Tim Duncan. Chris Paul. Josh Howard. Randolph Childress. Rodney Rogers. Probably the best five basketball players to play for Wake Forest over the last 20 years. Rogers, Duncan, and Howard each won ACC Player of the Year. Duncan went on to win NCAA Player of the Year. Childress led Wake Forest to their 1st ACC Tournament Championship since 1962. He dazzled fans during the 1995 ACC Tournament with arguably the best performance ever with 107 points in 3 games, including making 23 3-point shots, and played all 3 games with a broken finger. Josh Howard put a young WFU team on his back during the 2002-2003 ACC Season, and led WFU to their 1st outright regular season ACC Title in over 40 years. In 2003-2004, Chris Paul led WFU to the Sweet 16 for the 1st time since the 1995-1996 season, and to their first ever #1 ranking in 2004. When its all said and done, these five players have combined for 2 ACC Tournament Championships. However, 2 Regular Season ACC Titles (1 outright, 2 tied), 3 Sweet 16 and 1 Elite 8 appearances, and 0 Final Four appearances. For all the great memories, there comes a lot of heart ache.

I am not writing this to complain, but to share the roller coaster ride of what it has felt like to be a Wake Forest basketball fan over the last 20 years. First, let me explain how I became a fan. My dad played football for WFU, which is the main reason I am a WFU fan. I went to my 1st basketball game at 6 months old, and my 1st football game when I was just over 1 year old. However, I grew up just outside of Philadelphia (for those that do not know, WFU is located in Winston Salem, North Carolina), which made it a bit hard at times to follow their games on a regular basis. I got very lucky, and ended up with a very cool mom. My reward for doing well in school was to drive down to Winston Salem, and watch at least 1 game a year live at Wake Forest (I still have family that lives in Winston Salem). When Wake Forest was the #1 seed during the 1994-1995 NCAA Tournament, they played their first 2 round games in Baltimore, just about two hours from where I lived. What did my mom do? We each played "hooky" from school (my mom was a teacher) on a Thursday, scalped two tickets, and watched their opening round game against North Carolina A&T. When it came to for me to choose a college, I was able to get into WFU, but if I wanted to go to college I had to pay for everything myself. It really broke my heart, but I could either pay $35,000 a year at WFU or pay nothing and go to a small school in Myrtle Beach called Costal Carolina. Honestly, it was a tough decision, but I chose to go to school at the beach. The consolation prize was being to able to watch every televised game, which was a major upgrade to just watching about 1/3 of their games.

I think it would now be best to discuss a short history of recent Wake Forest Basketball. WFU drifted in obscurity for years (only Final Four appearance was in 1962) until 1989 when they hired Dave Odom. Odom was able to recruit a player named Rodney Rogers, who put WFU Basketball back on the map. In their first year together WFU went to the NCAA Tournament in 7 years, and were able to advance to the 2nd round. In 1993, WFU went to the Sweet 16, but ended up losing to Kentucky. Also, Rodney Rogers won ACC Player of the Year, the 1st Wake Forest player to do so since Rod Griffin did back in 1977. More importantly, WFU showed some form of consistency and growth of a program with 2 NCAA Tournament appearances, advancing to the Sweet 16, and a stand out player with Rodney Rogers. This gave WFU an edge with recruiting as an up and coming program. Over the next few years, WFU arguably had their greatest success since the early 1960's. Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress led WFU to back to back ACC Tournament Titles in 1995 and 1996, and went on to go to the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. Believe it or not, WFU would not get back to Sweet 16 until 2004. During the late 90's, or post AD years (After Duncan) WFU had so years, and only went to the NIT, but won the NIT in 2000. However, help arrived in the form of Josh Howard. In his 2nd year at Wake, he helps lead WFU back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 3 years. As a senior Howard lead WFU to their first out right regular season ACC Title in school history. It seemed like Wake Forest Basketball was back on the map. Chris Paul followed Josh Howard as the next "star" at WFU (Paul was a freshman, the year after Howard graduated). As a freshman Paul lead WFU to the Sweet 16 for the 1st time since the 1995-1996 season when WFU went to the Elite 8. However, this would be the last time WFU ever made past the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament.

Some might be thinking where is the heartache? Well, it began in the 1995 NCAA Tournament. WFU landed the #1 seed, and advanced easily to the Sweet 16 were they ran into an Oklahoma St. team led by Bryant Reeves aka "Big Country". Randolph Childress ended up with the flu, and played the game with 102 fever. The game was very close, and Oklahoma St. took a 2 point lead with less than a minute to go. At the end of the game, Childress had nothing left, and was used as decoy to setup a 3 point shot for freshman Tony Rutland. The play worked, Rutland shot a wide open 3, the ball went in the hoop, but hit part of the rim, and fell out. Wake lost. It felt like someone hit me in the gut, and all of the wind was knocked out of me. A team that could have advanced to the Final Four just got upset in Sweet 16. Tim Duncan's senior year was one of the most underachieving years in WFU history. No ACC Championship, not even the ACC Finals. No Final 4, not even a Sweet 16 appearance. Instead they were knocked out in the 2nd round by Stanford. Duncan on the best college basketball players ever, had zero Final 4 appearances. What happened? Duncan did not have any help; there was no one to kick the ball out to. Most WFU fans believe that Odom did not capitalize on recruiting potential with their recent success. Well they were probably right. It took WFU 4 years until they reached the NCAA Tournament after Duncan's senior year. Wake reemerged during the 2002-2003 season with a regular season ACC Title, led by Josh Howard. Honestly, I had never seen a player just take over a game like Howard would do with 7 or 8 minutes left. However, during this time the United States had just gone to war with Iraq, Howard made a comment about how the United States should not have been involved. As a result, he received hate mail and death threats. Unfortunately, this affected his play. WFU barely survived against 9th seeded FSU, and lost in the 2nd round to NCSU. WFU ended up a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but it didn't matter. Howard was still mentally affected a week later, as they barely beat East Tennessee St., but lost their next game to Auburn (a team that most experts felt did not belong in the NCAA Tournament). A season full of hope, crushed again. Fans waited so many years for Wake to have a chance to make a run to the Final Four, but they could not get out of the 2nd round. After Chris Paul's freshman season, a lot was expected of the team. In the beginning of the season the team lived up to the hype as they were ranked #1 for the first time in school history, but it only lasted for a week because they lost at Illinois during the week. However, they faded down the stretch losing in the 1st round of the ACC Tournament, and received a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. WFU drew a red hot West Virginia team, and lost in 2OT in the 2nd. Another season full of promise, another season full of disappointment. Life for the Wake Forest fan.

This year's season was full of hope and promise when WFU brought in the #1 ranked recruiting classes in the country. They went undefeated before conference play including a win at BYU ending their 53 game home win streak. They opened the ACC season against North Carolina, and beat them. 2 of their next 3 games were against Duke and Clemson, both of them ranked in the Top 10, and was ranked #1 in the country for a week before they lost to Virginia Tech. WFU won each game, and started the ACC season 4-1 with 3 wins over Top 10 teams. However, since beating Duke WFU has lost 2 games in a row, and they do not look like the same team earlier in the year (this is a discussion for another article). If they do not quickly recover, then it is possible that they could miss the NCAA Tournament. Yes, I know it sounds crazy that a team that was ranked #1 during the regular season, and that was the last undefeated team this season could completely miss the NCAA Tournament (there is some precedent for this, Clemson started the season either 18 or 19 without a loss and missed the NCAA Tournament). The way this season has unfolded represents the last 20 years of WFU Basketball, hope and promise only for them to choke when it matters.  

Some might be asking why am I a fan? Well, if you are a true fan of a team, then you stick with them though the good times and the bad times. Isn't this the definition You just wait for that one season where everything falls into place, and they win a championship.  

This article is not just about Wake Basketball. It is meant for every fan that has felt heartache, or has had the wind knocked out of them after their team lost a big game. It is meant for the fans that follow a "smaller" college program, where "success" is just 1 Final Four appearance in a lifetime. It is meant for those who just want to feel what it is like to win a title just one time, just one time. It is meant for those who are on the roller coaster ride, and are waiting for it to end.