Antwoine Key was coming into his own this season. The senior guard for Eastern Connecticut had five of the Warriors' first seven points in the opening minutes of their game on Thursday night and was jogging up the court when he collapsed.
Efforts to revive him were in vain. The 22-year-old team leader and popular student died a short time later at U-Mass. Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Mass. Yesterday, the close-knit campus in Willimantic, Conn., struggled to cope with a heartbreaking void.
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_____Game of the Week_____
Southern Illinois at Wichita State, 8 p.m. today
We're kidding, right? Nope. Perhaps no other contest will have more bearing on two teams' postseason hopes. The Salukis can seize control of the Missouri Valley Conference by beating the Shockers for the 11th time in their past 12 meetings. Southern Illinois (15-3, 6-0), which has won four games in a row and 11 of 12, is 5-1 in its last six games at Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena. With an RPI ranking of No. 40, the Shockers (12-2, 5-1) need to pick up more quality wins to assure themselves at-large consideration . Beating the Salukis would go a long way. "They're the team to beat," Shockers Coach Mark Turgeon said. "They haven't lost many games, and they just seem to win all the close ones."
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_____RPI Watch_____
How costly was George Washington's 76-74 overtime loss to Massachusetts last Saturday? On Jan. 11, the Colonials had a 10-2 record and were No. 18 in the Ratings Percentage Index. Now, despite its 12-3 record, George Washington is No. 53 in the RPI entering today's game at Richmond. While the Colonials' first Atlantic 10 loss hurt their RPI ranking, the league's mediocrity also is affecting it. Ten of the Colonials' victories came against teams ranked outside the top 150 of the RPI (the other two were against No. 29 Maryland and No. 31 Michigan State), and only one Atlantic 10 team, No. 44 Temple, is ranked in the top 50. George Washington is preparing for its toughest stretch of the season -- home games against the Spiders, Xavier and Dayton and road games at Temple and Richmond between now and Feb. 12. But the Spiders, Musketeers and Flyers all have RPI rankings of No. 137 or higher.
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_____Top Five Mid-Majors_____
Teams outside the top seven power conferences:
1. Gonzaga (13-4): The Bulldogs' 73-70 loss at San Francisco on Thursday night was their second in the West Coast Conference; they went 14-0 in the league last season.
2. George Washington (12-3): So the Colonials won't go undefeated in the Atlantic 10.
3. Southern Illinois (15-3): Salukis can take control of Missouri Valley Conference by beating Wichita State.
4. Wichita State (12-2): Shockers stumbled on the road at Indiana State last Saturday.
5. Vermont (12-3): Senior forward Taylor Coppenrath is nation's second-leading scorer with 24.9 points per game.
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"He was probably one of the best student-athletes I've ever met in terms of personality and work ethic," Athletic Director Joyce Wong said.
An autopsy was to be performed late yesterday or early today to determine cause of death. School officials said Key passed his preseason physical.
• COLLEGE FOOTBALL: A sixth South Carolina football player has been charged with stealing more than $10,500 worth of computer and video equipment from Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., university officials announced.
Former tight end Brian Brownlee was charged with grand larceny, a felony. An arrest warrant says Brownlee confessed to taking two laptop computers, each valued at $4,000, and two computer projectors, worth about $1,675 and $850. . . .
LSU Coach Les Miles' seven-year contract worth $1.25 million annually was approved unanimously by the university's Board of Supervisors.
• HOCKEY: Suspended NHL player Theo Fleury was cleared to play in an independent Canadian hockey league during the lockout. Fleury was cleared to play for the Horse Lake Thunder after a second appeal to Hockey Alberta, which had blocked him from playing. . . .
Peter Forsberg will miss the rest of the Swedish Elite League's regular season after breaking a bone in his hand while playing for his hometown team. Forsberg left Thursday's game in the third period of Modo's 3-2 overtime loss after colliding with Linkoping player Johan Franzen.
• WINTER SPORTS: Olympic champion Picabo Street will be among four people inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame on Jan. 28. Also selected were Donna Weinbrecht, Alan Engen and Thor B. Groswold. . . .
The men's World Cup Super-G on the Hahnenkamm course in Kitzbuehel, Austria, wiped out by bad weather, has tentatively been rescheduled for Monday.
Fog, snow and freezing rain remain in the forecast all weekend, endangering today's downhill and tomorrow's slalom.
-- From News Services
