Wolfpack Flashback: One 'Sweet' Victory and a Consolation Prize

Remember when they used to play consolation games in the NCAA tournament? If you don't, come back with us in time to learn about the one NC State played in 1952, along with a Sweet 16 victory against Alabama fueled by Spud Webb and Lorenzo Charles

The only Madness going on this March is taking place off the court, with the NCAA tournament cancelled in response to the growing coronavirus crisis. With no actual games to report on, SI All Wolfpack is looking back in time to remember some of NC State's best postseason games from the past. This date in Wolfpack history includes one "Sweet" victory and a long-ago consolation prize.

Back in the day, the NCAA tournament used to include something called a consolation game. It was contested between the two losing teams from each regional and national semifinal, and it determined the third place finisher in each bracket.

It was a game nobody ever wanted to play, which is why it finally went the way of the dinosaur for regionals in 1975 and the Final Four six years later.

But in 1952, NC State made the most of the bad situation by bouncing back from a region semifinal loss to St. John's with a 69-60 consolation game win against Penn State Reynolds Coliseum.

Mel Thompson led the way that day with 21 points while the team's leading scorer Bob Speight added 15.

The Wolfpack's only other win on March 22 was a much more meaningful one -- a 61-55 Sweet 16 victory against Alabama in 1985. That Crimson Tide team, by the way, had a sophomore guard named Mark Gottfried, who went 1 for 6 from the floor and scored two points.

Yes, THAT Mark Gottfried.

State got 14 points each from the long and short of its lineup -- 6-foot-7 Lorenzo Charles and 5-7 point guard Spud Webb -- while Bennie Bolton came off the bench to score 11 and help State advance to the West Region championship game against the same team that eliminated it in 1952, St. John's.

The two other games State has played on this date didn't end as well.

In 2013, a underachieving team that was picked to win the ACC but could only muster a No. 8 NCAA seed saw its season come to a fitting end with a lackluster 76-72 first round loss to Temple in Dayton.

And in 1951, the Wolfpack dropped a regional semifinal matchup with Illinois 84-70 at Reynolds Coliseum that was made even more disappointing by a consolation game loss -- to who else but St. John's -- two days later.