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Duke and Wake Forest fans remember 1995 very differently.
For Duke fans, it was the nadir of the Mike Krzyzewski era. Coach K took a leave of absence early in the season and things took a nosedive with the Blue Devils finishing 13-18.
Not so for Wake Forest.
The Demon Deacons were at an historic high. With Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress, Wake Forest had a glorious era. Duncan became one of the great big men in college basketball history, Wake won back-to-back ACC Tournaments in 1995 and 1996, and Childress turned out to be one of the great clutch players in ACC history.
In 1995, UNC had a team built around Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace who would both go on to long and productive NBA careers.
But it wasn’t enough to beat that Wake Forest team.
The ACC Championship game went to overtime and then Childress drove and hit a clutch shot to put Wake up 82-80 with :04 left.
On the final possession, the Heels got the ball into Stackhouse, who was guarded by Childress.
He fell down as Stackhouse went up to shoot, the ball grazing harmlessly off the rim to the left. Childress, who scored 107 points in three days to set an ACC record, just laid there for minute. Was he hurt? Stunned? Just too cool for the average fan to understand?
We may never know.
But he got up as an ACC champion.