Indiana Pacers forward Jermaine O?Neal made his return to the lineup in Monday?s 105-85 victory over the Miami Heat.

O?Neal had missed the last 33 games with a sore left knee but returned to practice on March 19.

The six-time All-Star came off the bench and played 17 minutes, scoring nine points on 3-of-4 shooting to go with two rebounds.

The 6-11 O?Neal underwent surgery on the knee last April and has clearly been affected by the injury, averaging 15.3 points and 7.3 rebounds in 33 games this year - numbers that have declined from previous seasons.

Indiana (31-43) has now won six of its last eight contests, and are currently three games behind Atlanta (34-40) for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Stung by the cascade of boos that rained from the crowd at the end of the second period, Sabres forward Thomas Vanek gave Buffalo fans something big to cheer about in the third.

Vanek scored three consecutive goals in less than 8 minutes, including the winner with 6:46 remaining, as Buffalo scored six third-period goals in a a 7-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.

?It?s a good thing they stuck around,? Vanek said, referring to the fans after helping the Sabres rally from a 4-1 deficit. ?We didn?t make it easy for us, but it?s good to know we can come back.?

Besides winning their third straight and overcoming a three-goal deficit for the first time since a 5-4 win against Toronto last March 23, the Sabres also stayed firmly in playoff contention. Buffalo inched to within a point of idle Philadelphia, which holds the Eastern Conference?s eighth and final playoff spot.

The Sabres also jumped back into ninth place, a point ahead of Washington after the Capitals? 5-0 loss at Chicago later in the evening.

Apparently, Mike Krzyzewski is not the type to leave the past in the past. Krzyzewski never was a NBA coach.

Duke entered this edition of March Madness on a rare NCAA tournament losing streak, and Krzyzewski was not about to let his players overlook that fact.

OK, so it?s only a two-game skid. But still. Duke is Duke, and Coach K is Coach K.

?The sophomore class,? he reminded everyone on the eve of the tourney?s tipoff, ?they haven?t won a game in the NCAA tournament yet, because we got beat by Virginia Commonwealth last year in the first round.?

In 2006, Duke fell in the round of 16.

So that made for consecutive defeats heading into Thursday night?s first-round matchup between the No. 2-seeded Blue Devils (27-5) and No. 15 Belmont (25-8) in the West Regional.

Everyone associated with Duke is well aware what happened last spring.

?There?s constant reminders from everybody, whether it?s coach or it?s us. We don?t want it to happen again,? guard Greg Paulus said. ?It?s not something you can forget. It?s something we want to use to help us.?

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The Alamodome is a 65,000 seat, multi-purpose facility that is primarily used as a football/basketball stadium and convention center in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The facility opened on May 15, 1993, at a cost of $186 million. Alamodome is home of 2008 Final Four!

Along with placating the San Antonio Spurs ownership?s demands for a larger basketball venue, the multi-purpose facility was intended to increase the city?s convention traffic and attract a professional football franchise. The Spurs played basketball in the Alamodome for a decade, but became disenchanted with the facility and convinced Bexar County to construct them and the San Antonio Livestock Exposition Inc. a new arena now called the AT&T Center.

The Alamodome was constructed after voters in 1989 approved a five-year, half-cent sales tax increase that was collected by VIA Metropolitan Transit, the local transit authority. Upon completion of the facility, it was nearly debt-free and showed a net operating profit within its first two years of operation. On June 9, 1994, ownership of the Alamodome was transferred from the transit authority to the City of San Antonio.

On April 15, 2005, the San Antonio City Council voted to spend close to $6.5 million to renovate the Alamodome in an effort to lure a Major League Soccer franchise to the city. After the election of Phil Hardberger as the new mayor, those efforts were abandoned, though the approved renovations to the facility will continue as planned. The city administration and local business leaders have re-focused their efforts to bringing an NFL franchise to San Antonio.

On April 19, 2007, the San Antonio City Council unanimously approved an additional $8.3 million to fund renovations and enhancements to the facility. Many NCAA tickets you can find at Ticket Solution.

Although when the Alamodome was built it was an ideal state-of-the-art NFL stadium, by today?s standards the facility would have to undergo renovations and add a considerable number of luxury suites in order to make it a profitable venue for an NFL team. Preliminary estimates put the cost of improvements at $100-150 million.