FanHouse Skip Prosser

Skip Prosser will always be remembered on the campuses of Wake Forest and Xavier for the work as a coach he did in each location before passing suddenly from a heart attack.

Instead of just living on in the memories of players and coaches, there will now be a special day to recognize the work Prosser did with student-athletes. The two universities announced that they will compete annually for at least the next 10 years in the Skip Prosser Classic.

When I first moved to the Cincinnati area (which, by the way, was exactly one decade ago today), I would be told that the Xavier-Cincinnati basketball rivalry was up there with Duke-UNC. I just moved from Charlotte and shot that down immediately.

It is a neat little rivalry that has fallen on some hard times. The event that once gripped the city has turned into a oh-that's-coming up game. It is coming up this Saturday.

So, wha' happened?

Obviously the fall of the Cincinnati Bearcats has contributed to this. The game used to feature a ranked Bearcats team versus the mid-major Muskies who are known to come up and bite you every once in a while. The Bearcats were a polarizing team that you either loved or hated; Xavier doesn't own that level of love or hate -- even from Cats fans. To outsiders, it was a matchup of the thuggish Bearcats and the small Jesuit school.

Today ... July 26th ... is my birthday. That fact is one of the reasons I will always remember Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser, who passed away one year ago today.

I have such respect for Skip ... so much so that it pained me to see his program struggle mightily in his final few seasons at the helm. He was on the hottest of seats in the ACC as he pulled in one of the best classes any program would love to have (Ty Walker, Tony Woods and Al-Farouq Aminu).

That class will be enrolling at Wake this fall.

One of the things that makes me proud to be a fan of the ACC is how everyone reacted to Skip's death. The coaches and players who are rivals, but friends, did everything they could to comfort the Prosser family and the Deacons program. When those mega recruits were told they could look elsewhere to go to school ... the ACC coaches banded together to not recruit away any of those young men. Skip's recruits should be going to Wake Forest and no other ACC school. To their credit, they stayed.

The Sporting News decided to look at the state of the program one year after Skip's passing:

Wake Forest has hired assistant coach Dino Guadio as its new head basketball coach, succeeding the late Skip Prosser two weeks after Prosser died of a heart attack.

The school introduced Gaudio at a news conference today, and the administration gave him a vote of confidence by signing him to a five-year contract. The 50-year-old Gaudio has spent about half his life as Prosser's assistant. He has also had two head-coaching stints, at Army (where he went 36-72) and at Loyola of Maryland (where he was 32-52).

Although it feels awkward to discuss such things so soon after Prosser's death, there's no question that the school's decision to maintain continuity by hiring Guadio was an effort, in part, to make sure the Demon Deacons can hang onto their outstanding recruiting class. Al-Farouq Aminu and Ty Walker are widely considered two of the country's top 20 high school players.

Previously on FanHouse:
Will Vultures Stay Away From Wake Forest Recruits?
The ACC Lost a Jewel With the Passing of Skip Prosser
Skip Prosser's Legacy Will Include Great 2008 Recruiting Class
Wake Forest Coach Skip Prosser Dies at 56
Recruiting Coup May Bring Demon Deacons Back

Compared to the loss suffered by the family of Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser, who died today at 56, this is a minor point. But Prosser had landed an outstanding recruiting class for 2008, and it's a real shame that he'll never get to coach those players.

With forward Al-Farouq Aminu and centers Ty Walker and Tony Woods committed to Wake, Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis declared last week that the Demon Deacons "will have the league's top front line in two years." Although Prosser, by rule, couldn't talk publicly about his recruits, the Winston-Salem Journal noted last week that the recruiting class had likely saved Prosser's job.

Prosser's Demon Deacons had fallen on hard times lately, winning just eight ACC games the last two years. But he left the program on the way back up.

Previously on FanHouse:
Wake Up! Recruiting Coup May Bring Demon Deacons Back From Dead