One of the top assistant coaches in the country is leaving the business.

Xavier’s 36-year-old associate head coach Pat Kelsey, who made a surprise move two years ago when he left Wake Forest to join Chris Mack on the Musketeers staff, has resigned for personal reasons.

Kelsey told me that his health is fine – and so, too, is the health of his wife and two young daughters.

Everything changed, Kelsey said, the day that he watched Skip Prosser die four years ago.

``He was my mentor,” Kelsey said. ``The whole grind of what we do became less important to me from that moment on.”

Kelsey still loves to coach, but he’d find himself on recruiting trips and in airports wondering why he wasn’t with his family.

Kelsey spurned several head coaching opportunities, the latest at Towson.

``Family is the most important thing to me,” he said. ``At the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.”

It may have taken a life-altering tragedy, but Kelsey certainly has perspective.

And respect.