Lawrence Joel Coliseum seats more than 14,000 comfortably, though it appears no more than 2,500 people show up for the January 2 basketball game between hometown Wake Forest and tiny Wofford College—the official attendance bravely suggests 6,342 were in the house. The game is slow and methodical and no joy to watch; the crowd lacks students due to the holiday break, and is accordingly subdued. Any shot of the crowd reveals a sedate group more interested in socializing than making things difficult for the opposing team. The Demon Deacons quickly fall behind, and find themselves down 10 at halftime to the Terriers. Despite a late-game charge that keeps things interesting, Wake loses 56–52.
The Joel wasn’t always a tomb. Not all that long ago, it was known as “The Jungle”—the rocking and rollicking home to a team poised to take over the ACC, led by a wizard named Chris Paul and a charmer of a coach named Skip Prosser, who seemed ready to push Wake’s program into the Final Four for the first time since 1962. Prosser loved fast-paced basketball and quoting Shakespeare, and wore his ambition openly. At a small liberal arts school that had spent decades subsisting on unfulfilled potential, Prosser was poised to become Wake’s Coach K or Roy Williams, with a charisma and style all his own.
And then, in July 2007, he dropped dead of a heart attack in his office at the age of 56, after going for a jog on campus.
For more, visit the following website: http://theclassical.org/articles/a-g...n-tobacco-road
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