Deacons recruiting class forms bond in coach's death

Norcross (Ga.) forward Al-Farouq Aminu is the centerpiece of Wake Forest's recruiting class. Kelly Kline

For Anjirlic Aminu, the mother of highly recruited Norcross (Ga.) forward Al- Farouq Aminu, the cutthroat, win-at-all costs nature of the recruiting game had finally reached laughable proportions last July.

Having already navigated the muddy recruiting waters a year earlier with her oldest son, Alade, who decided to attend Georgia Tech, she had recently assisted Al- Farouq (6-foot-8, 210 pounds) in choosing Wake Forest. By all counts, her two-year recruiting odyssey appeared to have run its course 13 nights earlier when Al-Farouq made a midnight phone call to give Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser a verbal commitment. In addition to becoming a Demon Deacon, he was now the centerpiece of a three-star recruiting class that included top-20 recruits Tony Woods (6-foot-11, 230) and Ty Walker (6-foot-11, 215). "For me, it wasn't about the basketball for Al, I just wanted to see the setting and people he was with," says Anjirlic. "Skip and the staff had the right philosophies I wanted my child to be around."

But there she was in downtown Atlanta on a Thursday afternoon July 26. With Al-Farouq playing for the Georgia Stars at the AAU Nationals in Orlando, Fla., she decided to visit Alade at Georgia Tech. "[Alade] was just standing there, and he says, 'Skip Prosser died'," says Anjirlic, who had not yet been informed of the coach's heart attack and death. "I thought he was kidding. I said to him and his coach, 'You Georgia Tech people will do anything to get Al-Farouq to change his commitment.' I just kept laughing because there was no way I thought it could be true. It took four or five times for me to believe it."

It was no joke, though. Prosser had passed. Soon after, the Aminu family received a phone call from the Wake Forest staff, informing them of the tragedy. One of the other recruits, Woods, was with Al-Farouq at the AAU event when Anjirlic phoned her son to let him know. "I was just shocked at first," says Al- Farouq, who stayed committed to Wake and signed a Letter of Intent last week. "Maybe I thought for a second about decommitting. Others may have questioned whether we would change our minds, but we were committed throughout."

To the NCAA's credit, Wake Forest was granted an exemption during August's quiet recruiting period to re-visit the trio's homes and offer its recruiting pitch again after Prosser's longtime assistant Dino Gaudio was given the job. "It was funny at first because with coach Gaudio as the coach now the staff took on a different look, but it was the same feel. Different guys were in different positions, but you could tell he had a lot of coach Prosser in him," says Al-Farouq.

For Gaudio, the whirlwind of change that swept through Winston-Salem, N.C. affected him and made him re-examine his priorities, both in recruiting and personally, while recounting his mentor's final steps. In the week that Prosser died, the 14-year head coach had flown to Las Vegas Monday to evaluate players there, then took a red eye back to Orlando on Tuesday. He never slept and watched basketball that entire day into the night. On Wednesday morning he went for a run. Another complete day of eyeing talent took up Wednesday before having dinner at 10:30 p.m. with his son, Mark, an assistant at Bucknell and Bucknell head coach Pat Flannery. He walked out of the restaurant at midnight, and while his flight was scheduled for 10:30 the next morning, he scheduled an earlier flight at 6 a.m. in order to spend more time at Wake Forest's youth basketball camp. "The day he died, he has planned on coming back after the camp to see the Georgia Stars play at 7 that night," says Gaudio. "That's the craziness of the season. I was going to pick him up at the airport. Obviously I never made that trip to the airport. He was supposed to see Al-Farouq and Tony [Woods] play."

Three weeks after Gaudio's home visit with the Aminu family, the three recruits took unofficial visits together for Wake Forest's football game against Nebraska. There was Gaudio, chauffeuring Anjirlic back to her car outside BB&T Field following Wake Forest's 20-17 loss to the Huskers. En route, with the visit nearing its end, she turned and told the coach that she was happy that her son had decided to come to Wake Forest. "That meant the world to me," says Gaudio. "I never thought they wouldn't come, but that was so kind and reassuring."

Adds Al-Farouq, "I think there is a memory we play for now with Coach Prosser. I wanted to play for him, but I think we have a special bond to play on."

Last Wednesday, when the faxes had poured in to the compliance office and the one of nation's top classes was complete, Gaudio was at practice working with Prosser's players and settling back to normalcy. The future Deacons had text messaged each other, but the first-year coach was now still putting it all into its proper context. "Skip called me the day that Al-Farouq and Tony first committed while I was on the road," says Gaudio. "We already had Ty [Walker]. He was so happy. Skip deserves all the credit here. He said we were going to be good again with these kids. When their faxes came in, I didn't really react. I knew they were coming."