Day goes from routine to anything but with death of Prosser

After jogging?

While taking care of himself?

While his career was in an upswing?

"He was only 56 and in good health," said Baylor coach Scott Drew. "He was a really nice guy who everybody respected. This is just devastating."

That's a word used often Thursday.

"It's devastating," said Memphis coach John Calipari. "It shows how fragile life is, and it's just absolutely sad."

Calipari, like Prosser, is a native of the Pittsburgh area. Their friendship dates decades, and Calipari took advantage of it a couple of years ago when he needed help with a zone offense because nearly every opponent was trying to offset the dribble-drive attack Memphis used to earn a No. 1 seed in the 2006 NCAA Tournament with a zone defense.

"I called Skip because he had done some good things against the zone with Chris Paul and those guys, and he helped me a lot," Calipari said Thursday. "He gave me everything, and then when the Wake Forest football team played at Mississippi (last year) he brought a bunch of alums and some administration people to look at our practice facility, and when he was there he got on the court and walked me through some more stuff with the zone offense.

"He was a great man," Calipari added. "I don't know of anybody who didn't like him."

As I typed this Thursday afternoon, there was still no confirmation from Wake Forest, nothing on the school's official athletic web site to indicate a tragedy has occurred. The "Top Story" was how three fan fests are to be hosted in the Triad area. There was also a video clip about the football team.

"Demon Deacon fans, it's time to paint it black!" was the voiceover heard during an advertisement for season ticket sales.

Sadly, the color was correct.

Even if the enthusiasm was off the mark.

Because it was a black day at Wake Forest, a tragic day in college basketball.