85. Lorenzo Charles, NC State, 1982-1985

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: No

Lorenzo Charles, the player, has been overshadowed by Lorenzo Charles, the dunk.  But he was a tremendous player.  In the two years following the dunk, he made first team All-ACC, including a unanimous selection as a senior, and he received a lot of support for ACC POY, won by Len Bias.  No shame in finishing second to Len Bias.

I always find it interesting to compare All-ACC/POY voting with All-America voting.  Lorenzo Charles in 1985 provides a good example of how they can diverge.

Here are the results of All-ACC voting in 1985:

ACC Player of the Year voting went like this:

So it seems clear, doesn’t it, that among ACC sportswriters, Charles was considered a clear number 2 to Len Bias’ number 1?

But in the All-American voting, we had:

How do you explain that?  Charles was a well-known player, obviously from the dunk in 1983, and having made first team All-ACC and third team All-American the season before.  The team was successful; NC State tied for the regular season lead in the ACC and made the Elite Eight.  Why didn’t he get more attention nationally?  My best guess is that there were two factors at play.  First, Duke and Georgia Tech were nationally ranked all year in 1985, while NC State wasn’t.  The Wolfpack had a great finish and wound up tied for first place, but by the time they made their run, the voters had been hearing about Price and Dawkins all year, and impressions had been formed.

The second reason is, Price and Dawkins benefited from being guards.  That year, for whatever reason, all the best players were forwards and centers.  Here’s the AP All-America team:

First Team:

Second Team:

Notice that Dawkins and Price are the only guards.  The AP voting wasn’t done by position (some other services were), but I have to think that the voters, maybe even subconsciously, felt they had to put a couple of guards up there.  There were so many good forwards and centers that Charles couldn’t crack the list.

I’m not sure if I’m arguing that Charles should have been All-America or that Dawkins and Price shouldn’t have.  Either way, I think he was the second-best player in the ACC in 1985. He deserves to be on the list.

One thought on “85. Lorenzo Charles, NC State, 1982-1985”

  1. Lorenzo Charles WAS the 2nd best player in the ACC in 1985 and totally got screwed on the All-American voting. No, I’m not biased at all.

    In the NCAA Tournament that year, State won 3 games before losing to #1 seed St. John’s in the Elite 8. BTW, that St. John’s team was stacked–Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Bill Wennington, Mark Jackson. That’s 2 guys that won National Player of the year awards in Mullin and Berry; another that was an All-American in Jackson; and Bill Wennington, who was a McDonald’s All-American in high school and played in the NBA for 13 seasons. Those 4 combined to play 51 NBA seasons. Like I said, stacked.

    Anyway, my point was about Lorenzo Charles. In State’s 4 NCAA games that year, he shot 59.2% from the field and averaged 20.3 points and 9.8 rebounds. Good enough to make the All-West Regional team. The others on that team were his State teammate Spud Webb; two of the aforementioned St. John’s players, Chris Mullin and Walter Berry; and Kentucky All-American Kenny (Sky) Walker. Mullin scored 25 in the 69-60 win over State and was named MOP of the West Region.

    So maybe he wasn’t Chris Mullin or Len Bias, but Lorenzo Charles was really good. And he was the co-author (alongside Derek Whittenburg) of the greatest sports moment of my life. RIP.

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