ACC Basketball: Can Georgia Tech, Wake Forest rediscover their glory days?
By Amaar Burton
Some of college basketball’s biggest stars have played for Wake Forest and Georgia Tech, two programs that are currently slumping with no end in sight.
Wake Forest used Wednesday’s home game against Georgia Tech to honor some legends from the program’s past.
Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress were among the players in attendance from the 1994-95 Demon Deacons squad that won the ACC regular-season and tournament titles before getting to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
A banner was raised to the rafters of Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum for retired coach Dave Odom, who guided that ’94-95 team and won three ACC Coach of the Year awards at Wake.
Watching along with the crowd was Rodney Rogers, an All-American and ACC Player of the Year in 1992-93; and Josh Howard, an All-American and ACC Player of the Year in 2002-03.
Reliving the glory days is an opportunity to take stock of the current state of a program.
In this case, reminiscing about the 1990s didn’t just remind you how good Wake Forest used to be. It did the same for their opponent, Georgia Tech.
Once upon a time, they were both college basketball powerhouses. Between 1990 and 1996, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech split four out of seven ACC tournament titles. In the 2000s, they combined for 11 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Today, the Demon Deacons and Yellow Jackets are struggling, and they’ve been struggling for a while.
Following Wednesday’s 86-79 victory, Georgia Tech is 13-13 overall and 7-8 in the ACC. Wake Forest fell to 11-15 overall and 4-12 in the conference. Wake Forest is in 14th place in a 15-team conference, while Georgia Tech sits ninth in the standings.