When he was apparently murdered, he was building bridges between crime and decency. Howard Porter was a probation officer working the potholed back streets of St. Paul, Minn. And so it would be that for all his efforts, some work would be left incomplete.

There is no clause in the NCAA rulebook for the reward of community service, for if there were, Porter, the finest center in Big 5 history, long ago would have been a free man. Instead, his memory and name remain incarcerated, locked down in the list of NCAA men's basketball tournament Most Outstanding Players.