respective colors, blending into a rainbow throughout the St. Pete Times Forum. Lines of fans cram the concourse and bathrooms. The smells of carnival food float into the arena. Coaches and players curse as loudly as their lungs can muster.

But one thing always stands out.

The pep bands.

N.C. State’s pep band is accompanying the men’s basketball team in Tampa, Fla., this week at the tournament. Director Paul Garcia said the band rode a bus from Raleigh to its hotel in St. Petersburg, a 30 minute drive from Tampa.

According to Garcia, the pep band knows 39 items – 30 full songs and 9 smaller sections of songs. At any moment, Garcia can tell the pep band which song to be ready to play and seconds later, it’s go time.

“I don’t want the crowd to get bored, and I don’t want to the students to get bored,” Garcia said. “We can play from the 80’s, the 90’s, and the 2000’s. That variety makes it more fun for the students.”

For many of the students in pep band, like percussionist William Buchanan, a senior in nuclear engineering, playing with the group is one way for them to support their school.

“I’ve played music all my life, and it’s the best way I know to support my school,” Buchanan said. “Plus, after classes, it’s really nice to not have to go back to my room. I can go practice music, instead.”

But the pep band is only allowed to travel with the team in tournament play, according to Garcia. When the pep band travels, Buchanan said the students receive a per diem of roughly $30 a day.

Some of the members, like Michael Peace, a senior in animal science, are in both marching band and pep band. Where Peace plays baritone horn for the pep band, he serves as drum major for the marching band. With that said, he said he gets more into pep band because he gets to play music, not conduct it.

“When I’m here, I’m into it because in marching band, I don’t get to play,” he said. “But when we beat Carolina and with all the emotion of the game, you just blow your brains out – trying to make the sound as powerful as possible.”