The NBA Draft is right around the corner, and as much as individual talent will be a factor, the program from which a player comes will also figure heavily in the equation when NBA general managers begin their search for the next great NBA star. One program in particular stands out as the NBA’s second round gives us Chris Paul and Tim Duncan head-to-head, and that program is none other than Wake Forest University.

Current NBA Players: Wake Forest has never been known as a program that turns out superstars, but it’s clear they’ve taken things to a new level. Chris Paul finished second in MVP voting this year after leading the NBA in assists and steals, Tim Duncan has been the MVP twice and is the holder of four NBA championship rings, and the Dallas Mavericks‘ Josh Howard is one of the rising stars in the league after being named to last year’s All-Star team. The Wizards’ Darius Songalia is also a former Demon Deacon.

All-Time Greats: Muggsy Bogues isn’t the best player to come out of the Wake Forest program, but he is probably the most memorable. As one of the shortest players in the history of the NBA, Bogues nonetheless, was a driving force behind the Charlotte Hornets team that featured Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson. Rusty LaRue spent three of his five NBA seasons with the Chicago Bulls; Frank Johnson had a long career with the Washington Bullets, spent a year with the Rockets, and then helped Charles Barkey’s Suns push the playoff envelop. Rodney Rodgers spent twelve seasons in the NBA, consistently ranking among the top three-point shooters, earning Sixth Man honors  for the  99-00 season, and  was a key piece of the New Jersey team that made it to the Finals in 2003. Finally, Len Chappel never achieved the same level of greatness in the NBA that he did when he was dominating the ACC, where he was recently named an ACC Legend, but he did spend nine years in the ABA and then NBA averaging 9.3 points for his career.

Future Prospects: Wake Forest’s basketball program was recently among those recognized for academic excellence, but where do they lie in terms of potential draft impact? The Demon Deacons aren’t expected to have a player in the 2008 draft, but James Johnson is predicted to be a first-rounder in 2009.

The Wake Forest basketball program may not have a stories history of producing NBA champions like some of the other big-name college programs, but in the current era of NBA playoff basketball no team has had a bigger impact on the NBA. Tim Duncan has been an NBA champion four times, and if he’s unseated this year it may be Chris Paul who does the unseating. Where academic and athletic excellence meet, a quality program is found. They’re definitely doing something right in North Carolina.

America’s Baseball Camps welcomes the addition of Deacon Baseball camps at Wake Forest University to the ABC family of college and youth baseball camps. The baseball staff of Deacon Baseball takes camps to a new level. Joining the ABC family, these baseball camps in North Carolina will be offered throughout the year and we welcome North Carolina baseball camps.

Founded in 1834, as the Wake Forest Institute of Manual Labor, it became Wake Forest University in 1967. With “Pro Humanitate” , which translates to “for the good of the humanity” as its motto, Wake Forest encourages its students to use their knowledge to serve others. As a result, the majority of the strudent body participates in a volunteer activity while in school.

Wake Forest University-Deacon Baseball is the second smallest school in the nation to have teams participate in Division 1-A athletics.

IN THE NEWS: Thomas Hearn officially stepped down as president of Wake Forest University (N.C.) in June. Hearn, who had led the private university for 22 years, is credited with raising the school’s status from respected regional university, to a national institution with a “Southern accent,” according to Murray Greason, chair of the board of trustees.

Hearn told the press that his early years were the hardest. During that time, he changed the relationship between Wake Forest and North Carolina’s Baptist Convention. Until Hearn came along, the convention appointed the university’s trustees. Hearn, a one-time seminarian, broke the strong ties between the university and the church, moving Wake Forest toward self-governance. He paid a price in those early years, as he cast about for other financial supporters. Today, Wake Forest has an $800 million endowment, up from $125 million since the mid-1980s. In 2003, Hearn suffered a brain tumor and took time off. He came back to run Wake Forest last year, but immediately announced his plans to retire…

Everyone with an itch —- or a dog —- knows how blissful it is to scratch, and how hard it can be to stop. Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center think they know why. In a first-ever study, the scientists used imaging technology to look at what happens in the brain when we scratch. They found that scratching actually suppresses brain activity associated with bad feelings and memories. It also stimulates parts of the brain associated with compulsive behavior —- which could explain why some of us keep at it even when we know we shouldn’t. Dr. Gil Yosipovitch, a dermatologist and itch specialist who led the Wake Forest team, said the new findings, which were published online recently in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, may point the way to new treatments for the itchiest among us —- people with hives, poison ivy and chronic conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. Severe itch is also a misery for cancer and kidney patients, who develop itches as a side effect of treatment…

6/12/08

President Nathan O. Hatch
Wake Forest University
211 Reynolda Hall
P.O. Box 7226
Winston-Salem, NC 27109

President Hatch,

I am contacting you today in regard to experimental procedures used by several researchers at the Wake Forest University. The primary researcher in question is: Terrence R. Stanford. This research project uses macaque monkeys in procedures that are highly questionable from a scientific point of view, and are also highly stressful and painful for the primates.

For your information, this project involves literally bolting restraining bars and recording cylinders to their skulls, depriving primates of water for extended periods of time, and confining them to restraint chairs (see: J Neurophysiol 90: 2029-2052, 2003). According to statements from experts in veterinary medicine these procedures definitely cause pain and distress, and some experts even consider them to be unethical (see attachments).

I am concerned that these experiments may lead to Animal Welfare Act violations within Wake Forest University labs. As you know, according to the Animal Welfare Act:

Sec. 2.36 Annual report.

(7) State the common names and the numbers of animals upon which teaching, experiments, research, surgery, or tests were conducted involving accompanying pain or distress to the animals and for which the use of appropriate anesthetic, analgesic, or tranquilizing drugs would have adversely affected the procedures, results, or interpretation of the teaching, research, experiments, surgery, or tests. An explanation of the procedures producing pain or distress in these animals and the reasons such drugs were not used shall be attached to the annual report;

It is clear that the experiments of the project listed above would fall into the category of unrelieved pain and distress for the animals involved. Failure to accurately report this experiment to the USDA is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act.

I am also concerned that Wake Forest researchers may be violating regulations for proper watering of primates as a part of the experiment that utilizes water deprivation.

In light of these issues, I officially request that your office suspend this project while instituting an investigation to ascertain whether it is following all legal requirements. I also officially request the opportunity to tour the laboratories in question, and examine the veterinary records for the macaque monkeys used in this experiment.

I would also like to request a meeting with Wake Forest University officials to discuss the permanent elimination of such research practices at Wake Forest University. To prevent any confusion about these issues, the procedures that should be eliminated from all Wake Forest University laboratories are:

1. The use of food and/or water deprivation in non-human primates for any reason but pre-surgical fasting. Depriving non-human primates of sustenance for extended periods as is currently practiced at Wake Forest University laboratories is inhumane, unethical, and has been declared causative of pain and distress by scientific experts.

2. The surgical attachment of devices such as restraining bars and recording cylinders to the skulls of non-human primates. These devices have also been declared by experts to cause pain and or distress in primates.

3. The use of primate restraint chairs in projects involving non-human primates. These devices severely restrict the movement of primates and have been declared by experts to cause substantial distress.

Wake Forest University uses a over 1300 primates in experiments every year. I believe it is very likely that some of these animals are killed unnecessarily, when they could be retired to a primate sanctuary to live out their lives in a place that is designed to meet their needs. Therefore, I respectfully request that the Wake Forest University institute a fully funded retirement program for all primates that are not currently utilized in ongoing research projects.

I will look forward to your response within five business days.

With Respect For All Life,

Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T.,
Executive Director, SAEN

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The campus quad looked much as it did after some memorable basketball wins at Wake Forest. Toilet paper hung from trees and fluttered in the breeze as if a traditional victory party had just ended.

On Friday, it was there for a different reason: to honor Skip Prosser.

The coach — who led the Demon Deacons to their first No. 1 basketball ranking three seasons ago — died Thursday of an apparent heart attack, leaving the university in grief as it tried to move forward.

“It’s something that he would have enjoyed,” said Patrick Crist, a senior history major. “I think this is probably one of the best tributes we could have given him — especially on such short notice. But I think it’s something he’s probably looking down on and appreciating.”

Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman said arrangements for a funeral or memorial service are incomplete, though a campus prayer service is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Wait Chapel. He wouldn’t talk about the future of the program and its assistant coaches, or when he would be ready to hire a new coach.

“Our intent and goal the next few days is to honor Skip and support the family,” Wellman said, “and all those other matters are being pushed back until after this most important matter has been satisfied.”

But it was clear the campus was trying to come to terms with the loss of the 56-year-old coach, who was found slumped on his office couch and unresponsive by director of basketball operations Mike Muse shortly after returning from his noon jog Thursday. Medical personnel performed CPR and used a defibrillator on Prosser, who was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and pronounced dead at 1:41 p.m.

Dr. William Applegate, dean of the university medical school, said the events were “typical of a sudden massive heart attack.”

Now the same quad where students used to gather after big sports victories stands as a tribute to Prosser, who was honored as the Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year after leading the Demon Deacons to the league’s regular-season title in 2003. The coach had even occasionally appeared there over the years to enjoy the celebrations.

Near the campus’ Wait Chapel, someone placed a bouquet of white roses. A sign near the quad entrance read, “Thanks for the memories, Skip.”

“It takes time,” said football coach Jim Grobe, who led the Demon Deacons to the Orange Bowl last season. “I don’t think it can happen overnight. Skip was a bigger-than-life guy. Everybody knows those kind of people. They just have a twinkle in their eye. Whenever you were around Skip, he just made you feel good. You just knew you were going to enjoy being with him.”

Dean Buchan remembers Prosser much the same way. Now the assistant athletic director for media relations at Georgia Tech, Buchan spent the past seven years in a similar position at Wake Forest and worked closely with Prosser.

Buchan remembered a shootaround at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium in 2006. Prosser climbed into the empty courtside bleachers that are home to the famously rowdy “Cameron Crazies” and pretended to be one himself — a moment Buchan captured by taking a picture with his cell phone.

“Skip was definitely not serious all the time,” Buchan said. “Inside the lines, when the clock was running, yeah, you didn’t mess with Skip. But outside the lines, he was somewhat of a character.”

The university said Friday that Prosser’s youth basketball camp, scheduled to begin Monday, would go on and the basketball staff would work with the 170 campers in tribute to the coach.

It’s unclear how the basketball program will proceed. Wellman said Thursday night it was too soon to consider the next coach.

“We are about the business of honoring Skip right now,” he said.

Among the questions: What will happen with the strong recruiting class Prosser was building this summer? The commitments included forward Al-Farouq Aminu of Norcross, Ga. — ranked No. 3 nationally by Scout.com — as well as center Ty Walker of Wilmington, N.C., ranked No. 14 by Scout.com.

“The only two recruiting classes in the country that could be mentioned in the same breath were Wake Forest and UCLA,” said Dave Telep, basketball recruiting editor for Scout.com. “They were the toast of the town at the midway point of the summer. They were riding high.

“There’s no protocol for what happened [Thursday]. As a game, we don’t have a parliamentary procedure for when a head coach dies before you ever get to campus. I think right now in this part of the country, everyone is in a complete state of shock.”

Wake Forest Institute, founded in 1834 in the forests of Wake County, North Carolina, was chartered as a college in 1838. The college moved to Winston-Salem in the Carolina Piedmont in 1956 and became a university in 1967. The Wake Forest College Medical School was established in 1902. Two years after its opening, it received approval from the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges.
At the time of its opening, this medical school was one of only 11 of the 166 medical schools requiring two years of college for entrance. This emphasis on academic and clinical excellence continued through the formative years of the school and through its move to Winston-Salem in 1941.

Renamed the Bowman Gray School of Medicine after the benefactor who made the move to Winston-Salem possible, the school became the second four-year medical school in North Carolina, beginning its association with North Carolina Baptist Hospital at that time.

In 1998 the School’s name was changed to “Wake Forest University School of Medicine” in order to more clearly reflect its relationship to the University.

Today, Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM) occupies a firm position among the best medical schools in the United States. The desire to teach excellence in clinical medicine, promote strong clinical and basic research, render exemplary patient care, and stress service to the community has continued as an integral part of WFUBMC through the tremendous growth that has occurred and is still occurring.