As faculty basketball gamers head to NCAA Match arenas on their staff buses, many will slip on headphones, zone out to a tune and soak up the vibes. Coaches additionally generally take a small second from poring over last-minute scouting experiences to flee to a melody filtering by means of their airpods.
These soundtracks, maybe subconsciously, serve an goal, too. Music can settle our nerves — or pump us up. A particular banger can present a dose of confidence. A sentimental tune may remind us of our grand goal. “Music is the shorthand of emotion,” Leo Tolstoy as soon as wrote.
In order March Insanity will get underway, The Athletic puzzled what these tournament-bound stars will probably be listening to earlier than they compete in a few of the most necessary video games of their lives. We requested girls’s and males’s event gamers and coaches to share their pre-game playlists. Gamers’ tastes ranged from Nicki Minaj to Veeze to even Elvis Presley. Coaches ranged from Gospel to AC/DC.
You received’t obtain the identical leap shot as these athletes by listening to their hype music, however these playlists will get you prepared (out of your sofa) for tip-off.
Ladies’s NCAA Match gamers’ mixtapes
JuJu Watkins
Guard | No. 1 USC
The brightest freshman in girls’s basketball, Watkins has taken the Trojans to new heights this season. The Los Angeles native, who ranks second nationally with 27 factors per sport, listens largely to hip-hop earlier than video games. However she at all times performs a tune from “The Incredibles” soundtrack — one that would double for USC’s 2023-24 theme tune: “Life’s Unimaginable Once more.” It positive is in Los Angeles.
“I at all times play this earlier than a sport,” she says, “as a result of I really like The Incredibles and it hypes me up.”
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Guard | No. 3 LSU
Query: Who do you hearken to earlier than video games?
Flau’jae Johnson: Myself.
Now that’s baller. The athlete-rapper signed a distribution take care of Jay-Z’s Roc Nation report label, so why wouldn’t she vibe to her personal lyrics earlier than video games? Maybe she’ll create a mashup of “One Shining Second” along with her tune “My Second” if the Tigers repeat as nationwide champions.
“I’m not making an attempt to be like a pluggy, promote-y sort of particular person, however they’re all my songs,” Johnson says. “I hearken to me earlier than video games. I make actually motivating, uplifting music. Once I hearken to my songs, it makes me really feel like I can do something.”
Paige Bueckers
Guard | No. 3 UConn
Bueckers is making an attempt to advance to a 3rd Last 4 in her 4 seasons with the Huskies. Averaging 21.3 factors whereas capturing almost 54 %, she’s having fun with a productive — and wholesome — season. Her playlist is compiled to encourage, loaded with Gospel and fashionable hip-hop. Bueckers typically performs Marvin Sapp’s “Thank You For It All.”
“This can be a nice Gospel tune,” she says. “It helps me discover my peace and gratitude earlier than video games.”
Ahead | No. 5 Utah
Pili, a 6-foot-2 ahead, has Utah again within the NCAA Match for a 3rd straight season. One of many nation’s finest – and most unusual – submit gamers, who averages 20.8 factors per sport whereas capturing 55 %, she enjoys largely hip-hop (from the early 2000s to now) earlier than video games.
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Her favourite pre-game tune is “Up All Evening,” by Drake (that includes Nicki Minaj). “It will get me hyped,” Pili says, calling the 2010 hip-hop single “old-school.”
Guard | No. 4 Virginia Tech
Amoore, a senior from Australia, averages 19.2 factors and 6.9 assists per sport. She’s making an attempt to guide the Hokies again to the Last 4. A spunky guard on the courtroom, it’s no surprise Amoore seeks songs that gas her power.
Her go-to pre-game tune ”By no means Lose Me” by Flo Milli builds her confidence. “I’m making an attempt to get in my temper,” Amoore says. “Like, I’m that lady.” She likes Rihanna’s
“Love the Approach You Lie” to faucet into just a little aggression. “I really like feeling heartbroken,” she says, “so I’m gonna come out with my fists balled up.”
Ladies’s NCAA Match coaches’ mixtapes
These coaches have fairly a bit of non-public nostalgia sprinkled all through their playlists.
LSU’s Kim Mulkey contains Brooks Jefferson’s “Callin’ Baton Rouge.” A local of tiny Tickfaw, La., the previous four-time highschool state champion clearly loves being reminded of her roots earlier than main the Tigers onto the courtroom. She additionally listens to Mel McDaniel’s “Louisiana Saturday Evening,” the Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn duet “Louisiana Lady, Mississippi Man,” and New Orleans legend Fat Domino’s “Blueberry Hill.”
As Mulkey places it: “I’m a small-town Louisiana lady.”
Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s playlist is crammed with South African Amapiano music and West African Afrobeat artists because the rhythms remind her of comparable music from her childhood. McPhee-McCuin was born and raised in Freeport, Bahamas, earlier than she got here to the U.S. for faculty. “I’m an island lady, so I like something that has an incredible Caribbean really feel.” The seventh-seeded Rebels need to pull off some upsets like they did final season to advance to the Candy 16.
Veteran coach Vic Schaefer led Texas to a Large 12 title and is aiming to win the top-seeded Longhorns’ first nationwide title since 1986. Somewhat piece of his coronary heart appears to nonetheless be tied to Mississippi State, the place he coached for eight seasons earlier than shifting to Austin. A favourite pre-game pay attention is Johnny Money’s “Starkville Metropolis Jail.”
Males’s NCAA Match gamers’ mixtapes
Wing | No. 1 North Carolina
You want strengths at a number of positions to win an NCAA Match, and Ingram’s playlist is akin to an entire roster. He pulls from a number of eras and genres: a 2023 Veeze hit, a 2004 Snoop Dogg earworm and a 1972 Elvis Presley traditional. “I simply shuffle, and no matter performs, I simply vibe,” he says.
Averaging 12.1 factors and 9 rebounds per sport, Ingram will probably be working to take the storied program again to the Last 4.
Probability McMillian
Guard | No. 6 Texas Tech
The junior is one in every of 5 Crimson Raiders averaging double digits with 10.6 factors per sport. McMillian hopes to assist Texas Tech return to the Candy 16 after shedding in that spherical final season. You’ll be able to’t be intimidated if you wish to compete deep into March, and his music selections mirror that understanding. Listening to Youngboy’s “Warfare With Us,” he says, “will get me able to go on the market and play and simply merely be fearless.”
Middle | No. 4 Auburn
The SEC event’s MVP needs to maintain the nice vibes rolling. To be the perfect, he listens to music that makes him really feel like the perfect. At 6-foot-10, it’s no surprise he loves the tune, “The Greatest.”
“He’s simply speaking about being the largest and probably the greatest and mainly simply poppin’ your stuff,” Broome says. “It will get you hype, and the beat’s fairly good.”
Males’s NCAA Match coaches’ mixtapes
Boy, do these coaches love the ’80s.
UConn’s Dan Hurley goes for a championship repeat within the NCAA Match. Perhaps one in every of his favourite pre-game songs — “Dream On” by Aerosmith — could possibly be devoted to the underdogs dreaming of upsetting his No. 1 seeded Huskies?
Hurley says he truly listens to it as tip-off nears for an additional motive. “To get my power going,” he says.
As soon as Baylor gamers are on the ground for warmups, Scott Drew listens to Christian-themed music within the locker room for a couple of moments of pre-game solace. However don’t get him fallacious; he’ll get fired up, too. Like Texas’ girls’s coach Vic Schaefer, AC/DC’s thrasher “Thunderstruck” is a gameday favourite.
One line in Scandal’s 1984 hit “The Warrior” notably ignites Drew: “And victory is mine.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Pictures of Paige Bueckers and Harrison Ingram: Paige: Jessica Hill / Related Press, Grant Halverson / Getty Pictures)