"Never pencil it in"

The most important lesson I've learned in life didn't occur in a classroom, but rather in the living room of my former middle school basketball coach, Cosey.

Cosey, a basketball man full of knowledge (who knows where Kevin Duckworth went to school), always preached one thing to me when watching a game: "Never pencil it in." In
other words, the game ain't over until the final buzzer sounds, until the clock shows 00:00, until the final out of the ninth inning has been made, until the 18th hole on Sunday is complete. You get the point.

And thanks to Cosey, I've seen some amazing finishes to games that others may have missed out on. A couple of my favorite basketball comebacks: Duke storming back
from 10 down in the final minute to force overtime and beat Maryland about five years back; Tracy McGrady single-handedly bringing Houston back from a 12-point deficit in the final 35 seconds against the Spurs two seasons ago, scoring 13 straight points for an 81-80 victory; Illinois coming back from a 15-point deficit against Arizona
with four minutes left in the Elite Eight two years ago (the Illini won in OT).

Basketball isn't the only sport in which there have been many incredible comebacks. How about football? How about this year? How about yesterday? I didn't see it, but what influenced me to write this column was Tennessee's improbable comeback from a 21-0 hole against the New York Giants - all in the final 10 minutes – to win 24-21. The Titans didn't score until 9:35 remained, and yet they were able to add two more touchdowns and then a field goal with six seconds remaining to embarrass the G-Men (6-5), who had much more to play for than the 4-7 Titans.

And to think that probably half the stadium was empty for this Music City Miracle. Or maybe not. Maybe the fans remembered the franchise's proudest moment - the first Music City Miracle in the 2000 playoffs, when the Titans returned a kickoff for a touchdown on the final play of the game.

Nothing in sports is more exciting than a comeback. Nothing. Baseball has seen its share of comebacks. Even both sides of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry have experienced the thrill of overcoming enormous odds. Of course we all know the Red Sox Story. Down three games to none in the 2004 ALCS to those hated Yanks and trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4, Dave Roberts scored the tying run and David Ortiz ended it in extras. The Sox also won in extra innings the next night and went on to win the series 4-3.

Now, c'mon. Would that have been as memorable if the Sox had taken it in five games? Nope. No way. That's why the World Series sweep of the Cardinals seemed like a letdown. The ALCS was the real Series. And although the Yankees lost the 2001 World Series, Games 4 and 5 were almost as memorable as Arizona’s Game 7 comeback. The Yankees gave New York something to cheer about less than two months after 9/11, hitting two-run homers on back-to-back nights when they trailed by two runs with two out in the bottom of the ninth. They went on to win both games.

I have always despised the Yankees, but those two nights were pretty special.

Now that Andre Agassi is retired, we can reminisce about his greatest
moments. It wasn't a championship moment, but how about when he came
back from a two-sets-to-none hole against James Blake in the 2005 US
Open to win in five sets. Arthur Ashe Stadium was absolutely rocking.
Sitting 500 miles away watching on TV, I got the chills just watching
it on my old-school 20-inch idiot box.

Golf is different in that you can't mitigate your opponents' play. But that doesn't make a
comeback any less exciting. No golf fan will ever forget the 1996 Masters, where Greg Norman opened the final day with a six-stroke lead, but struggled to a 78. Nick Faldo took the serendipity and ran with it, shooting a 67 to win his third Green Jacket by a whopping five strokes. Just between the ninth and 12th holes, Norman went from three up to two down.

Sports are incredible because on any given day, in any given game, anything can happen. And you have to keep saying that until the final horn.

Most athletes understand this. But not all fans, media members and others do. Sure, players for the Giants were shocked after the game Sunday, feigning disbelief at the catastrophe that had just enveloped them. But members of the Titans weren't saying anything about "shock." They had simply kept playing, never losing hope.

Never penciling it in.