The death of Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser left the ACC basketball community in shock and mourning.

The 57-year-old Prosser, a teacher by training who got into coaching almost as an afterthought, was a popular figure with the ACC media, who admired his wit, his erudition and his lack of pretension. He was also popular with his coaching peers – all 11 ACC head coaches were on hand for his memorial service in Winston-Salem, N.C., as well as dozens of other coaches from around the country.

“I was fortunate to be friends with him even before I came back to Carolina,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “I’ll always remember him calling after the 2006 season to say what a great job we had done after losing all the players from the (2005 NCAA) championship team. That call meant so much to have come from another coach. This April, I heard from a hundred or so coaches after the Hall of Fame announcement, and Skip was the first to call. The world has lost a great person and great family man.”

Prosser’s unexpected death is virtually unprecedented in ACC history. The most similar circumstance involved UNC football coach Jim Tatum, who won a national championship at Maryland before moving to his alma mater. He died unexpectedly of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in the summer of 1958, just as he appeared to be on the verge of reviving the Tar Heel program. No ACC basketball coach has ever died so suddenly, although twice, cancer forced successful coaches at ACC schools to step down before they were ready to retire.

Duke’s Gerry Gerard, who won two Southern Conference titles between 1943 and 1950, was diagnosed with cancer in the spring of 1949. Concerned about his health, the school brought in pro coach Red Auerbach to assist Gerard and eventually replace him. But after spending five months on campus, Auerbach returned to the NBA – later explaining that he couldn’t stand to sit around and wait for Gerard to die.

The ailing coach made it through the 1950 season, but just before the start of practice the next season, Gerard’s declining health forced him to step down. Even though it was November and the season was just weeks away, Duke hired an outsider as a replacement, bringing in Harold Bradley from tiny Hartwick College.

N.C. State found itself in a similar situation when Hall of Fame coach Everett Case fell ill before the 1964 season. The school adopted a similar approach to what Duke tried, bringing in former Clemson head coach Press Maravich to assist the ailing Case during the 1964-65 season.

Just two games into the season, Case was forced to step down and Maravich took over the team. He guided the Wolfpack to a second-place regular season finish in the league, then to an upset of top-seeded Duke in the ACC title game. That triumph led to one of the most poignant scenes in ACC basketball history. Case, too ill to attend the earlier rounds of the tournament, was at courtside for the title game. After it was over, the Wolfpack players lifted him on their shoulders and had him cut down the championship nets.

But Prosser’s unexpected passing allowed no such glorious sendoff and gave Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman no opportunity to lay the groundwork for Prosser’s successor.

Instead, he had to decide whether to go outside the program for a big name to take over the prestigious Tobacco Road program or to promote one of Prosser’s assistants.

Wellman, who has compiled a record of astute coaching hires during his tenure in Winston-Salem – including bringing in Prosser from Xavier – elected to promote assistant coach Dino Gaudio to the top spot on the staff.

And he went out of his way to make it clear that he was hiring Gaudio as Prosser’s real successor and not as an interim to coach this season while looking for a bigger name successor.

“That is the worst-case scenario for a coach to be in,” Wellman said. “What you’re saying (when you name an interim coach) is that he’s a lame duck. And the players start thinking he’s a lame duck. That was not an option that I was interested in whatsoever.”

Wellman made it clear that the 50-year-old Gaudio was given a five-year contract as head coach.

“Quite frankly, I expect that to be the first contract (of many) for Dino,” Wellman told reporters as he introduced his new coach.

His insistence that Gaudio was not being hired in an interim capacity awoke echoes of another historic ACC coaching hire. When Frank McGuire resigned as North Carolina’s head coach on Aug. 3, 1961, his unknown assistant was introduced as his replacement. Because of the unusual timing of the coaching transition, UNC chancellor William Aycock had to go out of his way to make it clear that 29-year-old Dean Smith was not an interim replacement.

That hire worked out pretty well for the Tar Heels.

Gaudio, who spent 17 of the last 25 years as an assistant to Prosser, also has seven years of experience as a head coach – three years at Loyola (Md.) and four years at Army. Wellman didn’t find Gaudio’s 36-72 record at the Military Academy discouraging.

“There was a coach there (Bobby Knight) who won 11 games his last year who went on to win multiple national championships,” the Wake Forest AD said. “There was another coach at Army (Mike Krzyzewski) who won nine games his last year there who has won multiple national championships.

“Dino won 10 games his last year at Army. When you really analyze it, he’s in good company.”

Gaudio faces a stiff rebuilding job in his first season, but if he can solidify Prosser’s most recent recruiting success, he could be very successful very soon.

The Deacons are coming off a 15-16 season – Wake Forest’s only losing year under Prosser. It was a very young team, especially in the backcourt, but Gaudio must replace 6-foot-11 center Kyle Visser, the team’s top scorer and rebounder, and forward Michael Drum, the team’s top 3-point shooter and No. 3 scorer.

It was a team that figured to be picked very near the bottom of the ACC – even before the coaching change.

Still, the program appeared to be headed in the right direction. Jet-quick point guard Ishmael Smith underwent a rough initiation as a freshman but clearly has the talent to excel in the ACC. Backcourt mates Harvey Hale, L.D. Williams and Anthony Gurley are also promising young players. Incoming freshman James Johnson, a slender 6-8 small forward from Wyoming, and Indiana combo guard Jeff Teague also appear to be very talented.

The Deacons’ biggest need is for some inside studs to balance all the good young perimeter players on the roster. And that’s just what Prosser had lined up for his next recruiting class. The late coach landed verbal commitments from three premier post prospects – 6-9 forward Al-Farouq Aminu of Norcross, Ga. (ranked the nation’s No. 8 prospect by Scout.com), 7-1 center Ty Walker of Wilmington, N.C., (ranked No. 21 nationally by Scout.com) and 6-10 center Tony Woods of Rome, Ga. (ranked No. 48 nationally by Scout.com).

Of course, none of those verbal commitments are binding until they sign letters-of-intent in November. The enforced coaching change is certain to inspire other coaches to check and see if any of those three nationally ranked recruits is having second thoughts about committing to Wake Forest. Gaudio knows that speculation about Wake Forest’s talented recruits will run rampant until the players sign this fall. Asked about the situation during his introductory press conference, the new Deacon coach pointed out that under NCAA rules, he can’t talk about unsigned prospects.

“The best way I can tell you is, I feel really excited about this year,” Gaudio said. “And I feel really, really, really excited about the next four years. I think that’s all I’m allowed to say.”

So far, the three potential recruits have all indicated that they will honor their verbal commitments. For instance, in a recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aminu insisted that he was ready to play for Gaudio.

“He was one of the assistants, and we didn’t get the same kind of interaction or vibe we would with the head coach, Aminu said. “I don't know him like coach Prosser, but I know him well enough to know that he’s a good coach. He’s a stand-up guy.”

Gaudio will get a chance to prove that in the coming months. He’ll begin his tenure at Wake Forest with high hopes of honoring his mentor.

“From this tragedy, (this will be) one of the great success stories,” Gaudio said. “We’re going to have a storybook season. We’ve got to make this thing like a Shakespearean play, where they're writing books about what happens, from the bad to the good.”