College Basketball actions on Wednesday nights have been full of twists and turns especially over the last few weeks. Thursday mornings in college basketball have become what Sundays are during the college football season which has been full of people talking about the strange and bizarre outcomes from the day before. One conference has been directly hit by crazy Wednesday night action and that is what many consider the best conference in America which is the ACC. Last night the trend continued in the unpredictable conference adding to the growing trend that has captivated since the year changed to 2009.

It all started towards the end of January with a battle between ACC schools down in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons had it all flowing smoothly with a perfect 16-0 record. The Demon Deacons had just knocked off No. 3 North Carolina and handed No. 9 Clemson their first loss of the year. The schedule looked to be fairly simple for a few weeks until their next big game against Duke, but then Wednesday night came. Wake Forest suffered the one of their biggest disappointments of the season when they dropped a loss at home to unranked Virginia Tech knocking them off the top spot in America. Unfortunately this was a trend that was about to get pretty familiar in the ACC.

Exactly one week later on Wednesday night, Wake Forest would return home to host the Duke Blue Devils who had inherited the No. 1 ranking in college basketball due to the Demon Deacons upset loss to Virginia Tech. The Blue Devils entered the game as slight favorites, but quickly this Wednesday would be another disappointment for America’s top ranked team. The Blue Devils trailed the majority of the game and were down as much as 11 points in the closing minutes. However, Duke put together a nice spurt in the closing minutes and tied the game at 68-68 with less than a minute to play. With Wake Forest trying to make a inbounds play, the Duke defense fell apart and let James Johnson catch the ball uncontested inside the paint laying it in to beat the Devils and knocking a number 1 ranked team off the top spot for the 2nd straight Wednesday.

The Clemson Tigers were also another team that fell victim on Wednesday night woes. However, unlike other scenarios Clemson fell apart in an entire different way. The Tigers got off to a perfect 16-0 start before Wake Forest handed them the first loss of the season. The Tigers were expected to give a big rebounding effort the following Wednesday night when they traveled to Chapel Hill to battle North Carolina. The Tarheels entered the game as 11 point favorite and the majority of the betting public was all over the Tigers to keep it within the spread. However, Clemson would get flat out embarrassed inside the Dean Dome as they were blown out by 24 points and dropping their 2nd straight game after the impressive start. Once again the unlikely outcome of Wednesday night had the national talk surrounding the ACC.

Enter the very first Wednesday in the month of February which was last night and the strange Wednesday action was about to receive the biggest single night shocker the ACC has had in years. No. 6 Wake Forest got the action started once again with the early game on Wednesday night when they hosted unranked Miami on their home floor in Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons were fresh off another upset loss falling to Georgia Tech by a mere 2 points. Wake Forest entered the game with the taste of returning to the national spotlight. The Demon Deacons would get back to the spotlight just not in the way they expected. Miami and Wake Forest battled through the first half of play closely with the Hurricanes getting the 3 point advantage at the break 29-26. However, Wake Forest might as well never come back to the floor for the 2nd half. Miami came out the gates firing on all cylinders and the game quickly got out of hand in the 2nd half as Miami opened with a 25-8 run. The Hurricanes would end up blowing out what many thought was still the best team in the ACC by nearly 30 points 79-52. However, the shocking Wednesday night had just begun.

The No. 3 Duke Blue Devils and No. 10 Clemson Tigers highlighted the 2nd ACC game on Wednesday night in a battle of top ten schools. The Clemson Tigers had lost the previous 21 straight regular season games to the Blue Devils not to mention the Tigers had been receiving non-stop criticism claiming they could not contend with the top teams in the ACC after being beaten by Wake Forest and North Carolina by double digits. The Blue Devils entered the contest as the favorites, but it became apparent quick they were not the favorites on Wednesday night. Clemson dominated on every aspect of the floor and made Duke looked like a mediocre high school team at times. The Tigers full court press and strong defense made the Blue Devils look silly and they constantly turned the ball over. Add to the fact, Duke could not hit a shot from anywhere on the floor and you got one of the biggest Blue Devils losses in over the last two decades. The game has definitely been the talk of the bizarre Wednesday night considering nobody ever expected a Coach K Blue Devil team to ever be beaten the way they were by the Tigers. Now the only question that is left for the ACC is what will next Wednesday night have in store?

How’s that popular saying go? Another one bites the dust, or at least another top ranked team that is. The Duke Blue Devils become yet another victim of the growing trend of number 1 ranked teams to fall in the opening month of 2009. The Blue Devils and Wake Forest ACC classic highlighted what turned out to be the second straight wild Wednesday in the last two weeks. Here is a recap of the night and how some of big games turned out.

#4 Wake Forest 70 – #1 Duke 68

Wake Forest controlled this game from the start making plays all over the court. The Demon Deacons highlights probably flooded the top 10 plays of the night with an outstanding put back slam, a between the legs pass followed by a dunk, and also an inbounds pass with less than 3 seconds to go that lead to James Johnson making the winning shot. Yes the Demon Deacons responded nicely after last week’s upset loss to Virginia Tech that knocked them out of the number 1 ranking. Wake Forest controlled the majority of this game. However, Duke did show that they are a very strong team as they made a valiant comeback effort. Kyle Singler and Gerald Henderson may have been the only two Blue Devils on the floor last night or at least that is the only names that were heard considering the rest of the team must have still been back at Cameron last night. Still Duke closed what was an 11 points gap late in the second half to tie the game with 14 seconds to play after a great shot by Gerald Henderson who scored 20 points on the night. Unfortunately Duke poorly covered the inbounds pass to Johnson and perhaps turned it up a notch a tad to late. The Blue Devils become the 3rd team in 3 weeks to get knocked off the number 1 ranking only two days after earning the top spot.

#3 Pittsburgh 57 – #21 Villanova 67

The Pittsburgh Panthers were the 2nd upset victim of the night to 21 ranked Villanova. Early on in the game the Panthers were quick out of the gates and even jumped to a 10 point lead. However, junior guard Reggie Redding came on strong as the game progressed knocking down 18 points and the Wildcats took over. Villanova capitalized off a poor shooting performance from Pittsburgh to grab their first victory over a top 25 opponent this season despite 4 attempts before. Pittsburgh shot a disappointing 41% from the floor and an embarrassing 3-16 (18%) from behind the arc. Not to mention the Pittsburgh starting lineup only accounted for a total of 36 points the entire night. The loss marked the Panthers 2 loss in the last 4 games while dropping them further down in the Big East standings. Considering Marquette and Louisville is still undefeated in conference play, the Panthers can not afford any more defeats or they can say goodbye to Big East regular season title hopes. With the no. 1 and no. 3 teams both losing on Wednesday night you expect their to be some shake up in the rankings amidst the Top 5 as Connecticut will likely take over the top spot.

#6 North Carolina 80 – Florida State 77

The Tarheels barely escaped becoming the 3rd top 10 team to be upset on Wednesday night. By saying barely escaped is a mere understatement, considering North Carolina trailed in the final moments of the game. If you saw the Duke and Wake Forest ending where James Johnson hit the game winning lay-in with less than 3 seconds to go, you still only saw the second best finish of the night. In another ACC classic type game, North Carolina and Florida State battled back and forth over the closing minutes of the game. In a game where former Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough was held to a season low 8 points, teammates Danny Green and Ty Lawson picked up the slack. Toney Douglas drained 32 points for the Seminoles as they appeared they would get the victory with as they led by 3 under a minute and a half to go in the game. However, Danny Green came up with a huge steal for North Carolina taking it the length of the court and getting the bucket and the foul that eventually led to the game being tied at 77-77. Florida State had a chance to win, but somehow let the shot clock expire with 3.2 seconds to go after a Hansbrough block. Ty Lawson grabbed the inbounds play and sprinted up the court and delivering a floating three pointer that sailed through the net with the buzzer blaring in the background. At first it appeared, the shot came out to late but that did not stop the Tarheels from celebrating. Shortly after, the shot was confirmed legit as the Tarheels escaped Tallahassee capping yet another action filled Wednesday. In case you missed the ending, have a look…