Even more than a quarter century after the fact, Alton Lister (1978-82) still has fond memories of arguably the biggest victory in the history of Arizona State basketball.

Going into the final game of the 1980-81 season, the Sun Devils were ranked fifth in the nation and were playing at top-ranked and undefeated Oregon State.

ASU prevailed, 85-67, with Byron Scott scoring 25 points and Lister contributing 14 points and nine rebounds.

“We went in there with the attitude of, ‘Hey, this is a great opportunity to come away with a victory,” said Lister, who was named an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks earlier this year. “All the pressure was on them. They were trying to go undefeated in the Pac-10. Understanding that, we had nothing to lose.

“Plus, we lost to them at home on a last-second shot. That left a bad taste in our mouths for the rest of the season. We jumped on them from the beginning and took the crowd out of it. Everything they tried to do we had an answer for it. We were hitting on all cylinders and played unselfishly.”

After the Sun Devils shredded Oregon State’s zone, they finished with what is currently the only win over a No. 1 team in ASU history.

“We said before the game that we have to go in and take this,” the seven-footer recalled. “If you keep it close on the road, the home team will have an advantage.”

The win over Oregon State capped a season during which the Sun Devils went a school-record 16-2 in the Pac-10 and 24-4 overall. But while the win over the Beavers might have been the highest of highs, what transpired the previous year might have been the lowest of lows.

Lister was selected to play on the 1980 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team in Moscow. But when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter ordered the U.S.O.C. to boycott the Olympic Games.

“They made the decision at the last minute, after we had gone through the Olympic Trials,” Lister said. “We had trained in thin air preparing to compete. At the last minute, the rug was pulled out from under us.

“We were very disappointed. We felt like we had a good chance of winning the gold medal. We had a good group of guys and good chemistry.”

Lister recalled how the President invited the entire Olympic Team to the White House, how they were presented medals and were “honored for all the hard work we put in to prepare.”

But, in the end, all of the U.S. Olympians were left with a hollow feeling in their stomachs.

If anything assuaged Lister’s pain it came in the spring of 1981 when he was the Milwaukee Bucks’ first-round pick in the NBA Draft.

Lister went on to play 17 years in the NBA, mostly with Milwaukee but also with Seattle, Golden State, Boston and Portland. His teams made it to the postseason 11 times, and he scored 6,298 points in 953 career games. He’s also still Milwaukee’s all-time leader in blocked shots (804).

“When I got drafted, I had no idea about how my career was going to go,” Lister said. “I was just happy all the hard work I put in paid off and I was selected in the first round by the Bucks.”

Lister had the good fortune to break in while one of the NBA’s all-time great centers, Bob Lanier, still patrolled the paint for the Bucks.

“Bob was my mentor,” Lister said. “He took me under his wing and helped me develop. But even though we won the Central Division every year for the next five years, we lost either to Boston or Philly.

“My experience with Milwaukee was fantastic, especially for a rookie to get in with a winning team right away.”

Lister retired following the strike-shortened 1998-99 season. After taking a year off, he was offered the head coaching position at Mesa Community College — a school that was coming off a 9-21 season.

Initially, Lister wasn’t interested in coaching after playing the game for so long. But once he was persuaded by Mesa administrators to accept the position, his first reaction after practice began for the 2000-01 season was, “What have I gotten myself into?”

“That level prepares you for everything,” said Lister, who developed 30 players who went on to play for Division I colleges during his seven years as MCC’s coach. “You’re an administrator, counselor, father figure, academic advisor. But that helps you learn from the ground up. It prepared me for any situation that might come my way.”

Eventually, Lister turned the program around and MCC reeled off 20 or more wins in five consecutive seasons. While his coaching stint at Mesa may have opened the door to the NBA, the six years he worked at Pete Newell’s Big Man Camp helped knock it down.

“One year I paid my way to Hawaii [to work at Newell’s camp] and then he moved it to Las Vegas,” Lister said. “It got better and better every year. I went there when I was a player and Pete [who’s 92] is a mentor to me. He’s really been a big influence on my reaching my goal, which always was to get back to the NBA.”

The Hawks saw Lister’s work at the Newell Camp for the previous two years and were well-acquainted with how he worked with young big men.

“They invited me to mini-camp, but said: ‘We can’t promise you anything,’” Lister noted. “I went from mini-camp to the summer league and did well with the younger guys. [General manager Billy Knight] said they had a young team and needed a guy who played in the NBA and that I would be a good fit.”