It was a shock to read this morning that former Penn basketball star Matt White is dead, stabbed to death allegedly by his wife of many years.

For years I played pick up ball with him in Swarthmore where he lived for many years.

At 6-11, he was by far the most talented and dominating player on the court but, knowing that, he rarely shot the ball. He rebounded, set sun-blocking picks, and passed the ball to teammates far less likely to make a shot than he was. When they missed he'd often get the rebound and pass it out to another teammate for them to shoot. He was the consummate team player.

In recent years, I stopped seeing him at the gym where we used to play, only finding out later that he'd had a stroke and didn't play basketball anymore. He was only 55 when he died the other day. His wife is in prison, charged with murder after delivering a bloody note to a neighbor reportedly warning about the end of the world.

She was a instructional support teacher at Nether Providence Elementary School. In other words, a team player herself. This is an awful tragedy.

UPDATE: Forget the "end of the world" warning. I just got a hold of the police report and it says, White's wife stated: "I caught him looking a pornography, young girls, I love kids. I had to do it."

More later.