Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Winning is all about quarterbacks how QBs avoid or overcome errors; Philip Rivers hasn’t done it, so Colts are unlikely to

Colts fans were disappointed by the loss in the opener, but as soon as Rivers threw the second pick, the game was over.

Winning in the NFL is entirely dependent upon the quality of a quarterback.

That’s so simple it defies belief.

There has to be more to winning games than quarterback play, right?  Defense has to count for something, doesn’t it?  Coaches constantly talk about all three phases, and how it takes the best 53 players have to win games.  Are they nuts?

No.  Blown tackles and coverages, idiotic penalties, and missed kicks cost teams games, but nothing is MORE important than quarterback play – and that is not a great thing for the 2020 Indianapolis Colts.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

Let’s take a look at the best quarterbacks in the game.  There is a current glut of NFL QBs who have been starters for their their teams for more than a decade.  How have their teams performed over the last 10 years?

There are two teams that have not dealt with a losing season over the last 10, and a child can guess that one is the New England Patriots.  It will surprise few that the Pittsburgh Steelers are the other.  They have been led by first ballot hall of famers Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger.

The Dallas Cowboys have endured two losing seasons in their last 10.  Their starting QBs during those seasons were Matt Cassel and Jon Kitna, not Tony Romo or Dak Prescott.  The Green Bay Packers have also posted two losing seasons in the last decade.  Aaron Rodgers led them to one, but the other was authored by Brett Hundley.

How about the Seattle Seahawks?  Since Russell Wilson became the starter in 2012 – relentless  winning has followed.  Wilson’s worst record was 9-7 in 2017 – the only year the Seahawks have missed the playoffs during his career.

Let’s turn our attention to the Colts because reciting the stats from better teams with better quarterbacks depresses me.  In the last nine seasons, the Colts posted a perfectly mediocre 72-72 record.  With Andrew Luck as the starter, the Colts are 53-33.  Without him, the team’s record has been 19-40 (including Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars).

Yikes!

Without Luck, the Colts have turned to Philip Rivers as their franchise QB.  The hope is that Rivers will be an improvement over Jacoby Brissett, who led the Colts to a 7-9 record last year.  Even a one-game improvement could lift them into a wild card berth.  But is Rivers the guy to get that done?

We saw Sunday what Chargers fans have lamented for the past decade – excellence interrupted by bizarre lapses of judgment leading to interceptions – which bring losses.  Over the last 10 seasons with Rivers starting every game, the Chargers put together a 77-83 mark with two trips to the playoffs and just one season with a double-digit win total.

Rivers has thrown 155 picks during that decade, plus Sunday’s game.  That’s an average of .96 interceptions per start.  That’s a lot.  Over that time, Rivers has thrown two or more picks in 42 games – 34 of which were losses.

To be fair to Rivers, let’s not compare him only to future hall of famers.  Because the goal for the Colts – as owner Jim Irsay tells us – is championships, let’s dig deeper and compare Rivers record to every QB who won a Super Bowl since 2003.  How many times have those quarterbacks thrown two or more picks, and what are their records in those games over the last 10 years?

  • Brady – 7-8 (15) in 156 starts
  • Drew Brees – 13-19 (32) in 153 starts
  • Joe Flacco – 7-20 (27) in 133 starts
  • Nick Foles – 1-5 (6) – in 48 starts
  • Patrick Mahomes – 1-2 (3) – in 31 starts
  • Eli Manning – 12-30 (42) in 147 starts
  • Peyton Manning 10-10 (20) – in 73 starts
  • Rivers – 8-33 (41) in 160 starts
  • Roethlisberger – 9-14-1 (24) in 130 starts
  • Aaron Rodgers – 6-5 (11) in 142 starts
  • Russell Wilson – 5-6 (11) in 128 starts

What have we learned from this little exercise?

  • Rivers is a gamer – the only quarterback among those 11 to not miss a single start
  • Rivers is prone to throwing it to the other team
  • Rivers is not dynamic enough to those overcome multiple errors
  • Rivers and Eli Manning have a lot in common beyond being dealt for one another on draft day in 2004
  • If Foles and E. Manning are capable of winning a Super Bowl, there’s a ray of hope for the Colts with Rivers…maybe?
  • Despite his $25 million price tag, Rivers is not among the NFL’s elite

This isn’t meant to depress anyone – including Rivers!  It’s just a reminder that expectations for the 2020 Colts must be ratcheted back a couple of slots into the 9-7 range because that is who the quarterback is.

Colts RB Marlon Mack’s torn Achilles reminds us why NFL players have worries way beyond Covid-19

In a moment, Marlon Mack went from Pro Bowl candidate on a potential division champion to just another guy with an uncertain future.

When Covid-19 rolled into our lives early this year, I tweeted that the NFL would play because players had more serious worries than a virus.

People were outraged, called me an idiot, and said I had no understanding of the virus.  I’m not an epidemiologist – that’s true – but I understand people and their hierarchy of worries.  A virus – even one that is as virulent as Covid-19 – pales in comparison to what can befall a football player on any given Sunday.

Yesterday, we saw something far worse than a positive Covid test happen to Colts running back Marlon Mack, who tore his Achilles tendon.  His ability to play football at a high level again is in doubt, as is his chance to become a very wealthy man because of his unique physical gifts and work ethic.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

That is how tenuous NFL careers are.  One play, a 24-year-old like Mack is as good as anyone in the game.  He looks explosive, like a back ready to prove his 1,091 yards in 2019 was no fluke.  The next, his season is over.  An Achilles tear doesn’t necessarily mean it’s time for Mack to choose an alternative line of work, but one third of those who suffer a tear are finished.  Most of those who do play again see a stark decline in power rating, productivity, and earnings.

Worse for Mack, he is a free agent at the end of the season, so he was in line for a lucrative deal if he put up similar numbers to the last two years when he ran for a combined 1,999 yards in 26 games.

The Colts drafted Jonathan Taylor in the second round last April because general manager Chris Ballard knows that running backs have a limited lifespan in the NFL, especially when they have a history of missing games, like Mack has.  Injuries beget injuries in football, and so stacking talented backs four deep is the right call.

For Mack, he has surgery in his immediate future and then he will begin the tedious desolation of endless rehab.  At the end of that tough road, even if everything goes as well as possible, the reward will be wary looks from skeptical GMs.  Maybe Mack gets a deal for the minimum from the Colts, who know what a good guy he is.  Maybe someone gives him a little more.

Whatever happens, Mack’s mobility and marketability will never be the same.  That’s life in the NFL.  In the spotlight cashing massive checks one day – home watching sci-fi movies the next.  A source of potential wealth for family and friends on Sunday morning, and that night – just another guy.

What it means for the Colts is not nearly as worrisome to me as what lies ahead for Mack, a hard-working young man who deserved better.  But like Clint Eastwood says in Unforgiven, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

As teammates pass Mack’s locker for the rest of the season, they will be thinking about their teammate, hopeful one day he will return, but also thankful their career continues.  As they line up in the tunnel next Sunday, they will say a prayer they find a way to leave the field as healthy as they are in that moment.

Players concern themselves first with health, wealth, family, and winning.  Yesterday’s injury to Mack serves as a reminder to us what professional football is all about, and how tenuous careers are.

Colts lose 27-20 – is it time yet to question why we keep expecting them to win?

Happy times for the Jags defense, who couldn’t stop the Colts, but still found a way to win.

Uh-oh.

We know all the banal little sayings about the NFL.  “Any given Sunday,” “It’s only one game,” and “It’s not how you start but how you finish that counts,” are repeated over and over throughout the season.  Of course, they are as accurate as they are trite, especially after a game like the Colts 27-20 loss to they woefully bad Jacksonville Jaguars.

They also say, “There is no such thing as a good loss.”  That is certainly the case today.  This was NOT a good loss.  The swagger the Colts exuded in training camp did not convert to on field excellence – at least not after the first touchdown drive that gave Colts fans an inkling this might be a laugher.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

A second drive that should have ended in a field goal to give the Colts a 10-0 lead was instead extinguished by the offense’s inability on fourth down to pick up a yard at the Jags three.

Media types, who looked at the schedule and felt it was a given the Colts would start 6-1, are scrambling to adjust their sites south.  They anointed quarterback Philip Rivers the comeback player of the year before throw a pass.  What I told you throughout camp was that 95% of the time Rivers was on time and on target.  The other 5% of his throws result in picks.  After the Colts signed Rivers to a one-year, $25 million deal, a lot was made of the Chargers terrible offensive line and how different he would be behind one of the best.  Upon further review, the reasons for the Chargers not going to the playoffs in five of the last six seasons evidently include their quarterback.

We saw it again and again in training camp.  Rivers would be accurate in the extreme for throw after throw until he threw it to the defense.  Sadly, the lack of velocity that keeps drops by receivers to a minimum also make him very catchable for the defense.  Rivers threw 46 passes this afternoon and 38 of them were caught.  Two of them were intercepted and led directly to 10 Jaguars points.

How weird was this game?  The Colts lost a game in which they never punted.  Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew threw one lone incompletion in 20 attempts, and could have easily lost.  The normally sure-handed T.Y. Hilton dropped a fourth down pass late in the game that ended all hope.  Like I said – weird game.

Colts running back Marlon Mack left the game with an injury, and the Colts running game left with him.  Nyheim Hines and Jonathan Taylor gained 32 yards on 14 attempts after Mack was carted off with what has been described as an achilles injury.  Coach Frank Reich said after the game, “I am not concerned about the run game at all.”

I love a coach who says publicly he is not worried, but if Reich is not concerned about every aspect of his team after the multiple breakdowns on both sides of the bar that led to a difficult to fathom and impossible to excuse loss to a bad football team, the problems are unlikely to be corrected.

A few random but prescient questions remain –

  • Why insert a plodding Jacoby Brissett for an RPO play on second and goal from the two.
  • Why would Rivers ever try to throw off his back foot when his lack of velocity turns the pass into a game of “500?”
  • Why allow the Jags to dink and dunk when that is exactly the way they want to move the ball?
  • If the Colts lose to a bad team while not allowing a sack or punting, who are they going to beat?
  • If GM Chris Ballard has done nothing but execute great drafts, and Frank Reich is a great coach, why do the Colts continue to lose?
  • After only one game, is it way too early to ask all these questions?

Here are a few good things to leave you with –

  • Parris Campbell, despite his idiotic unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, looked good while catching six passes for 71 yards.
  • Jonathan Taylor looked explosive out of the backfield with six catches and 67 yards.
  • Rivers appeared as comfortable as you would expect leading the offense.
  • The Colts defense got to Minshew four times.

A lot of questions.  A lot of issues.  Only one thing matters – Colts are 0-1.

Here are the seven keys for a Colts victory and cover this afternoon

El Lego needs to make kicks today. As bad as the Jags are, all scoring opportunities must be capitalized upon. That means “El Lego” needs to start his career strong.

For the Colts (-8) to win their first season opener since 2013, they need only to play better football than the team believed to be one of the worst two units in the NFL.  Like a man running from a bear who only needs to outrun the slowest guy, the Colts don’t need to be the best team in the league, just better than the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The primary unknown for the Colts is Philip Rivers, their new old quarterback.  Rivers is 38, coming off a 5-11 season that saw him throw 20 interceptions, and the absolute key to success of the team.  That’s true, even on a day when the Colts are playing a legitimately bad division opponent seemingly determined to liquidate productive assets in order to improve its draft position.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

Here are seven keys to winning getting the Colts getting the season off to a rare winning start:

  1. Rivers needs to throw it only to teammates.  Last season with the Chargers, when Rivers threw one pick or none his team was 5-5.  When he threw two or more picks, they were 0-6.  Whether those picks were caused by being behind in the first place or whether he put them in a bind with bad reads or throws is unimportant.  What matters is that they happened, and losses ensued.
  2. Make the Jags miss defensive lineman Yannick Ngakoue.  Colts fans have heard a lot about how the acquisition of three-technique tackle DeForest Buckner will enhance all aspects of the Colts pass rush and overall defense.  The Colts need to hope that the opposite is true for the Jags.  Ngokoue sacked opposing quarterbacks 38.5 times over his four-year career, and his absence, along with Calais Campell’s, may cause issues for the rest of the defensive front.
  3. Speaking of that, keep second year game-wrecker Josh Allen from getting to Rivers.  Coming off a 10.5 sack rookie campaign, Allen appears to be validating the seventh overall pick the Jags used to select him.  if the Colts offensive line is the best in the NFL, as they believe they are, they should be able to keep Allen off Rivers.
  4. Rodrigo Blankenship – “El Lego” – needs to validate the confidence the Colts have invested in him.  Adam Vinatieri was not good last year with his 68% success rate on field goals and 78.6% makes on extra point attempts.  El Lego must be much better than that.  The 30 points lost from Vinatieri misses cost the Colts wins, and they are not good enough yet to overcome nearly two points squandered per game.
  5. Marlon Mack and Jonathan Taylor need to gash the Jags.  The inability to finish strong in the 2019 season finale in Jacksonville killed the Colts, and that means the running game was unable to close the deal.  The Colts enjoyed a 20-16 halftime lead before being dominated 22-0 in the second half.  That cannot happen today.  If the Colts get the lead, being able to move the sticks and control the clock is critical to winning.  Rivers may still be good enough to get the Colts a lead, but the running game needs to finish the deal today.
  6. Make Jags QB Gardner Minshew try to beat you.  Take away the run, and Gardner Minshew is a reasonable facsimile of Jacoby Brissett.  Look at the similarity in stats between the two.  In 2019, Minshew was 285-470, 3,271 yards, 21 TDs and six picks.  Brissett was 272-447, 3,314 yards, 18 TDs, and six picks.  Leonard Fournette is gone, so running the football is going to be tough for the Jags.  Minshew is not good enough to lead a one-dimensional offensive attack.
  7. Rivers thrashes the Jags as he did last year.  Without question, Rivers played at his highest level last year in a 45-10 Chargers blowout win at Jacksonville.  Completing 16-22 passes for 314 yards, three TDs, and a near perfect passer rating of 154.4, Rivers was stellar.  If Rivers puts up those numbers, the Colts win today by a similar score.

If the Colts check four of more of those seven boxes, they will cover the eight.  I believe they will.

Noise addict Skip Bayless deserves utter silence for his legacy of bankrupt insight

You deserve better than Skip Bayless, so demand it by not watching or reading him. The loudness of the quiet will silence his empty noise.

Like a fifth grader who puts thumbtacks on his teacher’s chair, Skip Bayless is an attention hog without the decency or moral compass to do it right.

Yesterday, on the show he co-hosts with Shannon Sharpe, Bayless claimed Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dan Prescott is incapable of leading the team because he went public with his battle against depression.  Ignorant doesn’t begin to describe his take on mental illness.

That’s par for the course with Bayless.  He is a professional noisemaker whose only meaningful metrics for success are retweets, clicks, and zeroes at the end of his paycheck.  Trying to find the truth and then artfully telling it is not a part of his equation.  There is no there there with his takes.  He’s a feckless sparring partner for those who love to yell at their TVs.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

There is an oft told story about Bayless writing for the Dallas Times Herald.  The paper asked readers who they wanted as the Cowboys quarterback – Danny White, Gary Hogeboom, or Steve Pelluer.  Bayless asked who came in last, and then wrote a column about why Pelluer should be the starter.  He didn’t believe it, but he wrote it.  Multiply that by the number of columns he has written and segments he has hosted, and Bayless’s episodes of disingenuity must number in the low tens of thousands.

That’s Bayless’s game.  Grab the raw nerve and yank on it for awhile.  Manipulating his audience has made Bayless a very wealthy man.  Fox pays him over $6-million each year to sell his vapid counterpoints for two hours every weekday.

Under normal conditions, Bayless is a harmless irritant purposely humming an out of tune melody just to frustrate viewers dopey enough to fall for his act.  His attack on Prescott was more than off key – it was an irresponsible misrepresentation of mental illness and those with the courage to talk openly about it.

And if you ask Bayless this morning about it, he will grin and claim victory because people are talking about him again.  His thumbtack ruse worked, so his Twitter profile visits jumped and his Q rating grew 2%.  It was a good day for Bayless because all noise feeds him – and his bank account.

But don’t you deserve better?  Don’t you deserve pundits who can – at the minimum – seek out recognize their version of the truth and tell it.  Do you need to be angered by a soulless wretch whose only goal is to keep you coming back for more?  We earn the media we consume.  Skip Bayless being paid millions to feed us his intellectual empty calories is our own damned fault.

Media, whether in news or sports, should strive for honesty and attempt to advance the discourse.  Noise may keep the lights on and pay for fancy cars, but truth fuels our society.  We must demand better from media or we will never get truthful media.

If you are looking for columnists and media types who consistently provide their best version of their truth, I recommend The Athletic’s Bob Kravitz, 107.5 the Fan’s (Indianapolis) Dan Dakich, The Score’s (Chicago) David Haugh, Chicago Sun-Times Rick Telander, St. Louis’s Bernie Miklasz, and WDRB’s (Louisville) Rick Bozich.  There are many more, but I have either worked with or consumed for many years these sages of sports.  I have never known any of them to subvert their truth to boost clicks or audience.  And to prove it, none makes $6-mil – or close to it.

There is enough truth in sports media to feed our need for insight without listening to click sluts like Bayless, who deserves the darkness of our utter silence.

Turn him off so Fox turns him out.

It was 20 years ago today – Vince Welch broke the story of IU’s firing of Bob Knight

It’s been 20 years to the minute that Vince Welch broke the story that Bob Knight was out as Indiana’s basketball coach.

My phone rang on a Sunday morning exactly 20 years ago today.  It was WIBC sports director Vince Welch.  “Bob Knight is being fired this morning,” he told me.

This was when I was the assistant program director of the radio station, and Knight had endured a tough year.  The story of his choking Neil Reed led to a zero tolerance edict from Indiana University president Myles Brand, and days prior to that Sunday, a student named Kent Harvey angered Knight by referring to him by his last name only.  Reports he grabbed Harvey by the arm as he chastised the freshman called into question – again – Knight’s ability to control his temper and may have violated his zero tolerance agreement.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

I knew not to ask Vince for his source, but wanted to know how certain he was.  Vince said he had the story cold, so he called into WIBC’s First Day program to report Knight’s termination.

These were the days before Twitter and other social media, so huge stories still broke via traditional media.  Trusted sources were necessary, and being right was the most important thing a journalist could be.  There were no Woj Bombs in 2000.  This was a Vince Bomb, and it needed to be right more than first, but first was still a good thing for WIBC.  When he reported the story all I was certain of was that Vince was first.

Even when a manager absolutely trusts a reporter – as I did (and do) with Vince – there is a loneliness while others avoid the story.  My unease became full blown nausea shortly after a respected media voice disputed the veracity of Vince’s report that the most famous, loved, and hated person in Indiana had been dismissed.

WTHR-13’s Don Hein told viewers emphatically that the reports was false.  He said he had spoken to his sources at IU who said Knight was NOT being fired.  My heart sank.  If we had screwed this up, the stink would last for a long time, so I called Vince to tell him what Hein had said.

Vince again, with a hint of frustration this time, reiterated his firm belief that he had the story right.

Roughly an hour later, without crediting Vince’s excellent work, ESPN claimed to be first to report that Knight was being fired.  I was both relieved and pissed off – relieved that Vince was as accurate as he had insisted and pissed that ESPN used that work without crediting Vince or WIBC.

Later, Indiana University confirmed what we already knew, that Knight was out.  Over the next few hours and days, Bloomington erupted.  Players threatened to walk out en masse.  Thousands of students protested outside Assembly Hall.  Knight gave a tearful farewell address at Dunn Meadow.  And to quell concerns of the players, Mike Davis was hired as the interim head coach.

Journalism, coaching, and IU Basketball have all evolved over these past 20 years.  Breaking news on the radio is unheard of because of the ease and speed of posting on social media.  Coaches like Knight are no longer tolerated because it’s better to lose while behaving than win while embarrassing a university.  And Indiana Basketball has meandered through a lot of mediocrity interrupted by three outstanding seasons as it continues to search for the identity it willfully torched when Brand punted Knight.

“A” in “ACC” must stand for asinine – programs unanimously agree to expand March Madness to ALL D-1 teams

The tweet below from Jon Rothstein caused me to get the kind of angry I used to enjoy indulging in.  Back in the day, I loved screaming about idiots who publicly showcased their lack of understanding about life, culture, sports, politics, and all topics in between.  A few years ago, I paused my penchant for fury.  Today, I’m back!

Opening up the 2021 NCAA Tournament to all 357 Division One members as a celebration of college basketball is the kind of dopey idea I would normally ignore as the brainchild of a fool, but when it comes unanimously from the programs of college basketball’s second best conference, notice needs to be taken and yelling needs to commence.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

Bad sports columnists fill column inches with this kind of mindless tripe.  That the ACC has decided to advocate a proposal to make meaningless an entire regular season as some sort of novel and wonderful all-skate party shows the shallow and self-immersed idiocy rampant in collegiate athletics.

Selection Sunday and the NCAA Tournament Bubble are so important to fans there are people like ESPN’s Joe Lunardi and CBS Sports Jerry Palm who earn a handsome living for doing nothing but examining the tournament resumes of potential participants.  Thousands subscribe to Ken Pomeroy’s website to try to figure out whether their favorite team is above or below the line as a tourney candidate.

And what drives ratings for the NCAA Tournament itself?  Brackets!  Every business, frat, dorm floor, and family with even a passing knowledge of college hoops puts together a bracket challenge.  Does the ACC believe people are going to sit down to complete a bracket with nine freaking rounds?  Not a chance in hell.

What would be the point of this wasteful extravaganza?  To see Duke hammer Chicago State by 110 points?  To increase travel during a pandemic, which will almost certainly continue through March?  To exhaust “student-athletes?”  To destroy all other tournaments?

We know the answer to the question of why coaches advocate for anything – money and job security.  This “celebration” is motivated by greed for extra games, to get coaches who would have missed the Big Dance off the hook, and to activate bonuses contractually guaranteed to coaches for piloting their programs to the NCAA Tournament.

Let’s hope the NCAA has the brains to see through this thickheaded gambit to preserve what makes its signature event great – the preciousness of a bid, the February fun that precedes March Madness, and brackets that can be completed in less than four hours.

The ACC needs to be careful what it wishes for, but like coaches who don’t know whether to defend the ball on a last second inbounds play, the ACC is clueless as to why the tournament they are threatening to ruin is great.

Thanks to the Big 10 for having the sanity to abstain from this boobery.  It’s not just college basketball’s best conference, it’s also the smartest!

Pacers search for next coach continues – Billy Donovan a lateral move from Nate McMillan

Earlier today, a comment suggested Billy Donovan is a lateral move from Nate McMillan. I disagreed. As it turns out, he was correct.

Reflexively, I immediately thought Billy Donovan as the next coach for the Indiana Pacers would be an upgrade over Nate McMillan.  Oops.

Upon further review, that might not be the case.

McMillan was fired because he could not lead the Pacers to postseason success.  Here’s what Donovan has done in the playoffs over the past four seasons:  he has led his Oklahoma City Thunder to exactly the same number of series wins as McMillan provided the Pacers – zero.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

While McMillan trails Donovan in total playoff game wins 7-3, he has not had a healthy roster and bonafide star in any of his first round flameouts.  Donovan led teams with a completely healthy Paul George, Chris Paul, and Russell Westbrook, although those three never played simultaneously.

It should be mentioned that in Donovan’s first season, the Thunder advanced to the Western Conference Finals with Kevin Durant, Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka.  They took a 3-1 lead over the Golden State Warriors before folding.  The Warriors then did the same thing against the eventual NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.  Durant left after that season for the Warriors.

Adios to playoff series wins for Donovan.

In the regular season, Donovan’s record over the last four seasons is a respectable 188-130.  McMillan’s is an eerily similar 183-136.

It feels like McMillan is older than Donovan, and he is – barely.  Today, McMillan is 56 years and 37 days old.  Donovan is 55 years and 102 days old.

It’s not as though Donovan and McMillan are coaching replicants, but they are alike enough to make a reasonable person question whether a change from McMillan to Donovan is worth the trouble of firing a good guy to replace him with another good guy.  Just as the Pacers knew what they would get if McMillan returned, they can project a reasonable facsimile of the same results with Donovan.

While this coaching search is drawing a lot of attention from Pacers fans, let’s be honest about what wins championships.

It’s not the coach.

The last 24 NBA Champions (minus the 2004 Detroit Pistons) have had at least one of these nine stars on its roster – Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and Michael Jordan.

If we take our championship list another 16 years back to 1980, we add first ballot hall of famers Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Isiah Thomas, and Hakeem Olajuwon to our list of players indispensable to winning.  So on 39 of the last 40 champions, at least one of only 14 players were on each roster.

Championships are won by teams with stars, not great coaches.  It’s not that coaches are irrelevant, but championships are almost always won by teams with the best players, not the best coach.

If the Pacers want to play in the big boy pool with a chance at a title, they need to find a way to build a roster around a hall of famer (or two) in his prime.  Whether the next coach is Billy Donovan, Darvin Ham, Dan Craig, Mike Budenholzer, Becky Hammon, or someone else, they need to provide him or her with a great player to join the current roster filled with good players.

Query & Schultz coming back tomorrow – to ISC Sports Network!

This is my favorite picture of Query & Schultz, who overcome their obvious disdain for one another to find respect and friendship.

And they always said their faces were made for radio!

Query & Schultz, who enlightened and charmed sportstalk radio listeners for nearly a decade on WNDE-AM in Indianapolis, will make their TV debut tomorrow from 6p-7p on ISC Sports Network (Xfinity channel 81 in Indy) and the ISC app.

Fans of the show are hoping for the same quirky combination of Indy sports insight and contentious banter between the two co-hosts, who found a way past multiple and obvious differences to form a genuine friendship.

Click here for your copy of “Oops – the Art of Learning from Mistakes and Adventures” by Kent Sterling

The radio show began without the two hosts meeting.  In fact, Query believed Schultz would be board-operator and not co-host until airtime on their first day.  It may not have been until Schultz opened his mic for the first time that Query realized Schultz’s true role.

Query loves to offramp from a planned topic to explore a story that is quite different (and occasionally unrelated) that piques his interest, while Schultz is a very linear and literal thinker who does not enjoy meandering across the prairie of ideas on his way to a point.  That basic behavioral difference made Query & Schultz a unique and effective pairing.

Regardless of when Query & Schultz discovered what they were doing together on the radio, the audience responded to their unusual chemistry and unique thoughts about sports and culture.

Sadly, the radio show came to an end when WNDE’s parent company made massive cuts across dozens of their stations without regard to hosts or listeners who crave a local connection.  As quickly as Query & Schultz came, they were off the radio.

The return of Query & Schultz is great news for those sports fans in search of a variety of voices in traditional media.  Let’s hope for more hours from this very tolerant duo, who found a way past their many differences into mutual respect and then a friendship that outlasted their radio show.

As we witness dissent devolve into misery in our streets as well as media, it’s sweet and affirming to listen to – and watch – two desperate souls crash into each other while remaining good friends.

I’m sure it will be like riding a bike for Query & Schultz – and their listeners – who have gone 200 days without one another.

Get ready for sports, off ramps, tolerance, and insight tomorrow at 6p on ISC.