College Basketball

•Austin Peay, with an average losing margin of 19 points in road defeats at Illinois, Michigan, Wichita State, Toledo, Providence and Oklahoma. "My team hasn't come together and jelled the way I hoped it would," says coach Lake Kelly, who acknowledges that guarantees of between $15,000 and $20,000 per game helped ease the pain.

•Grambling, 2-11 in its nonconference games, all of them on the road. Says Southwest Missouri coach Charlie Spoonhour of the Bears, "They've been on the road longer than Custer." And with similar results, including massacres at Wichita State (93-80), Auburn (98-59), Michigan (78-61), Minnesota (106-82) and Iowa State (99-81).

•Penn, whose 2-9 record at week's end included losses to this decidedly un-Ivy group of opponents: UCLA, Georgia Tech, Indiana, UC Santa Barbara, Temple, Villanova and Notre Dame. Average losing margin: 33 points.

INSPIRED PLAY

While Georgia State's crushing schedule left it with a 5-10 record, its season has nonetheless been lifted by the inspirational efforts of Willie Brown, the Crimson Panthers' 6'7" center. At the end of last week Brown was averaging 10.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game, good numbers made better by the fact that he's deaf. "Willie's not gifted with great speed or quickness, but he's got an incredible work ethic," says Reinhart, whose assistant, Carter Wilson, is adept in sign language.

Brown, a junior art and physical education major and an accomplished painter, has earned the admiration of his teammates. Says Reinhart, "They see Willie not as a deaf basketball player but as our starting center."

SHORT SHOTS

The most dominant team in college basketball may be St. John Fisher of Rochester, N.Y., a Division III women's outfit that has outscored its opponents by an average of 44 points a game. The Cardinals were 16-0 and ranked No. 1 at week's end....

Talk about tough luck. New Mexico State's eight losses have been by a combined 26 points....

Oklahoma coach Billy Tubbs is getting annoyed by the slow-down tactics employed by Sooner opponents. "Those darned conference games," he says. "It's like going to a waltz. It sure ain't like going to a disco." ...North Carolina's Jeff Lebo has attempted more three-point field goals than two-pointers, and he's converting them at a higher percentage. He's 36 for 73 (49.3%) from treyland and 20 for 56 (35.7%) on twos....