Skip Prosser dead at 56.

I know that I promised a post on the Altoona trip,but that will wait until tomorrow.
My favorite current college basketball coach,Skip Prosser of Wake Forest is dead at the age of 56 after collapsing after a jog on the Wake Forest campus.
Prosser was formerly the coach at Xavier(another favorite) and left to become the head man at Wake.
Skip's record over his career at Loyola.MD,Xavier and Wake Forest was a stellar 291-146 and only 2 losing seasons.
Last year Wake Forest was 15-16,despite a predominately underclassman based squad.
I had began to root for Wake from the day Skip was hired ,as I was such a fan of his during his tenure at Xavier.
Skip took what Pete Gillen had begun at Xavier and built on it to the point that Xavier became an Atlantic 10 member under his guidance.
The Atlantic 10 was certainly a move up the conference ladder from Xavier's previous league -the MCC.
Prosser took over from Dave Odom at Wake Forest and won 20 games in each of his 1st 4 seasons there before falling to 17- 17 .
That was mainly caused by over-scheduling,as Chris Paul was not expected to be an early entry into the NBA that season and when he did so,Wake Forest had a brutal non-conference schedule and less than expected talent.
Skip Prosser gone too soon at the age of 56.

The Pirates rallied against Oliver Perez in the 6th to earn an 8-4 and avoid a sweep in the Big Apple (or the Big Cesspool,as Wes Huntley called it).
The Mets led 1-0 in the sixth,when two hits by Nate McLouth and Paul Maholm followed by a Perez throwing error produced 1 run.
Xavier Nady then singled to bring two more home and then the forgotten Josh Phelps,getting a rare start smashed his 1st home run as a Pirate (3rd overall) to complete a 5 run inning.
Phelps was in the lineup at first base,so Adam LaRoche could get a day off against a tough lefthander.
Phelps would add two more on a 7th inning double to complete the Pirate scoring for a 5 RBI day!
The other Pirate RBI belonged to Jason Bay.
Another solid outing by Paul Maholm,3 runs and 6 hits in 6.0 innings and moved his record to a increasingly less hideous 7-12.
Damaso Marte,B.P.Chacon and Matt Capps each pitched an inning to finish up.
The Bucs travel to Philadelphia tomorrow for a weekend series vs the hated Phillies.

Back later tonight or tomorrow with Altoona and more.
I just wanted to get the Skip Prosser news up ASAP.

Photo Credits
Skip Prosser-Charlotte Observer-Patrick Schneider
Josh Phelps-AP Photo-Frank Franklin II