Skip to the U (of Cincinnati)?

As the Skip Prosser-to-Cincinnati rumors have intensified from internet gossip to mainstream scuttlebutt, one person has been oddly silent about the whole affair: Skip Prosser.
The Wake Forest coach, in a unique position to confirm or deny the tale of his impending departure from Winston-Salem, has yet to comment on the situation, a curious decision that leaves his true intentions open for questioning.
Earlier this week I supported Peyton Manning's criticism of his offensive line because I thought he told the truth. Did people expect him to lie, I asked? But in Prosser's case he should lie. It's a need-to-lie situation, even if he's signed a pact with the Bearcats in blood. Prosser is still the coach at Wake Forest and is under contract for seven more seasons. More importantly, his team is in the midst of a critical ACC-stretch that will determine whether they make their sixth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The last thing the Deacs need is the uncertainty about their coaches future distracting them from their season.
Prosser's silence on the subject also makes recruiting more difficult. For all his faults as a coach, and there are many, Prosser is a top-notch recruiter who has scored commitment-coups by signing All-American players from North Carolina; players who, in the past, would have gone to Chapel Hill or Durham. But how effective will Prosser's sales pitch be to prospective players with these rumors floating overhead? It's one thing for a recruit to hear Prosser claim his allegiance to Wake Forest in a living room. Coaches would guarantee their first-born child to get a letter of intent, so his promises are unlikely to carry much weight during a visit. If he made a statement in a press conference that he intends to honor his contract at Wake Forest, however, it would send a message to the current players and recruits that Prosser is devoted to the Demon Deacons. Even if Prosser plans on bolting, this is a statement he has to make. Some might criticize him if he vows to stay and then leaves in April, but he has to act in the best interest of his current team right now, not his future one.
If Prosser does go, the question becomes, does his departure hurt or benefit the Wake Forest basketball program?
It's no secret I loathe Skip Prosser the coach. He had the most talented team in the country last year (yes, more talented than eventual national champs North Carolina) but couldn't even make it to the second weekend of the Tournament. Two years before, with ACC Player of the Year Josh Howard, Wake won the ACC regular season title but also failed to advance to the Sweet 16. Skip's teams have no defensive strategy and run their offense at an undisciplined, frenetic pace that works with star players (Chris Paul, Josh Howard) but suffers when the Trent Strickland's of the world have to play major minutes.
When teams force Wake into playing a half-court game the team struggles mightily, often holding the ball for twenty seconds before a guard tries (and inevitably fails) to take a defender off the dribble. Whereas great coaches like Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams can adapt their systems to their available talent, Prosser forces his talent into his system, even with players who clearly don't fit.
One of my main gripes with Skip the coach was on display last night in Wake's game against Georgia Tech. Up 27 points midway through the second-half, the Deacs began slowing the game down, a direct departure from the up-tempo play that got them ahead by such a large margin. Without a true point guard or any real offensive sets, turnovers and poor shots followed. In a seven-minute span, GT cut the lead to eight and had a chance to get it to five before Wake took back over the game, eventually winning by 15.
This type of conservative play has gotten the Deacs in trouble before (last year against West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament being the prime example), but Prosser has yet to alter his approach. Wake Forest thrives on pushing the ball; they are rendered ineffective any other way. A good coach would see this. Skip Prosser does not.
He's not all bad though. When Dave Odom brought the Demon Deacons back to national prominence after a twenty-year downturn, he did so largely with unheralded recruits like Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress and Josh Howard (McDonald's All-American Rodney Rogers was an exception). Recruiting was tough for Odom and he left Winston-Salem, in part, because he was upset with his inability to compete with Duke and UNC for blue chippers.
But Prosser proved that Wake could compete with, and even best, their Tobacco Road rivals. Eric Williams, Justin Gray and, most importantly, Chris Paul, were McDonald's All-American's from North Carolina and each was recruited heavily by the state's basketball powers. UNC, in particular, made a huge push to sign Gray. When he and Williams both signed with Prosser it sent shockwaves through the basketball community. A Prosser departure would cause the Deacs recruiting to take an immediate hit. If a good recruiter and coach is hired to fill his place, there's no reason to think it would stay that way though.
So who would replace Prosser at Wake Forest? The hot rumor has a three-way trade, of sorts, going down. Prosser would go to Cincinnati to fill the vacancy left by Bob Huggins. Huggins would, in turn, go to West Virginia to take over for John Beilein, thus giving the Mountaineers a marquee name and one capable of driving the team's graduation rate into the single digits. Beilein would then fill-out the menage-a-trois and end up in Winston-Salem. \
I'm on the fence with Beilein. Either his team overachieved last season in their run to the Elite Eight (they upset Prosser and Wake Forest in triple-OT along the way) or they underachieved all season (WVU was a #10 seed, after all). I also don't see Wake looking to a guy from West Virginia either; they tend to grab coaches from ACC schools or small, private universities like their own. Who knows how real this rumor is, but it sounds way too convenient to be anything more than a fantasy.
I hope Skip Prosser takes the job at Cincinnati and Wake Forest hires a young, talented assistant from somewhere in the ACC. It's time for a new coach to come in and teach players how to play basketball as a team, something Wake has never done under Skip. He's been great for the university and I'll wish him the best wherever he goes, but the Deacs have maxed out under his tutelage.

- You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? This one (below) is worth a thousand viewings of Funny Girl. Paulus and Dockery's rear-embrace made the back page of today's Washington Post, leading me to believe sports editor Emilio Ruiz-Garcia has the same feelings about the... preferences... of Duke players as I do.