Irsay-Gordon has made it abundantly clear: It’s playoffs or everybody goes.

Nobody knows that better than Ballard who, for some reason that eludes me, was asked if he’d like to sign a contract extension with just one year left on his deal. Kind of an odd question, to be honest, especially given the circumstances, but it did move Ballard to provide a revealing answer.

“Would you sign a contract extension?” he was asked.

“No, I wouldn’t do one,” Ballard said. “I wouldn’t do one. I’m in the last year of my deal. We need to win.”

A pause.

“We need to win,” he repeated.

Is it as simple as playoffs-or-bust? I think it goes deeper than that. I think it’s make-some-noise-in-the-playoffs or bust. Just showing up and losing in the first round should not be enough to save Ballard and Steichen, especially Ballard given his excruciatingly underwhelming 70-78-1 record since taking over the Colts. Indy, which used to ride herd over the AFC South, hasn’t won a division title in 11 years. No playoff victories in eight years.

This has got to be a massive breakthrough, the kind of season that almost makes you forget the previous nine years of mediocrity, and worse.

“We have been very clear with Chris and Shane that giving them another opportunity means that the sense of urgency for them to deliver and perform has never been higher,” co-owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon said at the close of last season.

Which sounds pretty clear, no?

Surely, Ballard and Steichen feel the heat. Or maybe they don’t. But they know the score.

.For the third or maybe fourth straight year, Ballard was asked about feeling the pressure. For the third or maybe fourth straight year, he kept it in perspective. Pressure, after all, is not knowing where your next meal is coming from, not knowing how you’re going to afford medical treatment. This is football, a game played by millionaires.

“Look, this is my 26th year in the league,” Ballard said. “And as a kid, if you would have told me I was able to work in football and do this for a career, I would have signed up 100 times over.

“Okay, the journey is different for everybody. I’m just a steward in this position. I’ve always believed that, and I’ll always do the best thing for the organization, both short and long term. That’s just how I tick and how I roll, but I don’t – I’m grateful that I’ve always had a job in this league that I have great respect for, and that will never change. The fun to me is the journey. That’s the fun part. Even the hard moments, compared to what other people have to go through, like they’re not really that – excuse my language, like they’re really not that hard. They’re judged rightfully so, which we should. We’re in the public eye, and we should be judged. But I get to do football every day, and I never take that for granted. I won’t ever take one day for granted.

“And look, I happen to be able to do it at the highest level, but I have such great respect for what the game of football gives people, okay? Not just players who play the game, but fans and the moments it makes. It’s an impactful sport. It’s into a fabric of our society, and I think it’s a great thing. I’ll never take one day for granted. So in terms of the pressure, look, nobody puts more pressure on me than myself to succeed. But like, if I’ve learned anything over the years, sometimes you’ve got to enjoy all of it – the good and the bad. That’s the fun part of this. The going through things that are not always easy with people that you care about and you respect. Man, not everybody gets to do that in life. I’ve been very fortunate.”

Every team, even the Super Bowl champion Seahawks, come into the new season with a number of ifs; even the most loaded teams, like the LA Rams, come into the new season with questions and uncertainty.

But the Colts, well, they’re filled with ifs all over the place, not a comfortable spot for a team that has to win – or else.

As always, it starts with the quarterback, Daniel Jones, who is coming off a torn Achilles but is prepared to start Wednesday’s training camp as a full-go. That’s the good news. The bad news is, he’s only stayed healthy for one season in his star-crossed career, that coming in 2022 when he led the New York Giants to a playoff appearance and a post-season victory.

Last season began with such promise, an 8-2 start, the Colts setting offensive records all over the place. Jones turned into a revelation and Jonathan Taylor was the early-season MVP winner. And then Jones got hurt, his game declined, and he ultimately tore his Achilles in Week 14 against Jacksonville. End of season. End of hope. The Colts dropped seven straight and watched their season circle the drain.

There are ifs all over the roster, but this is the most important one. If Jones can stay healthy – for a change – if he can play the way he performed the first nine, 10 games of last season, the Colts have every chance to win 10 games and reach the playoffs. They were that good early last season, until they lost Jones and were that bad.

The good news is, he’s at full-go heading into this camp. There will be no team-imposed limitations. Will he be the same player he was those first two games, especially early in the season? Probably not. Like Tyrese Halburton, who also suffered a torn Achilles, it’s going to take some time to get up to full speed.

The bad news is, the early-season schedule is a bear. If Jones isn’t highly effective, this could be over before it ever starts.

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Asked if there will be a post-surgery transition, Ballard said, “Of course. I mean, anytime you go through surgery, there’s always going to be a little bit of a new normal for any player. It doesn’t mean that they’re not great again – just a little bit of a new normal, and you’ve got to work through that.”

He continued. “I remember in Kansas City when he we had Alex Smith, and that’s who Daniel reminds me of. Alex’s first seven, eight years of his career, he had the same M.O, couldn’t quite stay healthy. He had some concussion issues at the end in San Francisco then we got him in Kansas City, he ended up having a really good run. Sometimes it’s a little bad luck. So hopefully we’ve got him in a good spot and he’ll be healthy and playing 17 games on into the playoffs.

The ifs are everywhere.

If DeForest Buckner can return from major neck fusion surgery… He acknowledged Tuesday that he will have to make some adjustments to his style of play. Can he continue to be a guy who routinely demands double teams and opens things up for his defensive-line mates? Good question, one that doesn’t yet have an answer.

If Charvarius Ward can avoid suffering another concussion… He had multiple concussions last season – suffered terribly with them – and thought seriously about retirement. As it is, he’s back, but one more concussion, which is always around the corner in this violent game, and he may very well hang them up entirely.

If Alec Pierce can return off the PUP list sooner rather than later, if this thin wide-receiver room can produce the way Ballard thinks it can… Right now, it’s Pierce, Josh Downs and tight end Tyler Warren, but there’s not much after that. Ballard made it clear Tuesday he’s in the market for a veteran wide receiver who can provide some production and depth.

If Laiatu Latu, the defensive end who had 8.5 sacks in his second season last year, can make the jump to double digit sacks and become the kind of difference maker the Colts expected him to become when he was the first defensive player selected in the 2024 draft. If the Colts can get decent play from the defensive ends opposite Latu. Currently, they’re talking about doing it by committee, which is a slick way of saying they don’t have anybody. Remember all those years with tight ends by committee? Or would you rather not?

If the Colts can find a backup running back to take some of the pressure and load off of Taylor. There’s second-year back DJ Giddens and seventh-round draft pick Seth McGowan. The good, old days of Zack Moss, who performed so well in 2023, are gone. This will be a position, among many, to watch at training camp.

If two rookes, CJ Allen and Bryce Boettcher, a second- and fourth-round pick, can hold up at the two linebacker spots. Ballard seems perfectly comfortable relying on the two young players. Allen, who will start the season on the PUP list, is trying to fill the sizable shoes of Zaire Franklin, who is now in Green Bay.

If Jalen Travis, who played well in Braden Smith’s place for short stretches of last season, can maintain that level or play and be a stalwart at right tackle.

Lots of ifs, starting with the most important if, the one that will go a long way toward determining the fate or Ballard and Steichen – if Jones can stay healthy and productive throughout the season. As we’ve learned through the past decade, without a quality quarterback, you have no chance.

I can see them winning 10 games if the ifs line up properly, if most or all of the questions are answered in the affirmative.

I can see them winning seven games if Jones is hurt or struggles, or if the pass rush fails to change games when a play is most necessary.

This is the last dance for these Colts, even as it related to training camp in Westfield. The organization is moving camp back to West 56^th Street next season and seasons beyond, which is really a damned shame for the fans who make the annual pilgrimage to Grand Park. But these things are not inexpensive. This was a financial decision, pure and simple.

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The question, ultimately, is whether Ballard and Steichen will still be at the helm when the team gets back together next year at the practice facility.

Lots of things have to go right.

Lots of ifs.

I find it sickening because the U.S. government, and President Trump, got personally involved and reached out to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and asked (demanded?) that Balogun’s one-game suspension after a red card be rescinded.

I don’t question the very real possibility it was a lousy call from the start. Or that the process for determining the decision to suspend was questionable. But the moment you have governments – in this case, the government of the host country – calling in favors from the same people who gave Trump that bogus peace prize, you have a serious problem.

Look, I’m like a lot of you: I pay attention to international soccer once every couple of years, either during the Olympics or the World Cup. I don’t claim any special expertise on the sport, although like so many observers, I thought the red card and resulting suspension were harsh and wrong-headed. In my view, it was worthy of a yellow card at most, especially during a hyper-physical game against Bosnia when it appeared the referee had completely misplaced his yellow card.

Like a lot of you, I have no issue with the U.S. Men’s National Team raising hell about the decision or appealing the call. What I have an issue with is the U.S. government getting involved. What I have an issue with is Trump and his cronies reaching out to the spineless Infantino and demanding a second look at the suspension.

Now, if the U.S. should continue to win, anything they accomplish will come with a giant bold-faced asterisk.

In the end, we have this feel-good American story on the 250^th anniversary of the country’s birth, being hijacked by the powers that be in the Trump administration and FIFA.

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Yes, red card suspensions have been lifted previously, including Ronaldo’s two-game suspension that was supposed to carry his team through the firs ttwo games of group play.

Here, though, is the elemental difference: In Ronaldo’s case, and all the other cases when suspensions have been lifted, the team’s governments did not get involved in what now appears to be a completely bogus process.

And before you say, “Well, you’re a liberal blowhard,” I’d have said precisely the same thing if former President Barack Obama had tried to pull off a similar trick – although, we all know that would never happen.

I’m hearing a lot of “the ends justify the means” nonsense in the past 12-24 hours. Yes, this was a right call. As I mentioned, the foul wasn’t worthy of a red card (and again, I’m no expert). But if it was going to be changed, it needed to be changed through proper channels, with the U.S. program appealing to FIFA without the aid of President Trump and his people. I’ll be very curious tonight to see how FOX TV’s analysts handle this outrage, whether they take issue with it (as they should) or whether they kowtow to the American audience who are thrilled to see Balogun back on the field.

At last check, around 9 in the morning, Belgium was being given an opportunity to appeal, but I don’t see this turning back the other way. Trump has spoken. Infantino has spoken.

I know I’m supposed to be a good American and continue to root for the USMNT tonight, but honestly, I’m torn. Not that I have any special feelings towards Belgium – I like their waffles – but this is so corrupt, so down-and-dirty, I find myself in the role of casual observer. Trump and Infantino (mostly Infantino) have undermined the credibility of this tournament, and anything the U.S. accomplishes now as they move on in the World Cup will be diminished. In a perfect world, Balogun refuses to accept the decision and sits this one out – yeah, sure – but that’s not going to happen.

The beautiful game has turned ugly.

Shameful, is what it is.

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That said, I have to be honest.

I’m not thrilled the Pacers traded into the second round, selection No. 32, and took the Boilers’ point guard as an eventual replacement for T.J. McConnell.

Here’s my problem (well, I have a lot of problems, but I’m speaking specifically here of the Smith selection):

He’s only 5-foot-10 ¼.

The NBA is not dominated by sub-6 footers, although Jalen Brunson, listed at 6-2, just led the Knicks to the NBA title. I did a little research and what I found was, roughly 25 sub-6-footers have gotten time in the NBA. Most of the names you don’t know; they never really made it at the highest level.

Some, you do: There’s Muggsy Bogues, there’s Nate Robinson, there’s former Celtic Isaiah Thomas, there’s Calvin Murphy, the only sub-6 footer in the Hall of Fame.

That’s not to say you can’t make it in the NBA if you’re below 6 feet. It is to say that the odds are deeply stacked against the league’s Lilliputians. (I speak as a 5-foot-7-inch Lilliputian myself.)

McConnell may be charitably listed at 6-1, but Smith is shorter than him. By quite a bit.

I asked Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan yesterday about Smith’s slight stature (he’s also light, just 166 pounds) and wondered how he would overcome the lack of size in the biggest, strongest league in the world.

“It goes back to his will to win, his ability to lead a team, his ability to get other people shots,” Buchanan said. “I think if you put shot makers around Braden and finishers around Braden, he can get opportunities for those players. His basketball IQ is extremely high…It’s his ability to see things that other players can’t see; that’s a special trait. I think in the second round, you’re looking for a special trait or a special skill…They’re in the second round because they all have something they have to overcome, otherwise they’d probably be in the lottery. For him, it’s going to be his size, but we’re betting on his toughness and his IQ. We’re betting on his will to win. It’s going to be a challenge, but we’ll be there to support him.”

I know, I know: Smith has always been on the small side and he’s consistently overcome the size issue. He overcame it at Westfield, where his jersey is retired and he earned Mr. Basketball honors. He overcame it at Purdue, where he bypassed Duke star Bobby Hurley for the most assists in college basketball history.

But the NBA is a different animal.

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In other words, there’s a reason there have been so few sub-6-footers have made it in this league. I’d rank Murphy, the old Rockets’ sharpshooter, as the best of the crop. But the list is not long.

Two reasons the Pacers selected him:

One, they got the hometown discount, Smith willingly accepting a two-way contract that will likely seem him bounce between Indy and Noblesville.

Two, the day will come when McConnell, now 34 years old, will need to be replaced. And who better to guide Smith than McConnell, another pint-sized guard who, unlike Smith, went undrafted and has become the biggest pest in the NBA?

But I keep coming back to these numbers: 5-10 ¼, 166 pounds.

How’s he going to defend in a league filled with oversized, hyper-physical guards? It’s a very small sample size, just one game, but I remember Smith struggling terribly in the national title game against UConn and current Spur Stephon Castle. The NBA is filled with guys just like Castle.

Now, in his defense, he won’t be playing 40 minutes per game the way he did at Purdue. Like McConnell, he can be a super-pest and pick up 94 feet for a couple of minutes at a time.

Again, I’m not being a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian. But I think there’s a tendency to overstate the abilities of players we see on a regular basis. Smith was a high school and college superstar, a one-of-a-kind player. But now he’s joining the NBA, and that 5-10 ¼ number gives me pause.

They’re killing the golden goose in the WNBA. Not that Caitlin Clark wants to be viewed as some kind of a victim – I tend to think it kills her to be cast this way – but the truth is the truth.

After a rookie year when she was consistently cheap-shotted, we saw it again this week in the Fever’s second of back-to-back home games against the Phoenix Mercury. First, Alysa Thomas, a woman with a Bill Laimbeer type of reputation, kneed Clark in the groin. Later, she buried her fist in Clark’s neck as Clark lay flat on the floor. No call. Went to the review. No call.

One day later, the WNBA, which seemed wholly ill-prepared to handle Clark’s arrival three years ago, deemed the punch to the throat a Flagrant 2 and worthy of a one-game suspension.

Which didn’t do the Fever any good, the home team losing by a bucket in another game when they scored 100 points and somehow found a way to lose. (The putrid lack of defense is another story altogether.)

In the same game, the Mercury’s Valeriane Ayayi stepped under Clark during a 3-point shot attempt, taking away her landing area. It should have been a foul. It should have been a flagrant. No call. They reviewed. Still no call. As a result, Clark injured her back and eventually was sent back to the locker room for treatment.

I’m not one who routinely bashes officials – I think that’s the easy way out – but the officiating in the WNBA stinks. And it takes a month and a half to execute a review, killing the game’s momentum, and still, they get it wrong all the time. (The league should have help next year when it’s expected they will have an office in Secaucus, N.J. to help with reviews – just like the NBA. That should expedite matters and should bring some level of accountability and maybe, just maybe, consistency.)

There was a reason why Fever coach Stephanie White took almost 40 minutes before she met with the media after the game. She wanted to review the calls. She wanted to pull her message together. She wanted to gather her composure. And then she let loose.

“The fist in the throat is crazy,” she said. “It’s crazy. It’s dangerous,”

And…

“The reckless closeout (by Ayayi) that they actually reviewed and the foot still comes down on top of the defender’s foot that wasn’t upgraded? I don’t know because that’s like a do-over on a test. How do you screw it up again?”

And…

“You’re coming in here aware of what happened two nights ago (when things got chippy) and that shit still happens? Absolutely unacceptable.”

And…

“We spent all offseason looking at officiating. And I still say the one thing that we keep asking for is consistency. She is not called the same way everybody else is called.”

As for the commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, she strikes me as being completely clueless and ill-prepared for the league’s close-up. From the moment Clark landed in the W, the league has had no plan for how to handle her impact. I still remember when Clark and the Fever flew commercial to a pre-season game in Dallas her rookie year, at which point she was accosted by media and paparazzi in the airport. It was only then that the league figured out it was time to fly privately.

I’m not suggesting that other players are immune from the rough stuff, nor am I saying that Clark deserves special treatment. What she deserves is fairness. What she deserves is some accountability from a league that is supposed to be celebrating her game-changing arrival, and not trying to get her killed. I don’t know it’s jealousy or something more sinister, but Clark has taken a beating since the moment she arrived, harkening all the way back to the Chennedy Carter incident.

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I’ve heard people say she’s hard to officiate, like she’s Zach Edey or something.

I don’t know, a fist to the throat?

That seems pretty simple and straightforward, doesn’t it?

That’s not to say that Braden Smith, the former Purdue star and college basketball’s assist king, compares with Brunson, who is a one-in-a-million player who is 6-2 (three inches taller than Smith) and is uniquely gifted with an ability to use angles and his will and his mind to wear down opponents. It is, instead, a fact that provides hope to player like Smith, who isn’t 6-foot on a good day (he measured out at 5-10 1/4).

Well, maybe not hope, necessarily – that may be the wrong word -- but it’s confirmation that there’s still room in the NBA for the smaller player. It does not go without notice that Brunson and Smith had similar statistics during college, both were and will be a second-round pick and both are 6-2 or shorter.

“I don’t think (the NBA Finals) made me think differently, but it definitely gave hope to people our size,” Smith said Monday after he, Purdue teammate Trey Kaufman-Renn, and others did a pre-draft workout for the Pacers. “I know he’s (Brunson) a little taller than me, but to see that people that size, they have a chance, that it is possible, it’s doable and obviously I have enough confidence in myself, in my game and my ability to go out and perform to be special like that.

“…At the end of the day, it gives a lot of people hope and especially with that run (the Pacers had), like with TJ (McConnell) and (Andrew) Nembhard, like it was good to see that it gave smaller guards a lot of hope.”

Speaking of McConnell, who went undrafted and forged a decade-long career:

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This much I know, too.

He’s not a flamethrower. He’s not a hot-take artist.

You know who’s a flamethrower, or was when he was writing more regularly?

Me.

And I don’t think I’m speaking out of school when I add the Star’s Greg Doyel to that list.

As columnists, it’s our job to stir the pot when it’s necessary, be critical when the situation requires criticism. Our job is to bring eyeballs to our publications, and we do that by sharing our informed opinions.

Scott is not a columnist. He’s a straightforward beat reporter who covers the news of the teams with unrivaled thoroughness and professionalism. Along with the Dustin Dopirak, Tony East and Chloe Peterson, he stands out as the ultimate straight shooter. The truth is, Scott is good for both organizations, serving hardcore readers around Indy and the entire country who read his site.

I mean, if you wanted to pull a credential, which should never happen unless it’s under the most grievous circumstances, you should pull mine. Or Doyel’s. (For the record, it was Gannett, the Star’s parent company, that decided to pull Gregg from Fever coverage for the one year after his unfortunate exchange with Caitlin Clark at her introductory press conference. I personally thought it was an overreaction by the publication – Gregg is wildly talented but can be socially awkward at times, by his own admission – but that’s not my fight today.)

You don’t think Bill Polian wanted to yank my credential oh, about a thousand times? Let’s be real here.

Anyway…

I know the Pacers’ front office people, notably Kevin Pritchard, Chad Buchanan and Rick Carlisle.

I know the Fever’s front office folks, notably Kelly Krauskopf and Stephanie White, although I haven’t yet spoken with Amber Cox.

These are not stupid people. And I never sensed they were petty or unreasonable – at least not until now. I don’t have any specifics – nobody is willing to share -- but I’ve got to think there’s more to the story here that I’m not aware of. But these decisions – first by the Pacers and now by the Fever – makes both organizations look small and overly sensitive and completely unprofessional.

When the Pacers first pulled Agness’ credentials, I told him to raise holy hell; instead, he chose to keep it all on the down-low and use back channels to restore his status. As a result, I said nothing publicly – out of respect for Scott.

This time was different. Scott chose to go public with the Fever denial of his credentials, and now all hell is breaking loose. It looks especially bad for the Fever and the WNBA, which appears to be small-minded and hyper-sensitive. Remember, this is the same league whose players’ association attempted to have Christine Brennan’s credential pulled because she asked some uncomfortable questions during the research for her book. Christine, you should know, is a superstar in our business, a long-time writer for The Washington Post (when they had a sports section) and now USA Today. Her book, “On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports,” is a New York Times bestseller.

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I remember when I took the job, my editor-in-chief at the time told me not to worry about my lack of motorsports expertise, saying, “You’ll figure it soon enough.” Much to my chagrin, one of my first columns the summer of 2000 was on the Brickyard 400, which was a complete mystery to me. Then, about a year later, Dale Earnhardt, Sr. tragically passed during the 2001 Daytona 500, and my column fully reflected my lack of understanding of the sport and the men (and women) who compete so heroically nearly every weekend. The piece was, in a word, awful.

Now, 27 years later, I still can’t claim that I know the sport any better than I do the stick-and-ball sports. And again, full honesty, I still don’t pay much attention to races that aren’t the Indianapolis 500. If there’s a hockey or basketball game and a race on TV, there’s no question what I’m watching.

Having said all of that, I will say this now: After almost three decades of covering the event, I love the Indianapolis 500.

I do.

I love the driver introductions, notably the Alexander Rossi introduction, when he was helped to the podium by his first-row competitors after a frightening crash and resulting injuries this week. I get choked up listening to “Taps” and then “Back Home Again In Indiana,” whether it was Jim Nabors or, currently, Jim Cornelison. The flyover always gets to me. And there is no sound in sport quite like the guttural roar of the great machines when the drivers are told to “start your engines.”

And I’m reasonably proud to say, some of my best work has come during the run-up to the race, including two pieces for The Athletic, one a story about Rossi, who’d won the 100^th running of the 500, and an oral history of Mario Andretti’s one and only Indy 500 victory 50 years earlier. One thing I learned rather quickly is you’re writing about people doing extraordinary things. What these folks do is completely insane and noble, flying chassis-to-chassis, nose-to-tail around a superspeedway at 220 miles per hour, putting life and limb on the line every time they got behind the wheel. As the years have worn on, I’ve come to find drivers and the people in the paddock to be some of the most fascinating humans on the planet.

This sport requires the ultimate bravery, as we saw Sunday when Felix Rosenqvist beat crestfallen David Malukas by half a car length, winning the race by .0233 seconds, the closest finish in Indianapolis 500 history. It bypassed Al Unser, Jr.’s 1992 victory over Scott Goodyear by .043 seconds. It came down to a one-lap shootout, which is basically all you can ask from the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. The pass at the end was the 70^th of the race, setting the record for most lead changes in Indy 500 history.

I mean…wow.

When it was over, Rosenqvist, the third-ever Swedish driver to win this race and a newly-minted father, was overjoyed while Malukas, the talented 24-year-old American and back-to-back second-place finisher, could not stop the tears. And it was deeply moving, revealing both ends of the emotional spectrum. Think about it: .0233 seconds. That’s an eyeblink – less than an eyeblink, actually, which takes one-third of a second, especially at 220 miles per hour. All those stops and starts, yellow flags and red flags and crashes and all the rest, and this is what it came down to. One more go-for-broke pass in the final couple of yards of track, which revealed the chasm between ultimate joy and gut-wrenching heartbreak.

This race had everything, from balls-to-the-wall racing to multiple strategies as drivers and their teams tried to beat the rain that never really came in earnest until hours after the race’s end.

This is why I’ve learned to love the Indianapolis 500.

It never disappoints.

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FRIDAY

If the idea is to show potential trade partners that Anthony Richardson is healthy and his vision has returned, it makes some sense to have him active and participating in voluntary minicamp this week.

If the idea is to set Richardson up to truly compete with Riley Leonard for the backup quarterback position, that makes no sense to me. If Richardson and Leonard are sharing reps, that makes no sense to me. Richardson is begging to be traded or released; remember, he requested a deal and the Colts failed to pick up the fifth-year option on his contract. There’s too much water under the bridge. This relationship is over.

I think.

Everything about the way the Colts have handled Richardson from the very beginning is a mystery. None of it makes sense, from the time they gave him the QB1 job over Gardner Minshew after one preseason game. This, despite the fact the two quarterbacks seemed to be performing at roughly the same level throughout training camp. Hell, they even made AR a captain, this young man – kid, really – who played just 13 college games.

So what’s Richardson doing at voluntary minicamp?

Reporters asked Shane Steichen in several different ways Friday, and his responses made it clear as mud.

How would you evaluate having Anthony Richardson Sr. back in the building?

“Yeah, I mean he’s back in the fold right now. That part has been good. He’s working, going through his fundamentals, details, out there throwing with the guys. That’s where it’s at right now.”

At least for the offseason work, how do you go about reintegrating Anthony Richardson Sr.? There is a time very soon where you’ll be back doing 11-on-11 and figuring out the depth chart. How have you thought about that?

“That’s part of it. Obviously, he’s here. He’s going to get reps, just like Riley (Leonard) will get reps. We’re in Phase Two right now. We’re throwing routes on air and doing walk-thru stuff, and both those guys will get reps.”

Is he competing for the backup job?

“Right now, we’re in May. We’ll see how it goes obviously with all that. But he’s working, he’s here, he’s in good spirits. He’s cleared to play with the vision stuff, so that part is good.”

Have you seen limitations at all with the vision?

“No, he’s been good. I mean, he’s been here for four days but we’re just throwing right now. We haven’t done any team stuff, but he’s been good.”

Do you notice improvements from him from where he was in late December and early January?

“Yeah I think he’s getting back into the fold right now obviously throwing again. He’s been working obviously down in Florida doing workouts so he’s been good. He came back in really good shape. So, that was good. So yeah, he’s been good so far.”

If you know what any of that means, you’re a whole lot smarter than me (which isn’t a high bar, I admit).

Which brings me back to Richardson and the way this whole thing has been mismanaged since his first day on West 56^th.

Now, could all of this have been a Jim Irsay mandate? I’m talking about the decision to select Richardson and the decision to play Richardson his rookie year – well, for as long as he could stay healthy.

Irsay always said, when it came to quarterbacks in the draft, his vote was the one that mattered most. .

And he’s made mandates on quarterbacks before, most notably when he called for Sam Ehlinger to start over Matt Ryan.

Maybe he thought back to Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck, who both hit the ground running in their rookie years. Irsay had seen young quarterbacks survive the early fire and come back even stronger. But Manning played 45 games at the University of Tennessee. Luck played 38 at Stanford. I could be completely wrong here, but I’ve always thought Chris Ballard and Shane Steichen were too smart to throw Richardson into the deep end of the pool right away; that’s why they acquired Minshew as a very capable starter/backup to use as a bridge to Richardson.

Irsay was a great owner, but in his final years, it’s pretty clear he wasn’t all there. His physical and mental health were declining quite precipitously. Remember when he fired Frank Reich and hired Jeff Saturday? Is that the decision of a man fully in his right mind? He always said he didn’t want to be like his father, Robert, who was both hands-on and deep into alcoholism. And for a while, Irsay was different, ceding almost complete control to Bill Polian, who built a powerhouse. But in the last five-six years of his life and tenure, there were too many troubling signs to ignore.

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The whole thing is very curious, and it keeps getting more curiouser.

Has been from the very beginning.

SATURDAY

• My first thought, watching the Fever and Wings play an epic if defensively shoddy season opener was this: Thank heavens the owners and players association signed that new CBA.

  It took a lot of missed deadlines and rancor with players calling out commissioner Cathy Engelbert, but they got the deal done, and right on time. We are in the midst of the league’s greatest heyday (thus far) and that was firmly on display Saturday afternnon at Gainbridge as the last four No. 1 overall picks were on the floor. That’s Aliyah Boston (2023), Caitlin Clark (2024), Paige Bueckers (2025) and Azzi Fudd (2026). The result was a wild 107-105 Wings victory over the Fever, the home team falling short when Kelsey Mitchell’s buzzer-beating three, a good look by any standard, rimmed out. Dallas, the worst team in the league the last two years, shot 59 percent from the field and a ridiculous 52 percent from three. Defense was optional.

The larger point being, the WNBA, with so much momentum and star power, could not afford to get stuck in a morass of bruised feelings and a play stoppage. This is a big league now, with salaries and travel arrangements to match, and a work stoppage would have been disastrous. So thank God they got it done.

• We saw part of the future of the league Saturday. As I mentioned, the last four No. 1 picks were on the floor and with stars like A’ja Wilson, Brenna Stewart and others, the league is in a very strong position to continue to grow. exponentially (thank you, Caitlin). I can’t wait to see the TV ratings numbers for this Fever-Wings opener, which was shown on ABC on a day when there was little to no TV competition. Expect them to be through the roof.

• I thought Clark looked good but not great in her first game back after missing most of last season with a series of nagging and problematic soft tissue injuries. She finished with 20 points on 7-of-18 shooting (2-of-9 from three) with seven assists and five rebounds. Early on, you could see the nerves, plus the breakneck pace was leaving everybody on the floor, including Clark, searching for their second wind. Probably not a reason to be concerned, but a number of times, Clark left the floor, returned to the locker room and had her back adjusted.

She said it was nothing.

Coach Stephanie White said it was nothing, just basic maintenance.

We’ll see.

She did play 30 minutes, it should be mentionedl

But it sure was great to see Clark back on the floor, and to see the Fever at close to full strength for the first time in a long time.

“There’s just like a different juice inside of your body when you’re putting on your uniform and you’re mentally locked in to go play a basketball game,” Clark said prior to the game. “Obviously, I was excited for my teammates last year, 100 percent. I was their biggest fan. But it’s not the same.”

Again, she looked good but not great. But that will come in time. Without question. But somebody – anybody – has got to play some defense.

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“Started off a little slow, just the anxiety of the first game, trying to work through that,” Clark said. “But overall, felt good, felt fast out there. Felt I was literally a couple of buckets away from putting together a really good game and helping us win.”

Patience, friends. Patience.

• The two teams combined to attempt 45 free throws, and the game lacked continuity with so many whistles stopping play.

That’s ordinarily a bad thing.

White, who along with the league’s other coaches has pined for less physicality and more freedom of movement in the WNBA, loved it.

“Look, like I told (our players), like I told (Wings player) Alanna Smith as we were standing on the sideline having a conversation, this is what we want,” White said. “We need to overcorrect, so to speak, so that we have freedom of movement. So it’s a free-flowing offense. In all of our offseason, we have asked officials to call everything. The challenge and the questions sometimes is, is it consistent? So that’d be the next growth area. But this is what we need to clean up, some of the stuff we saw last year.”

Once the players adjust – and they will – the whistles should diminish.

• It’s only one game in a 44-game season and a disappointing result, but in the end, I see the Fever returning to the WNBA semifinals, at the very least. And if they can stay healthy, especially the Big Three of Clark, Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell, they have a shot at reaching the finals. It’s not championship-or-bust, not this soon, not with the Las Vegas Aces dominating the league and teams like New York and Atlanta making noise, but this team has every chance to make a deep run once again.

SUNDAY

Dammit.

But it was a risk. The Pacers knew it was a risk. And Ivica Zubac, one of the top 10 centers in the league, is a tremendous consolation prize. Trust me on this. He makes the Pacers a contender in the East.

But this hurts. This hurts like the 1985 Draft when the Pacers barely missed out on Patrick Ewing. We’re looking at arguably greatest draft class since 1996, 30 years ago. It’s heavy with franchise-changing talent and it’s deep. Are they organizationally snakebit in the Lottery? History would certainly suggest so.

The best-case scenario was the Pacers would get a top-4 pick and reprise what the San Antonio Spurs did in 1996 and ’97. For you young’uns out there, the Spurs were a playoff team in 1995. Then David Robinson and Sean Elliott were injured, the Spurs sunk to the bottom of the league and earned a spot in the 1997 Lottery. There, fortune shined on Gregg Popovich and the Spurs; they won the No. 1 pick, they drafted Tim Duncan and became a dynasty.

In the moments after the Lottery, TV showed A.J. Dybantsa, the likely top pick, sitting and listening to the ABC/ESPN commentary. In the background, buried in their feelings, were the Pacers braintrust of Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan. What could they have been thinking? They knew this was possible, but as they say, reality sucks.

This is a generational draft.

A draft the Pacers are going to sit out.

It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback and question why the Pacers made this deal that only protected the top four picks, but that’s the price of doing business in the NBA. Again it was a calculated risk. Without the lottery piece, the Pacers couldn’t have acquired Zubac. It just wasn’t the haul the Pacers had prayed for in the end.

Dammit.

Without the pick this summer, the Pacers will still have a chance to contend in the Eastern Conference. This core group has gone to the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals in the last three years; now add Zubac to the mix and you have a team that’s going to matter A LOT again next year.

But if they could have won a top-four pick, a franchise-altering pick, they could have been elite for a generation. Hell, one championship, maybe two. They would have been a juggernaut. The stakes, well, they were enormous, this being the most consequential draft in 40 years, at least.

As a good friend texted me shortly after the Lottery, “(Bleep) me.”

I think we can all relate to that sentiment.

It had gone stale by now, 10 years of bumps and bruises and ownership issues, five years without a playoff berth, 14 years since the Colts won the AFC South. There may be gnashing of teeth about the loss of six and potentially seven starters from this Indianapolis Colts team, a major loss of leadership, a significant change of face, and I’m asking myself the following question:

What have they won?

Yeah, Kenny Moore II and Michael Pittman Jr. and Zaire Franklin were all-time good guys, community pillars, unofficial spokesmen for the team when reporters came around.

But it’s like the guy who averages 26 ppg for a 17-win NBA team. I mean, it doesn’t matter how mediocre you are – and the Colts have been the very picture of mediocrity – somebody has got to settle in as a leader. And how much does the captaincy really mean? The Colts named Anthony Richardson a captain his rookie season.

This is a very needed housecleaning.

The draft? As this is being written, it’s the morning after Rounds 2 and 3 and, as expected Chris Ballard traded back and grabbed an additional fourth-round pick.

Then he addressed a massive hole on the defense – before Saturday, could you name a starting Colts linebacker on this team? – by grabbing Georgia inside linebacker CJ Allen. Guess who’s mentioned prominently as a comp for Allen?

Why, it’s Zaire Franklin.

The circle of life.

Essentially, Ballard is getting a younger, faster, less expensive version of Franklin. I don’t know if Allen has a podcast – just a matter of time, is my guess – but like Franklin, he has an enormous presence in every community he touches.

He wore the green dot at Georgia and will wear it starting on day one in Indy. And while he’s said to lack in some coverage areas – just what I read -- he is an instinctive player who makes up for some slight physical limitations with an insistent motor and an intuitive sense for the game.

He led Georgia in tackles (47), tackles for loss (8) and two forced fumbles. Another thing worth noting: Allen didn’t commit a single penalty in 41 college games.

“He stands for all the right stuff,” Ballard said late Friday night. “He’s an athletic, fast MIKE (middle linebacker). He’ll be a green-dot guy for us from the get-go. I mean, he’s a face of the program type of guy. He’s a really special dude now. Loves to play, serious about football. It’s evident when you watch Georgia tape. I mean, he shows up and look, I mean Kirby (Smart) and Will Muschamp…they were effusive in what kind of player this kid is. It’s a good fit for us.”

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With Allen, Ballard very directly addressed one of the team’s greatest needs, if not its greatest need. With Franklin and Germaine Pratt gone, the Colts were in desperate straits.

(Yeah, I know the Colts traded back and gave up the opportunity to draft IU’s DeAngelo Ponds, leaving fans apoplectic. I say: Calm down. Ponds will be a game-changer, but slot corner, while a need, is not a high priority right now.)

With their second pick, in the third round, the Colts didn’t think specifically in terms of need, selecting LSU safety AJ Haulcy. He will bring a big game and, if his post-draft interview with Indy writers was any indication, he’ll bring a big personality, too.

The move replaced Nick Cross with a younger, faster, less expensive version than the Colts’ one-time safety.

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At this point, I’m guessing you were thinking what I was thinking: Why not an edge rusher? Then I dug into some of the draft guides and saw what Ballard would be talking about later that evening: There weren’t any edge rushers in the late-second and third rounds who caught the Colts’ eye. They’d rather address a position of slightly lesser positional need than stretch for another edge rusher who can’t play dead. Expect a defensive end or two to come off the board to the Colts this afternoon. Although unless you’re talking about Robert Mathis, you don’t find uncommon edge rushers in the latter stages all the draft.

What it all comes down to is Ballard, who is fighting for his job in the final year of his contract, has no choice but to ace this year’s draft, which continues this afternoon with picks in rounds 4-7. His most important draft, which he duffed, was selecting Anthony Richardson. This is his second most important draft, and maybe his most important given his fraught employment situation. He’s in the final year of his deal. The writing is on the wall. It’s playoffs or bust.

And he’s got to do it without his first-round draft choices the next two years, having dealt them last year for elite cornerback Sauce Gardner (I know it blew up in their faces last year, but I still think this deal benefits the Colts). It needs to be 2018, when Ballard added Quenton Nelson and Shaq Leonard. It needs to be 2020, when he grabbed Jonathan Taylor and Pittman Jr., both in the second round. Or the 2022 draft, when they grabbed Alec Pierce in the second round and Bernhard Raimann in the third round.

They need an edge rusher (this is a recording), an area where Ballard has invested considerable draft capital with very little in the way of a return. They need linebackers; still, even after the Allen acquisition. They need young interior defensive linemen to eventually step in for DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart. They could use another wide receiver to replace Pittman, although they’re bullish on the idea that Josh Downs can line up outside opposite Alec Pierce.

It was a quiet free agent period, the Colts adding some depth like defensive linemen Arden Key and Michael Clemons, but after they struck out on Trey Hendrickson, the Colts concentrated on re-signing Jones and Pierce. In other words, Ballard needs to hit some homeruns in this draft.

Here’s what scares me: I don’t yet see how the Colts are significantly better today than they were yesterday. A little faster and younger on defense, but game-changers? Hard to say. And it puts the onus on Ballard to produce with very little in the way of a safety net. There is no margin for error. The Colts are counting on a lot of things to go exceedingly well, like safety Hunter Wohler and cornerback Justin Walley returning after suffering serious injuries last year. Like Jones – that’s Daniel Jones -- recovering from Achilles surgery, like Buckner coming back from neck surgery, like Pierce undergoing the knife, forcing him out the next three months.

Earlier this week, Ballard was asked straight away whether his team has improved over last year.

“Well, I think our depth up front is better,” he said before he ever got his hands on Friday’s second and third rounds and Day 3 Saturday.

“ I do believe that. I think the additions of (defensive tackle) Colby (Wooden) – like Colby kind of gets washed over a little bit, but like he started. He’s not really a nose, but because of who he is as a kid, he ended up starting for Green Bay at the nose and playing a lot of snaps. But we think he gives us some real versatility, as we do with (Jerry) Tillery. We think he gives us some versatility. So, I do think – and then with the additions of (Micheal) Clemons and (Arden) Key. I think we got better real depth and they’re healthy. As of right now, they’re healthy. So, I think that’s a really positive thing.

“I think on offense, we’re going to bet on some development of players. I mean, that’s kind of what we’ve done. I mean you got to be able to do that. And it’ll – I think offensively with Jalen Travis, we saw enough good stuff at the end of the year that we think he’s got real upside...And then I think the ability on offense to get – I think we’re going to be able to get (Alec) Pierce and (Josh) Downs, I’ve said this numerous times about Josh Downs, I think Josh Downs is good. I’ve always thought he was good. We’ll see how it plays out, but I think getting him and Pierce the ball more is going to be a good thing.”

Yeah, this is going to be a different year, a very different year, more different than any of Ballard’s previous years.

By the end of this afternoon, we’ll have a pretty solid idea what the 2027 Indianapolis Colts will look like, with the requisite roster tinkering in the coming months. I know this for sure: Indy just got faster, younger and less expensive. The problem is, they don’t yet have any game-changers, especially on defense. That worries me. It does. And has for several years.

They are the ultimate team of their changing times, a champion built out of the ashes of 8-24 three years ago by using the portal, NIL and all the tools now available to college coaches and administrators.

Michigan, the national champion after Monday night’s 69-63 rock fight against gritty UConn, became the first-ever team to win the whole thing while playing five transfers at the five starting spots.

It took Dusty May, son of Eastern Greene High School, all of two seasons to replicate at Michigan what he accomplished at FAU. Except this time his team took the final step, and they did it by beating UConn at its own game. Is Darian DeVries watching? Because as we’ve seen from Curt Cignetti and now May, it can be done quickly. Overnight, even.

The old heads tend to prefer homemade teams, teams like Purdue who grow their own, develop and retain top players for all four years. We like players who know the words to the alma mater. But we live in very different times, times that long since passed by Tommy Tuberville and all the dopes who are freaking out because now the players have the power and the freedom. As they should.

Seriously, for all the bitching and moaning about the big money that has come to revenue-producing college athletics, does anybody have a sour taste about a bunch of transfers coming together under a terrific head coach and producing a championship? I mean, isn’t that sort-of what IU did in football? Did knowing that Yaxel Lendeborg makes millions somehow reduce your enjoyment of the NCAA Tournament? Did Fernando Mendoza’s paycheck diminish your joy?

I didn’t think so.

There’s nothing wrong with building the way that May built his team in Ann Arbor. College basketball has become a year-to-year proposition. The old ways can still work – see Purdue – but more and more, we’re going to look at this Michigan team as the archetype.

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — On the IU Pro Day during which Fernando Mendoza re-confirmed his status as the No. 1 overall draft choice to the Las Vegas Raiders, the football hit the Mellencamp Pavilion turf just three times during a 20-minute long, 56-pass throwing session. Two passes were dropped. One, a bomb to Elijah Sarratt, fell a half step beyond the IU (and soon to be pro) receiver.

As expected, Mendoza has absolutely aced the pre-draft portion of the schedule, passed the audition with flying colors. Not only did he throw the ball the way he threw it all season, he gained roughly 10 pounds of muscle, weighing in at 238 pounds. Some guys, they win the Heisman and/or they win the national title, they go on the rubber chicken circuit and lose their physical edge. Mendoza did not, and nobody is surprised.

We didn’t have a chance to talk to Raiders GM John Spytek, but I’ve got to think that he and the Raiders staff saw everything they expected to see, a young man in full control of his destiny. Mendoza didn’t just throw accurately to his fellow IU teammates, he did something long-time Pro Day observers have never before seen: Before each throw, Mendoza called out the receiver’s name and the type of route that was being run, presumably to help guide attention to his pass-catching teammates, which included likely first rounder Omar Cooper, Jr, second-day choice Sarratt and later-round pickup Riley Nowakowski.

“Never saw a QB during his pro day call out each receiver by name and announce what the route would be before he ran it during the entire workout like Mendoza did,” TV analyst Louis Riddick wrote on X after observing the throwing session in person. “Every route. WR’s, TE’s, RB’s. Seems insignificant but it’s not. It was his show, in collaboration with his pass catchers. A certain GM was paying attention and noticed. One that is going to pick him.

“Everything matters.”

We talked briefly with Mendoza after his session and interviews with NFL Network, which was airing IU’s unusually well-attended Pro Day, which included representatives from all 32 NFL teams, 10 members of the Raiders’ organization and an overflow contingent of more than 100 media folks. He was, well, typical Mendoza.

“The main goal today was to serve my teammates and I think I was able to do that, be able to put them in a position where they’re able to make plays, show what they got, and very excited for them in the future,” he said. “…I felt like it went great. We have nine eligible guys coming out for the draft, which is a lot more than normal…I just wanted to make sure everybody could showcase their abilities in front of all 32 NFL teams and really run routes that are applicable to the timing that we’re going to be running in the NFL. So I think everybody was showcased. It was amazing and it was great being back in Bloomington one more time without guys after such a fantastic finish (to the season).”

Typical Mendoza. They’re going to love him in Vegas. Look past some of the quirkiness – it’s a good quirkiness, mind you – and you’ll find as earnest a soul as you’ll ever meet. His teammates and his new city are going to embrace him with uncommon ardor.

Compare that to the last time the Raiders selected a quarterback No. 1 overall. His name was JaMarcus Russell. The year was 2007. And he was one of the biggest busts in NFL history. Maybe the biggest.

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(It’s a long quotation. Stick with it. Painter has something to say.)

“Really proud of these three guys sitting right here (at the post-game press conference) and everything they’ve done for our program,” he said. “Really set a standard of how to go about their business. It’s going to be hard to emulate that. In today’s game, having three guys come and stick it out and fight through adversity and keep making our program better.

“They got the most wins in school history. They got the most tournament wins in school history. They got two Big Ten Championships. They got two Big Ten Tournament titles. You know, they showed up every day and worked. That’s what you want. A lot of people look at it like, it can’t keep happening, but in today’s landscape, but these guys proved that it can. All three of them will get their degrees from Purdue University, which means something. With the rules and how everything is, it’s diminishing education. It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard in my life, because all of this is taking opportunities in education and helped our lives and helped our families.

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There are a lot of good reasons to root for Purdue to continue advancing in this NCAA Tournament, not the least of which is this one: The Boilers, who are a happy anachronism, operate, build and guide their team in an old-fashioned way that seems almost quaint in these days of the portal, NIL, tampering and the other qualities that make it the Wild West.

They redshirt. I mean, who else does that? Who else has Trey Kaufman-Renn, a stud recruit out of Silvercreek, spend an entire year working on skill development and his body? Shoot, coach Matt Painter was all prepared to red-shirt Zach Edey, until Edey began performing in pre-season camp and Painter realized the folly of sitting him for a year, much less 10 minutes.

They recruit differently. Painter, who discovered Edey, Braden Smith and so many other diamonds in the rough, recruit for fit rather than the number of stars affixed to a players’ name. They’ve had one McDonald’s All-American in Painter’s tenure: the late Caleb Swanigan. Edey was an afterthought, even in his own country of Canada. Smith was overlooked, both by IU and the rest of the Big Ten. He’s now the NCAA career leader in assists.

They’re not reliant on the portal. How long Painter can studiously avoid free agency? Impossible to answer. His retention rate among his core players is terrific, but he’s lost the likes of Myles Colvin and Cam Heide in recent years. All things being equal, Painter wants to rely upon high-school recruiting while filling in the gaps with someone like Oscar Cluff who helps significantly in the rebounding area.

Over time, it’s likely Painter will have to change with the times, rely more heavily on the portal, but that time isn’t now. The beauty of Purdue is the continuity, with this group being led by the three noble seniors, Kaufman-Renn, Fletcher Loyer and Smith. All three could have transferred and chased more money elsewhere; Smith, in particular, could have named his number. All three stayed their entire college career, which is yet another reason to cheer for this outfit. While IU is currently in a spot where they have to rebuild top-to-bottom every year, Purdue is a self-sustaining model for college basketball as it used to be.

If you’re a fan, don’t you feel more of a connection with the Boilers than you do these other teams who rely upon mercenaries who come in for a season, then pursue the paycheck again the next season? With Kaufman-Renn and Loyer and Smith, we’ve seen these guys grow into men – we learned Smith can, in fact, grow one heck of a beard – but we’ve seen their ups and their downs and their journeys to this moment, and the connection between them and their fans is undeniable and strong.

“You may get more money (elsewhere in college basketball), but what’s the dollar amount on the relationships that I’ve built?” Kaufman-Renn said earlier in the NCAA Tournament. “What’s the dollar amount on the values I’ve learned?”

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An NCAA Tournament day on the couch:

Noon – My first thought before embarking on this college hoops journey is that this is going to be a very chalky tournament – again.

Consider, last year there were the fewest upsets (by seed) than in any NCAA Tournament since 1985. And it’s going to happen again this year (I think).

Here’s why: In the pre-NIL and portal days, mid-majors had a superpower: They were older teams with several experienced upperclassmen, and they were getting the best of these highly-ranked power conference teams with lots of one-and-dones and underclassmen. The mid-major teams had guys who had played together forever. The power conference teams often struggled under the klieg lights of the NCAA Tournament. Now, with the portal making teams older and guys staying in school longer to chase the dollars, the mid-majors no longer have the experience advantage.

Now we’ll grab some coffee and see if I’m right. (Probably not). We’ll count the upsets together.

12:05 -- All I hear is bitching about modern day college athletics, how NIL and the portal and big money have ruined our fun and games and turned them into pro sports. But here’s the thing: We still love the games. We still love the players. It doesn’t matter how many millions they’re taking in. It doesn’t matter if they’ve played for three schools in four years. This is a chance to see the super-freshmen do their thing on the biggest stage, a chance to watch elite coaches guide their teams. College sports might be the Wild West – how often have we heard coaches complain about the state of the game? -- but when it comes time to lace them up, there’s nothing quite like the NCAA Tournament.

12:15 -- It’s 9-seed TCU and 8-seed Ohio State at 12:15.

I’m happy. My old Jersey friend Bill Raftery is on the game. Raftery isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but if I don’t hear “onions” and “organizing those puppies” at least once per game, I feel like I missed something. I think he’s sneaky good. Has been for a long time, going back to his Big East days.

TCU is making Ohio State crazy with its hustling, trapping defense, forcing multiple turnovers. A late 11-0 run and the Horned Frogs lead by 15 at half.

1:10 – Checking out No. 4 Nebraska and No. 13 Troy. Rooting hard for the Huskers, not only because they’re in the Big Ten, but because they’ve never won an NCAA Tournament game in their program history. (Neither has Troy, for that matter.) It’s time for Fred Hoiberg to end that streak. They’re playing in OKC, so it’s a hugely pro-Nebraska crowd, and they’re making some serious noise. There’s a good reason for that: Nebraska’s Pryce Sandfort, the Iowa transfer, is knocking down jumpers from everywhere. The Huskers now lead 41-25 at half.

1:34 – Back to Ohio State-TCU. The Buckeyes are on a 10-zip run and have pulled within 43-40.

1:55 – Over to fifth-seeded Wisconsin and 12^th-seeded-High Point. A lot of the smart college basketball folks loved High Point making a small run after averaging 90 points per game during the regular season…until they noticed that dangerous Wisconsin is their first-round opponent. Badgers lead, 12-5. The tournament is all about guard play, and Wisconsin’s got two of the best, John Blackwell and Nick Boyd.

Should mention, Wally Szczerbiak (didn’t need to check the spelling) is on the call. I was thrilled to watch his alma mater, Miami, win its First Four game Wednesday night, knocking down 16 3’s in the process. Yes, they belonged here – not that there should have been much question. An unbeaten regular season is an unbeaten regular season. I don’t care who you’re playing – and Miami tried to schedule up, to no avail – but you pull that off, you belong in the tournament. Regardless of what Bruce Pearl thinks.

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In a normal Purdue basketball season, when the Boilers are almost never losing at home and are running away with the Big Ten title, the conference tournament is little more than a minor inconvenience. They would get knocked out early and the sense you got from Matt Painter was, “Yeah, whatever.” It meant extra days to rest and prepare. And, let’s face it, winning the Big Ten Tournament rarely means much of anything in terms of the NCAA seeding, or at least it hasn’t in the recent past.

But this is not a normal Purdue basketball season.

After losing just five home games between 2020 and 2025, the Boilers, the preseason No. 1 team, lost five times at Mackey this season. More unsettling, they came into the conference tournament having slumped to 6-7 and were giving up 91 points per game during a recent stretch. So what we’re saying is, they really needed this title run for their confidence, if nothing else. They needed those three seniors – Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman – to play their best basketball, for Oscar Cluff to continue his dominant work down low, for the Boilers to start playing something resembling defense.

Usually, the Big Ten Tournament is an annoyance for Purdue. This year, it was a high priority.

The Big Ten Tourney championship helped in myriad ways, not the least of which is, they went from a presumptive three seed to a two seed. They will face 15-seed Queens, an Atlantic Sun program based in Charlotte which just made the jump to Division I in 2022. Like a lot of mid-majors, they are largely guard-oriented, play a fast pace and like to shoot three-pointers. Sound familiar?

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All they needed was a victory over a sub-.500 Northwestern team. One victory, this one on a neutral court in Chicago, and the bubble-dwelling Hoosiers likely would have snuck into the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in 10 years. In a season characterized by a Charmin-soft bubble, Darian DeVries’ first team in Bloomington needed to accomplish the minimum, beat Northwestern for the first time in seven tries.

And they couldn’t even do that.

Not even close, falling apart in the second half and losing 74-61 to a Northwestern team that played one night earlier against Penn State.

And so the IU season is over early again, the Hoosiers almost surely missing the tournament for the eighth time in the last 10 years, an unthinkable, unspeakable failure for a program with IU’s increasingly distant history of success.

Has there ever been a more forgettable season and forgettable IU team than this one, at least in the recent past? Aside from Lamar Wilkerson finishing second in the Big Ten in scoring (and the leading scorer in conference games), there was absolutely nothing to recommend this group of low achievers. This is a team that began the season at 17-8, only to watch it all fall apart with six losses in the final seven games.

Which begs this question: Is DeVries the right man for the job?

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You may exhale.

Alec Pierce is remaining in Indianapolis after signing a four-year deal worth $29 million per season, turning down better money to remain in the city where he was drafted.

This is stunningly good news, and while the price point seems a little high – he’ll be the ninth highest-paid receiver in the NFL – he remains well worth it for the Indianapolis Colts. Quite simply, they could not afford to lose him for fear of setting sail on another mediocre season.

Pierce’s signing sends an important message: Daniel Jones is here to stay and will very likely sign a long-term contract in the coming weeks or months. There’s no way Pierce decides to come back without clear assurance from Colts management that Jones will be back under center for this year and several years beyond.

After playing with nine quarterbacks in four years, Pierce has to know that the writing is on the wall regarding a Jones’ signing, at least at some point.

“When both sides are driven to get it done, it usually works out in the right way,” Ballard said at the NFL Combine.

Deadlines spur action. They always do. And they did this time. The Colts got this done almost to the moment that interested teams could come calling for Pierce. According to some reports, he turned down more money to stay in Indy – wait, is that tampering? -- where his younger brother will be playing basketball for Purdue next season.

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What this also means, unfortunately, is that unless Chris Ballard and Pierce’s representation come to an agreement by noon Monday, Pierce will hit free agency in two week…

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If you’re the Las Vegas Raiders, who just left town along with the rest of the league after the NFL Combine, you don’t overthink it.

You submit your selection about 30 seconds after Roger Goodell opens the proceedings, and hand in a card that reads, “Fernando Mendoza.” (Well, it’s not a card anymore, but you get the idea.)

Don’t overcomplicate it. Don’t twist yourself into a mental pretzel. The answer to many of the Raiders’ problems is right there, in their hands. Just a matter of pulling the trigger.

Sometimes, NFL executives try to prove they’re the smartest guys in the room and reach for a pick whose selection runs counter to the prevailing opinion. This isn’t one of those times. This is Andrew-Luck-with-the-first-pick easy. My dog could make this selection. He’s a very smart dog, for the record.

Do I think Mendoza is a generational talent like Luck? Not exactly. Not right now. But you see how far he’s come in just one year under Curt Cignetti and his coaching staff, what’s to say he won’t continue to grow and develop at a similar rate under NFL tutelage? What kind of impact might his idol, Tom Brady, have on the former IU quarterback?

I look at Mendoza, and I think his best comparison is to Jared Goff, a fine quarterback, although Mendoza has better wheels. Another decent comp: Kirk Cousins, who made himself hundreds of millions in this league. That said, he could end up being elite. The traits are there. The mental acuity is there. The professional approach is there.

One thing about Mendoza, he won’t get into shenanigans on the Las Vegas Strip. He’ll go out with the boys for a couple of beers, but we all have a pretty good idea, if he’s not a choir boy exactly, he’s awfully close. Some observers seem to think it’s an act, that it’s off-putting, but this is who Mendoza is and has been from the very beginning. This is a young man who brought his Heisman to his Bloomington church to share it with the clergymen. He’s a good egg, is what I’m saying.

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I seem to remember a time when draft analysts questioned how high the ceiling was for Peyton Manning, noted he didn’t have the raw athleticism and arm talent that was possessed by Ryan Leaf. Roughly half the league went on record saying they would have drafted Leaf, whose life and career would disintegrate at a unfortunate and dizzying rate.

I remember the 2011 draft when Cam Newton was the consensus No. 1 pick out of Auburn. A few weeks before the draft, Newton told veteran scribe Peter King that he wanted to become a brand, specifically “a football player, entertainer and icon.”

That comment inspired great gnashing of teeth among NFL personnel, and there were rumblings that the quarterback-needy Carolina Panthers would bypass Newton and go for another, “safer” pick.

Turned out, he did go first, did become a very good NFL quarterback who won an MVP and went to the Super Bowl in 2015.

If I’m the Raiders, the name already has been scribbled on the card. No questions, no hesitation – even if Dan Orlovsky, a lonely voice in the wilderness, believes Alabama’s Ty Simpson has more impressive tape than Mendoza. Take him first and enjoy the next 10-plus years.

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He’s not just the safe pick, the obvious pick, he’s far and away the best pick. Seven of the last eight No. 1 picks have been quarterbacks and 21 of the last 28. It needs to happen again.

Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

First, you can’t blame Anthony Richardson for wanting out. And I’d suggest the Colts didn’t put up much of a fight attempting to keep him in Indianapolis. I’d go even further and suggest this was a mutual decision altogether, but it sends a better message to prospective trade partners to say it was Richardson’s call.

If any player in the history of the game needs a fresh start more than Richardson, the star-crossed Colts quarterback, I’d like to see him. If it wasn’t so sad – and serious – it would be funny, in an outrageous way. The young man nearly lost his eye in an accident with a resistance band, for crying out loud. Every time he got on the field, it seemed, some cruel fate would befall him. There are just so many freak injuries a player can incur before you mildly suggest he’s injury-prone. What, you have a better explanation?

When he played, however infrequently, he showed tantalizing bursts of otherworldly talent. He ran like a SUV. He had a howitzer for an arm; his back-footed, 60-yard TD bomb to Alec Pierce in the 2024 season opener against Houston remains the best throw I’ve seen, anywhere, from an NFL quarterback in the past 10 years.

But there was a problem. We saw those flourishes of talent maybe 5%-10% of the time. The rest of the time, he was tossing it to the wrong zip code. A quality NFL quarterback completes nearly 70 percent of his passes. Richardson completed 47% during his last stint as a starter.

I remember being at a journalism gala several years ago, and I came across a gentleman who does TV in Florida. The Colts had recently drafted Richardson, and here was this man’s take after several years of covering UF football: “He’s going to get everybody fired.”

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They had everything, the two graybeards in the backcourt, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer, a productive big in Trey Kaufman-Renn, one of the top transfers in the nation in Oscar Cluff and an intriguing freshman in Omer Mayer, an international player from Israel. And, of course, they had Matt Painter, who has Purdue in the top 10 virtually every week of every season.

When they ran Texas Tech out of the building early in the season in The Bahamas, it justified their lofty spot atop the polls.

I look now, though, and I don’t see the nation’s No. 1 team, and frankly, they didn’t look anything like a No. 7 team, which is where they were ranked before getting run out of their own gym by Michigan Tuesday. (OK, they lost by nine but it was never close.)

This is the meat of the order for Purdue as it heads down the stretch, fairly safely ensconced as a low-two, high-three in the NCAA Tournament. The Boilers play IU at Mackey Friday night and Michigan State at home next Thursday. There was ample hope that Purdue had found its footing with road wins at Nebraska and Iowa, but the Michigan loss, their second blowout loss at home this year (along with the Iowa State game), surely raised some eyebrows.

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