It was a frustrating afternoon for Jackson State golfer Tim O’Neal. He was having one of his best days striking the ball from tee to green. Just one thing was missing.

“I couldn’t putt it in the ocean,” the 37-year-old former PGA and Nationwide Tour golfer says of his frustrating performance at a tournament at SMU roughly 15 years ago. “I walked over to Coach Payton and said, ‘Coach I cannot make a putt.’ He thought a moment then offered: ‘Hit it closer to the pin.’”

• Christian Laettner, Duke
  1992 East Regional Finals (vs. Kentucky)

Athlon Sports: HBO Sports did a documentary on the peak of your career called “Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV” that recently debuted and is airing all month. I know you saw an advanced screening of the hour-long program at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas back in February. What did you think?

Jerry Tarkanian: The parts on me were really good. I just thought they went too easy on the NCAA. But that’s because I’m so bitter about them.

In 18 seasons of coaching Scott Drew has always maintained his composure at the end of the game. He’s never — ever! — run onto the court to celebrate a last-second victory.

Well, okay, he confesses, there was that one time.

“Everybody on the bench lost it when it went in,” Drew says of Valparaiso’s buzzer-beating win over Ole Miss in the 1998 NCAA Tournament. “It was a release of emotion. I ran out and jumped on the pile.”

Athlon Sports: You’re a big sports fan, and I know you’ve kept your home in northern California. But now that you live year-round in New Jersey, have you switched loyalties?

1. Best rotation in history?

It might have been the most mind-bending free agent decision ever. Of all the teams to sign Clifton Phifer Lee, who would have guessed it would be the Philadelphia Phillies? After all, the Phillies had traded Lee last December, and loaded up on two other expensive aces, Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. Why would they need another No. 1 starter? And why would Lee return to the team that rejected him — for $28 million less than the Yankees offered to pay him?

The delay has shrunk. It’s down to three hours now. That’s not too bad, since the first time, it was six-and-a-half hours. So, progress. Pretty soon, Arsalan Kazemi will be able to fly into Houston and proceed directly to baggage claim, rather than being detained. Security officials will no longer try to determine whether he has come to pick up enriched uranium or plans for secret entrances into the Pentagon.

Logic, and 100-plus years of baseball history, would suggest that there must be a level of professional baseball at which Bryce Harper meets failure, where he finally encounters pitching he cannot simply overpower, where the 18-year-old prodigy is made to look his age.

They all want to talk about “The Shot,” or at least it seems that way to Allan Houston. He doesn’t go two days without hearing someone remind him of the most famous moment of his career. The one that altered careers, salvaged reputations and ultimately earned Houston the richest contract in New York Knicks history.

“I always get people coming up to me and saying, ‘Man, I’ll never forget that shot,’” Houston says. “They remember it like it was yesterday. It’s part of the history of the Knicks, and that’s the cool thing about it. I’m a part of Knicks history.”

In 1959, Vince Lombardi left his hometown of New York City and set out for tiny Green Bay, Wisc. Taking his first head coaching job with the Packers at the age of 45, Lombardi knew this was his first — and last — chance to make it big.

And make it big he did. In only nine years in Green Bay, Lombardi won enough championships, influenced enough people, and uttered enough memorable phrases to earn a place among the great icons of American sports. Even the NFL’s most coveted prize, the Super Bowl trophy, bears his name.