Three mini-columns for the price of one…

•BILLY DONOVAN

The first time I met him was in June of 1983 at the old Boston Shootout, the annual schoolboy tournament that used to be held at Boston University. He looked like some kid who had stumbled out of a CYO game.

This was PC’s new recruit, the one who was going to lead the Friars through the Big East wars?

Four years later, he led PC to the Final Four, the centerpiece of Rick Pitino’s two-year comet ride through here.

And now it’s 24 years after I first met him, and the incredible saga of Billy Donovan continues, this journey that now has him as the hottest college basketball coach in America, coach of the defending national champions and back in the Final Four. All this, and on top of Kentucky’s wish list to be its new coach, too.

Is there a better success story in all of college basketball?

Not too many, that’s for sure.

And the one constant through all of this?

Donovan’s drive, his hunger, his work ethic; all of the intangibles he has always brought to the game, while others brought only talent, thinking it was going to be enough. The ability to chase his dreams until he catches them.

And as I watched him being interviewed after Sunday’s game, Billy Donovan at the top of his own game, I thought of that long-ago night at Boston University, back when he was just starting out on this basketball ride that’s already taken him beyond what anyone ever could have imagined, and how far he’s come.

•ROGER CLEMENS

He has turned out to be the smartest athlete of them all, and who would ever have believed that?

But here he is staring at 45, in another baseball spring, and once again he’s the biggest commodity out there, this gun for hire. The Yankees. The Red Sox. The Astros. They all court him like he’s the prom queen, offering him the world and all its gold to come in and pitch half the year, as though this has become some baseball version of Groundhog Day. And all the while good ol’ boy Roger remains in limbo, saying little, as the price keeps going up.

Remember when everyone thought ol’ Roger was just a Texas hick?

Well, the laugh’s on us.

For here are the Yankees needing pitching help, and the Red Sox needing another starter, and the Astros needing someone to sell tickets, and here is Roger just waiting to ride in on the symbolic horse to save the day.

That’s the perception, anyway. No pitching in the early, cold months of the season. Here is Roger holding all the cards. Here is Roger running his own game, playing by his rules, like some Hollywood star who knows that without him there’s no movie. Here is Roger sitting there with what everyone wants and playing it for all it’s worth, the smartest athlete of them all.

Who would have ever believed it?

•GEORGETOWN

If you are a Providence College basketball fan, you should be rooting for Georgetown.

Because the Hoyas are the role model, the small Catholic school that doesn’t play big-time football. Yet here it is in the Final Four. The small Catholic school that’s a throwback to a different sports world. It’s not a coincidence that the other three schools playing for the national title are Ohio State, Florida and UCLA, three heavyweights with more advantages than a kid with a trust fund.

In college basketball, the rich get richer and the poor sit home and watch.

That’s why Georgetown’s success offers hope, the sense that you don’t have to play football in big stadiums to play big-time basketball.

Which is not to say Georgetown is like PC. The Hoyas have been basketball royalty since the early 1980s, courtesy of John Thompson and an era that changed the college game. They also sit in the middle of a great recruiting area and play in a glitzy downtown arena. If Georgetown is what the Friars would be in a perfect world, Villanova is probably the more realistic role model. A year ago, the Wildcats were in the Final Eight. This year, they again were in the NCAA Tournament. They are what the Friars would like to be.

But let’s not delude ourselves. Look at St. John’s, which has been down for a decade, the same St. John’s that’s a storied name in college basketball. Look at Seton Hall. The Pirates, too, face many of the same problems the Friars do. They, too, are now swimming against the tide in a college world that’s becoming an arms race.

So root for Georgetown, the role model.

breynold@projo.com