ACC Legends: Randolph Childress of Wake Forest
3/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2012
Article courtesy of theACC.com
One of the most important events in Wake Forest basketball history went almost entirely unseen.
For Randolph Childress, the equal and opposite precursor to 82-80 and March of 1995 was a knee injury in a June 1991 pickup game. The torn ligament knocked him out of action for a year but ultimately extended his career beyond its originally presumed expiration date. Had he stayed healthy, he would have been in the NBA in March of 1995 rather than putting on one of the greatest performances in ACC Tournament history.
Childress would have been fine, of course, but Wake would probably be one banner and untold memories short.
And so Childress had a fifth year of eligibility, and it would coincide with the maturation of a former swimmer named Tim Duncan, who had arrived in the fall of 1993 to negligible attention but was on his way to stardom. Together, the two formed an outside-inside combination that put the Demon Deacons into the mix of what became one of the greatest seasons in ACC history.
Wake, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia all tied for first at 12-4 in regular-season conference play, and the ACC Tournament pared the field to the Tar Heels and Deacons for the championship. Seven individuals - four Tar Heels, three Deacs - ultimately played in the NBA. They put on an amazing show in the Greensboro Coliseum.
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