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The Atlanta Braves' trade agreements are discussed by the gang at Radio Free Sports. (10:17)

Got this via e-mail today. Another great story about a great person.

The Best Ambassador
By Jill Bader, Wake Forest Class of 2005

I wasn’t lucky enough to know Coach Prosser personally. He was never my coach. I never sat next to Skip Prosser at dinner or a lunch and get to know his thoughts on the team or his philosophy on life. Instead, I was just a regular undergraduate at Wake Forest from ‘01 through ‘05—trying to figure out how to find family far from home, what my place in the world was supposed to be and how college was going to get me there.

I was never much of a basketball fan, either. I learned most of the rules of the game watching the Deacons from the stands with new friends from my freshman year.

But last week’s news of Coach Prosser’s death saddened me and immediately brought to my mind how much he was a perfect example of the soul of Wake Forest. He was the best ambassador. He had a gift for showing the world what it was about our school that made going there so special. His attitude on and off the court unified the students and fans, and his demeanor on TV was something to look up to. He made us, the students, proud – regardless of the final score.

Soon enough I became a fan who would camp out for big games to get good seats. When Coach Prosser would bring the team to the parking lot for ticket pick-ups with pizzas, I would be the first to cheer and smile. Sometimes, I would listen to games on the radio when I drove back home to Tennessee for the holidays. One year I trekked to New Jersey to the Sweet 16 to cheer on our team.

I started to really love the game, love the team and love my school. Looking back, I know Coach Prosser had a lot to do with that for me and I’m sure for many other students—because he brought a unified purpose and a pride of ownership for a team and school that had integrity and respect.

One time I ran into Coach Prosser in the school cafeteria and just told him, “Great game, coach.” He turned around, smiled and replied, “Thank you. The fans last night were great. We’re your team—the team for the students. Keep up the good work and be loud—we really like that.”

And that’s what I think most of the alumni I know will remember about Coach Prosser.

What we remember is this: Coach Prosser helped make us proud of Wake Forest. He made us proud of our school, and made us very proud to be a Demon Deacon.

We’ll miss him.

What a long, strange trip it's been for the Tour de France. The gang at Radio Free Sports discusses whether the world's premier cycling event can get back into high gear. (10:28)

Who is Mark Sutter, you ask? A fellow N&R employee, member of one of my fantasy football leagues and an ardent Detroit apologist.

That's why I assume Mark is giving people a big "See! I told you so!" today after the Sporting News named the Motor City it's No. 1 sports city for 2007.

But I've come not to praise Mark Sutter, but rather to ask where Greensboro has been buried in all this. G-Boro didn't even make the top 100. Ouch.

Heck, Winston-Salem was No. 69. Double ouch.

Good lord, Starkville, Miss. was No. 99. (banging my head against a wall now).

Actually that tells you that having a major Division I team in your town will trump a lot of things. Like having the ACC women's tournament annually, the ACC men's tournament most years, the NCAA regionals recently, two Division I programs (UNC and A&T) and easy access to all of the Big Four. Heck I didn't even mention that we're John Isner's hometown!

Perhaps we should just take solace that we didn't make SI.com's list of the Top Five worst sports cities.

I'd argue that maybe Atlanta is only second-worst, but really, when you're that low does it even matter?

Aside from Skip Prosser's death, what negative story lately has affected your overall impression of a sport the most? The gang at Radio Free Sports bets it has something do with a certain NBA referee. (9:29)

A week ago, Northern Guilford opened the school's first-ever football practice. The Nighthawks, with only freshmen and sophomores, will play a JV-only schedule this year.

Other fall sports begin practice today at Guilford County's first new public high school since Southwest opened its doors in 1978.

It'll be a new and exciting adventure for Herk DeGraw, who has coached soccer for about 28 years at Grimsley. He's wondering if he'll have enough players in purple-and-silver to field a varsity and JV boys soccer team this fall. The Nighthawks' first practice starts at 6:30 tonight on the outfield of the Northern middle school's softball field. A makeshift arrangement, to be sure.

"I just hope my daughter's still talking to me after the season," DeGraw said.

Blair DeGraw, who played for Greensboro Day and East Tennessee State, will be one of Herk's assistant coaches.

A look at pro tennis player John Isner, the pride of Page High School, and his tennis future after his surprise Legg Mason run. (8:54)

Imagine my surprise when, listening to the Phillies-Marlins game last night, I heard that Mauro Zarate was taking the mound for Florida in the fifth inning. My immediate thought: "Wait, wasn't this guy pitching in Greensboro just last year? And not very well, at that." Well, it was apparently his big-league debut.

He gave up a homer to Ryan Howard -- his 32nd -- and plunked Aaron Rowand while giving up three runs in the sixth inning.

Zarate actually fared better for the Grasshoppers than I'd remembered: 3-5, 3.19 ERA, 80 strikeouts in 79 innings. He was really tearing it up this year in the minors, with a 2.42 ERA in Jupiter, 1.40 at Double-A Carolina and 0.96 in Albuquerque. And there's your promotion.

Or Big John, or as I like to call him "The Is" - so I can say, "Nobody Beats The Is, Nobody!" (That's yet another deep reference to a Seinfeld episode - Nobody Beats the Wiz. And yes, I know I make a lot of Seinfeld references. You'll just have to deal with it if you want to read this blog, or have a conversation with either Jeff Carlton or me).

Isner's "out of nowhere" performance at the Legg Mason tourney last week has lots of tennis honchos talking. Given his four years at Georgia, it's no surprise that he's quickly become a poster boy for the "college tennis can be good for you," folks.

Naturally, there has been plenty of gushing over Isner's exploits. Not from John's mom, Karen, though, who admits she thought he'd go out in the first round in D.C.

Actually, the comments from Isner's mom may say as much about his fast start in pro tennis as anything else. After listening to many parents trumpet their kid as the next great thing, it's pretty refreshing to hear a parent admit that their kid is far outperforming her expectations. That approach, I think, is a big reason why Isner spent four years in college rather than rushing to turn pro and why he seems so ready for pro tennis now that he's there.

On second thought, after seeing this priceless video, I now know why Isner did so well in D.C. He had to have had one of the rowdiest cheering sections ever in a pro tennis tournament.

Chatting with new Southwest Guilford football coach Scott Schwarzer today, and it sounds like he's in need of a new secondary coach already. Todd Shuping, who resigned as Grimsley's head coach in June, had joined Schwarzer's staff at Southwest. But he apparently has been named defensive coordinator at North Rowan. His departure also means Southwest loses one of its contenders for starting quarterback. Shuping's son, Richard, was competing for the job.

Schwarzer says athletic junior Cory Brown will likely start at QB in the spread offense the coach brought with him from High Point Central, where he was Todd Staley's offensive coordinator. He'll have a heck of a target in senior receiver Darrius Little.

Over at Southeast Guilford last night, it was great fun hearing the give-and-take between the Falcons coaches and players during a rigorous workout -- or, rather, the give-give-give.

Such as this from head coach Fritz Hessenthaler to an assistant: "Coach, next time someone stands up in my $4,000 chute, they're going to get their (rear end) kicked!"

Or this from assistant Lynn Coble to a slow-footed player: "Hey, are we on a coffee break here? I like mine with cream."

Lest you think the coaches are too hard on their players, when an offensive lineman drove through tough defensive end James Pegues, "Coach Fritz" shouted in delight: "Oustanding! Out-freakin'-standing!"

They're talking about unfinished business at Southeast these days, knowing they've got the pieces to avenge last year's third-round playoff loss to conference rival Eastern Randolph and chase a championship ring.

Read more on the upcoming high school season next week in the News & Record. The first official varsity kickoff of 2007 comes next Friday night.

South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier has ruffled a few feathers by blasting the school's admissions process regarding two recruits denied academic entry. But does Spurrier have a point? (8:25)

You get your very own chat on ESPN.com. It's all happening for John Isner at 1 p.m. today. You can go here to submit a question.

Over/under on when John is spotted out in Hollywood with Paris Hilton, is three weeks. But Vegas may be forced to move the line if he does well in Cincy.

We'll have a story catching up with The Is in Sunday's paper, barring any unforseen circumstances.

It's that time of year when a young man's fancy turns to Fantasy Football. But what do you name your team? (8:31)

N.C. State thought it had quarterback Brent Schaeffer coming out of high school, only to lose him at the last second to Tennessee.

Then Schaeffer flamed out in Knoxville, got booted off the team and wound up in junior college in California.

The second time around, State was right there again for Schaeffer's signature, only to lose him at the last second to Ole Miss.

Schaeffer didn't exactly set the world on fire last season for the Rebels. Now, it looks like his days as a quarterback may be over. According to the Memphis Commericial-Appeal, Schaeffer's being move to wide receiver.

What does this mean for Wolfpack Nation? Not much, except that State fans can at least stop wondering about what "might have been" had Schaeffer ever shown up in Raleigh. Chances are, State probably would have been right where it is now - with a new coach at the helm and still looking for a QB to emerge from Philip Rivers' enormous shadow.

Area high schools might be willing to make small concessions to the oppressive heat, but they're not about to cancel Friday evening scrimmages just because the thermometer is at 100 degrees around 3 p.m.

For most area football teams, tonight will be the first opportunity of '07 to run plays against another school's defense and to tackle people in different uniforms. They don't want to pass that up. So they're basically just delaying the start of scrimmages a half-hour to an hour, allowing the sun to set a bit before pounding on each other.

Here are the new start times for the high school scrimmages I was able to track down today:

* The Alamance County Jamboree at Burlington Williams is expected to start at 7 instead of 6, as originally scheduled. Page, Eastern Alamance and Winston-Salem Carver will be participating along with host Williams.

* Grimsley's scrimmages at Davie County have been pushed back from 6:30 to 7. The Whirlies will be competing against Davie, Morganton Freedom and North Iredell.

* The Cummings Kickoff Classic appears to be going on as planned at 5:30. The Cavaliers and Western Alamance will each scrimmage for about an hour against Andrews and Lexington.

* High Point Central AD Mike Cook says that scrimmages at A.J. Simeon Stadium will start at 6:30 instead of 6, with Ragsdale, Eastern Guilford, Parkland and the Northern Guilford JV team also playing.

* Word is the FNB Southeast Football Jamboree at Rockingham County HS will play as scheduled Saturday, no matter how hot it gets. Too much money involved to delay, postpone or cancel. Fortunately, temps are expected to drop to a cool and comfortable 90 degrees by tomorrow. The Jamboree will feature all four Rockingham high schools as well as Northeast Guilford, Southern Guilford, Southwest Guilford and Western Guilford. ... The 4 p.m. scrimmage between Reidsville and Northeast Guilford features what may be the area's two best varsity teams. Not that Jimmy Teague or Tommy Pursley will be showing much of their playbooks.

Word of advice to those planning to attend any of these events: Find shade and lots of water.

Here are some eye-opening stats on John Isner from the folks in media relations for the ATP.

1) Isner cranked out 144 aces in his six matches at the Legg Mason Classic. That's the highest total in a non-grand slam (where you have the potential to play seven matches) since the ATP started keeping serve stats in 1991.

2) It's the highest total in any tournament since Mark Philippoussis (yes, the guy in Age of Love) pounded 178 aces at Wimbledon in 2003.

3) It's also the eighth highest total in any tournament, period, since 1991. The three highest totals were all compiled by "Never Borin'" Goran Ivanisevic, at Wimbledon. In 2001, Goran hit a mind-blowing 212 aces at Wimbledon. Kinda makes you wonder what The Is will do once he hits those slick lawns in south London, doesn't it?

4) ATP info guy Greg Sharko has searched through all the files, and as far as he can tell, no other player has ever won five straight matches in third-set tiebreakers, as Isner did at the Legg Mason tournament.

Isner's first-round opponent tomorrow at the ATP Masters tournament in Cincinnati is David Ferrer, the No. 16 player in the world. Obviously, given what we've seen from Isner, I think he has a shot at the upset, but the courts at Cincy are supposed to be a little slower than the surface in D.C. Will that make a big difference on Isner's serve? I kinda doubt it.

Another thing that I think plays in Isner's favor is the curious playing schedule Ferrer has followed. This will be his first tournament on hard courts since March. Since that time, he's played all his matches on clay, except for Wimbledon. That gives me the impression that Ferrer is a guy is much more comfortable on clay, like most Europeans, and would rather stay in Europe and keep his rankings up on the slower clay than take a chance playing in the U.S. on the faster hard courts. Now, though, he's back on hard courts as preparation for the U.S. Open. I would imagine this will be a bit of a shock to Ferrer's system, playing his first hard court match in five months against a guy with Isner's serving power.

Still, at some point Isner will need to break Ferrer's serve, which means outrallying a guy who's got the definite advantage in ground strokes. Either that, or it's play for the tiebreaks and hope Isner's success in those moments continues.

"Sweet Caroline" has been a staple of UNC fans, while Duke has been left looking for an appropriate answer ... until now.

Thanks to the seemingly endless array of talents that Shane Battier possesses, the Blue Devils can now respond with "Forever in Blue Jeans." Why? Because Mr. Battier has already taken to performing the tune in karaoke bars.

Kind of a Willam Shatner-spoken word type thing Battier had going there. Bonus points for the finger pointing to the crowd.

Credit to Deadspin and Sports Rumblings on this one.

Duke just sent out an announcement that its top linebacker, Michael Tauiliili has been reinstated. The junior linebacker had been away from the program since being arrested on Aug. 4 for a string of offenses - ranging from a DWI to hit-and-run and property damage - in a traffic accident.

The educated guess here is that something must have occurred to lessen the amount of trouble Tauiliili is in and that whatever that something was, it made Ted Roof feel comfortable enough to reinstate Tauiliili. Clearly though, as Roof made clear in the press release, the linebacker is not out of the woods.

"From the start, we wanted to reach a decision that is fair to Michael, our team, the athletic department and the university," Roof said. "We also will allow the judicial system run it’s course, and the outcome of that process could require further disciplinary action."

This originally looked like another preseason catastrophe (see Asack, Zack or injuries, critical) that have struck the Blue Devils with uncanny frequency in recent years. Now though, this may be a sign that Tauiliili's absence from the team will be a short-term one. He will, however, not play in the season-opener against UConn.

Tauiliili, orginally seen as a recruiting throw-in because of his friendship with star tackle Vince Oghabaase, has been the anchor of Duke's defense from his first game in royal blue. In 2005 as a true freshman he had 92 tackles and was named a Freshman All-America by The Sporting News. Last year he led Duke again in tackles, with 94.

It seems like an enternity since I blogged about John Isner, doesn't it? Well, not really. But after things came fast and furious at the Legg Mason tournament, we had a break from Isner blogging after he lost in the first round of the Cincy Masters (I'm scrapping that whole Western & Southern Financial thing, too long) to No. 16 David Ferrer (who went on to knock off Andy Roddick and reach the quarters).

Well, The Is (the key to making a nickname stick? Repetition, Repetition, Repetition) is back in action today in the first round of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament. And he's got a very winnable match. Why? Because he's already beaten his first-round opponent, Benjamin Becker. The Is (repetition, people) knocked off Becker in the second round at the Legg Mason tournament. They are the second match on Center Court in the evening session, which starts at 7 p.m.

So confidence should not be a problem for John (okay, even I was starting to get annoyed by The Is), whose ranking slipped down to No. 199 after he went a week without picking up a point.
The ranking stakes in this one aren't nearly as high as last week, but then again, the competition level at Cincy is arguably the highest on the tour - Grand Slams included. So if Isner knocks off Becker to make the second round, I believe he picks up five ranking points. I said believe, because it's hard to make sense of the ranking chart on this one.

You can follow along on the live scoring feed at www.pilotpentennis.com.

I feel like I should stand up in front of a room and say "Hello, my name is Jim Young and I ... am a voter in the AP football poll." Then everyone in the room would say "Hi, Jim" and I would begin my tale of woe.

Not that being an AP voter is some sort of addiction, but rather that I could probably use a support group. At the time, way, way back in early August, when I was offered the gig, I didn't think twice. It would be fun to be a pollster, I thought, to be a part of the process. Maybe interact with some fans from around the country.

Then I sat down to compile my preseason poll.

(As Bill Murray said in Stripes, 'And then, depression set in.')

Where to start? Where to end? What the heck to do in the middle? It was all so, overwhelming.

Here's the first problem you face when trying to construct a preseason poll. You have no results to work with. The results you do have are months old and are based on the performances of players who may or may not be at their schools now.

Problem No. 2 - Do you vote based on how you think team's will do record-wise, or how good they are as stand-along objects?

Here's my point. Let's take Auburn, a team I wrestled back and forth on for a long time in my poll. The Tigers are a perennial power in the SEC and there's no reason to think they won't be strong again this year. Their QB is back for his third year, they've got seven starters back on defense, including DE Quentin Groves - who is a terror - and they've still got Tommy Tuberville at the helm. So there's a lot to like. Definitely one of the 25 best teams in the country.

Then there's the schedule - a dicey early home against South Florida, a road game at Florida, a road game at Arkansas, a road game at LSU, a road game at Georgia. That's just brutal. I could easily see Auburn losing three of those games and wouldn't be shocked if they dropped four.

So, weighing what I thought of Auburn in a vacuum (pretty darned good) with what I thought of Auburn's likely final record (8-4 or 9-3) I put them at No. 23. I will now brace myself for the angry War Eagle emails that will fill my mailbox.

I had all sorts of debates like that while putting together this poll. Here are a few other highlights - or lowlights - of my first AP poll.

Staff writer Jim Young is one of 65 voters in The Associated Press national football poll. Clearly Jeff Carlton doesn't think he's qualified. Jeff grills Jim on his preseason poll selections in this edition of Radio Free Sports. (9:17)





Comment

Intern Matt Brooks is the special guest on this edition of Radio Free Sports, as he joins Jim Young and Jeff Carlton to talk about the Wyndham Championship, the FedExCup and what can be done to improve the field next year. (9:23)

It's another high school football Friday, so Jim Young and Jeff Carlton are talking about how several local teams have looked early on and just what, exactly makes the Mighty Nine so darned mighty. (9:25)

I'm not a mind-reader, but I'd have to think John Isner will get some decent air time on USA tomorrow (or this morning if you're reading this on Monday like most sane people).

Isner is scheduled to play No. 26 seed Jarko Nieminen (no, he did not play defense for the NY Islanders, that's Janne Niinimaa) as the second match in the 11 a.m. session in Louis Armstrong Stadium. USA's coverage runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The other match that's likely to be on at the same time that might cut into The Is's air time is No. 1 women's seed Justine Henin against Julia Georges. But really, which would you rather watch? Henin roll over some unknown? Or a rising U.S. star try to pull an upset? I know which one I'd choose. Let's hope the USA tv execs feel the same way.

Having entered a guilty plea to the court and having issued an apology to the public, Michael Vick has begun the process of image rehab. Don't be so sure that he's gone until 2010. He still has plenty of apologists in the media who will gladly fall for the Great Redemption Story, and he can turn the force of public opinion in his favor with a teary-eyed interview or 10. He hadn't even entered his plea on Monday and a throng of supporters, some of them confusing him with a civil-rights martyr, gathered on the courthouse steps to express their love.

So when he's back in the NFL fold in 2008 or 2009, where might he wind up?
** Baltimore: The Ravens have Ray Lewis. Why not Michael Vick?
** Washington: The Redskins have the NFL's largest stadium, perhaps its most passionate fan base and an egomaniacal owner who doesn't really care about appeasing anybody.
** Oakland: Who knows? Maybe JaMarcus Russell will still be a holdout. He also has the misfortune of playing for the most impatient owner in the league, which means he'll be unfairly derided if he's not a stud a year from now.
** Jacksonville: This city never should have gotten an NFL franchise in the first place. More than a decade after it was curiously awarded an expansion team, it is still a smaller TV market than the Triad. The Jaguars are next-to-last in the league in attendance as a percentage of published stadium capacity, and by the time Vick gets the go-ahead, they'll be desperate to fill seats.

Disregard the depth chart, Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said Tuesday. Micah Andrews, listed as Kevin Harris' backup at tailback, will likely start and get most of the touches when the Demon Deacons open their season at Boston College on Saturday.
The designation was a precautionary measure based on the season-ending knee injury Andrews suffered in last year's third game.
"We feel Micah is ready to go and -- as much as anything -- deserves a chance to go," Grobe said. "He'll start the game. Kevin will play. We'll going to see if Micah's back."
Redshirt freshman tailback Josh Adams is out with a shoulder injury but wasn't a lock to get much action anyway.
Among the more troublesome injuries is starting guard Jeff Griffin's knee ailment. He's listed as questionable.

Audio:
Kenneth Moore discusses Micah Andrews

Steve Justice on Wake's 2006 win over BC

Stanley Arnoux talks about the celebration after last year's win over BC

Actually, before we get into a discussion about John Isner's next singles match - it's roughly 8 p.m Wednesday night in Louis Armstrong Stadium against qualifier Rik De Voest. - we should revisit the issue of his nickname.

The obvious one is Big John, which is why we naturally avoided it. My first impulse - as always - was to go with a Seinfeld reference. So, playing off The Wiz episode (Nobody beats The Wiz! Nobody!) I went with The Is.

Upon further review, I've decided that this nickname might be a bit too obsure (I know, I know, hard to believe). Then I read an article this morning that said that the crowd was chanting "Let's go Izzy!" for Isner.

Hmm.....

Izzy's not bad. Kind of reminds me of former Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin. But it needs something more.

How about The Big Izzy? Not bad, huh? Whaddya say?

There, with that out of the way, we can talk more about The Big Izzy's next match. He's saying all the right things, but it has to be tempting for him to look past De Voest to the man he'd almost be certainly meet if he makes the third round - Roger Federer.

Still, I think The Big Izzy will stay on track. He's still new to this whole pro success thing, so every match is big - no matter who the opponent is. And he probably knows that a win means 40 more ranking points and a leap of about 20-25 more spots up the ATP ladder. Plus, it's not like John has been operating with a huge margin for error (tiebreaker anyone?) so I think he'll have the proper focus.

A couple of interesting tidbits. 1) Leyton Hewitt reportedly got ready for his first-round match against 6-5 Amer Delic by practicing with The Big Izzy. 2) Isner's first-round victim Jarko Nieminen couldn't help but gush about The Big Izzy's serve. Get a load of this.

"It was the most difficult serve I have returned," said Nieminen, who kept having to reach above his shoulders to try to put a racket on the ball. "This is the best serve I have seen."

Best serve he's ever seen? Hey, I've faced off against it and I'd have to agree. Of course, my frame of reference (S.C. junior tennis) isn't quite on the same level. But as a long time viewer of tennis on tv, I'd have to at least say it's the best serve I've seen since Goran Ivanesivic was in his prime.

3) Isner's in the doubles draw, as well with partner Scott Oudsema. Unfortunately, they've drawn the No. 1 seeds, the Bryan Brothers - Bob and Mike. Haven't figured out when they're going to play yet. For some reason, the match is not listed on the Wednesday schedule.

4) One other point. Watching American qualifier Scoville Jenkins get rolled by Roger Federer, I was struck by another argument for Isner's path to the pros. Jenkins was a hot commodity as a junior and turned pro at age 18 in 2004. Three years later he's struggling along, ranked No. 319. No longer a big name in U.S. tennis, Jenkins isn't getting wildcards anymore. Instead, he's having to fight his way through as a qualifier just to get into the main draw.

The lesson? You've got a limited window of opportunity right after you turn pro. If you've got some sort of buzz, as both Jenkins and Isner did, you'll get a few wildcards into ATP events. Do something with those wildcards - as The Big Izzy has - and you can pick up ranking points quickly, rise in the rankings and carve out a spot on the highest level of the tour, in the best events. Struggle during that period - as Jenkins did - and you'll have to grind your way up the ladder by earning a few points here and there in Futures and Challenger tournaments.

So you'd better be ready to go when you turn pro. At age 22, after four years in college, Isner clearly is.