News-Record.com

They said farewell to Skip Prosser a year ago, and it still seems unbelievably unjust and implausible.

We reporter types are supposed to pose and answer questions. Who? What? Where? When? How?

Why?

That last one's still got me.

The confusion goes beyond the antiseptic, dispassionate dialect of a coroner's report, a document that few of us will ever comprehend anyway. It extends to how a coach who was in his element and in his prime wasn't allowed to see it all come together.

George Edward Prosser was 56 years old when he collapsed and died of a heart attack last summer. In the past generation of college basketball, the median age of NCAA championship coaches is 54.

As it turns out, there's been a lot to miss out on.

In his final month of recruiting, Prosser had secured commitments from three players who now comprise Wake Forest's most acclaimed class in 15 years. They all signed, have enrolled in summer school and have received jersey numbers.

Dino Gaudio, who had worked for Prosser at one high school and two colleges during 17 of the previous 27 seasons, became his mentor's reluctant heir. In his zeal, Gaudio said the 2007-08 Demon Deacons sought to write the best story in college basketball, an irresistible tragedy-to-triumph tale.

Perhaps that was a bit much for such a young team. The Deacons didn't make postseason play, but they still surpassed expectations by hanging around the fringes of NCAA tournament discussion into February. In the end, Virginia and N.C. State, two teams expected to make a run at the ACC's regular-season title, were looking up at Wake Forest.

As much of that was happening, two of Prosser's protégés were continuing the active memorial. Ex-Deacon Chris Paul and former Xavier star David West, both of the New Orleans Hornets, were producing and directing the NBA's most compelling story of the regular season. They led their team to the second-best record in the rugged Western Conference and made the All-Star game, held in their home arena and rebuilding city.

"He'd be excited," Paul said, reflecting on what Prosser would say of all this. "Coach was one of those guys who loved moments. Like me and David West in the All-Star game. I know he would have been there in the front row, just taking that in."

For once, the All-Star game was more than an exercise in overindulgent celebrity-watching. The event provided a dais for discussion of Hurricane Katrina relief, and Paul in particular, had the floor -- rhetorically and competitively.

In 2008, the NBA playoffs didn't seem to drag. Two or three times a week, they offered a look at the league's next star, a speed freak without the drug connotations or connections. While some players head to tax-free Russia and fans everywhere but Cleveland anticipate LeBron James' 2010 departure for buddy Jay-Z's Brooklyn Nets, Paul signed a long-term extension with New Orleans.

The coach's eldest son, Mark Prosser, is still in his dad's business after another reminder of its itinerant nature. When Pat Flannery surprisingly retired as coach at Bucknell in the spring, the staff was in limbo. Fortunately, Wofford College, where the younger Prosser had worked in 2002-03, called again.

The tie-dyed student section isn't going anywhere. Wake still played to an average of 11,899 fans per home game -- nearly three times the undergraduate student population -- last season.

And Skip Prosser's fellow coaches won't forget. On Sunday, they held a memorial mass in Orlando, Fla., the last place where they all congregated before their friend flew home from the recruiting circuit, took his daily jog around the Wake Forest track, returned to his office and silently collapsed.

As the tributes continued, Paul arrived in Macao with the rest of the U.S. Olympic basketball team. James has guaranteed gold. The point guard, reflecting the advice of his former coach, offered no such promises, perhaps remembering what his former coach would be thinking at that moment.

"He was one of those guys who stayed grounded," Paul said of Prosser. "And he kept me grounded."

But his basketball progeny are still taking off.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@ news-record.com