📍 Raleigh, North Carolina
🏀 Home of NC State Wolfpack basketball

One of the largest basketball venues in the ACC, Raleigh’s Lenovo Center is the longtime home of the NC State Wolfpack. For a quarter century, the Pack have shared the nearly 20,000-seat venue with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and dazzled their passionate fans, an intense sea of red and white that measures up to that of State’s rivals in Durham and Chapel Hill.

Playing their first game at Reynolds Coliseum in the winter of 1949, the Wolfpack men entertained many raucous crowds during their fifty-year tenure at the venue. With fans seemingly right on top of the court, the design of the arena – similar to that of nearby Cameron Indoor – created a demanding environment for opponents and proved to be a tough place to play. The Pack were ACC Tournament champions 10 times during their time at Reynolds, also winning their only two National Championships while competing at the arena. The squad’s departure in 1999 – in which they moved just down the road to the Lenovo Center – would solidify the coliseum as the exclusive home of women’s basketball.

Since their move to what was then the Entertainment & Sports Arena, the Pack have made more than a dozen appearances in March Madness, but never quite rekindling the glory of their 1974 or 1983 championship campaigns. The team has, however, had some tremendous recent success, winning their first ACC Tournament in 37 years in 2024 and following it up with a run to the Final Four. Even in their less successful years, the Pack have still made a handful of trips to the NIT as well. The program’s achievements are thanks in part to dominant performances by players such as Cedric Simmons, C. J. Leslie, Cat Barber, Markell Johnson and Julius Hodge, all of whom would go on to have successful professional careers overseas after leaving Raleigh.

On gamedays at Lenovo, the men take the floor to resounding cheers and howls from the crowd, led by the wild student sections behind the baselines. During the national anthem, fans also emphasize the word “red” and substitute the “home of the brave” with “home of the Wolf Pack!” Though it’s fairly cavernous for basketball games, State fans keep it loud and energetic in the arena all night long, filling the air with their excitement. Meanwhile on the concourse, the team’s two championship trophies sit quietly encased behind glass, waiting to be joined by a third.