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President Donald Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense project will require a whole-of-government effort on par with the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, according to a Space Force general. 

‘This is on the order of magnitude of Manhattan Project, and it’s going to take concerted effort from the very top of our government. It’s going to take a national will to bring all this together,’ Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, told a gathering of defense industry experts on Wednesday. 

The ‘Golden Dome’ idea stemmed from Israel’s Iron Dome. With the help of the U.S., it employs an invisible boundary that triggers interceptors when short-range missiles are fired toward its territory. 

But the Golden Dome has proved a more daunting project for guarding the U.S., which is close to 500 times the size of Israel and would likely be threatened more by long-range than short-range missiles. 

Guetlein said the project will require unprecedented cooperation across the defense and intelligence agencies. 

‘We are in full planning mode,’ the official said at the National Security Innovation Base Summit hosted by the Ronald Reagan Institute. ‘We owe an answer back to the White House by the end of the month on what our thoughts are.’

The Golden Dome would need to protect the U.S. from a range of threats – including hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles, advanced cruise missiles. Early detection would rely on space-based sensors that would trigger rapid-response missile interceptors. 

‘It’s going to be a heavy lift across all the organizations that are going to be participating. And what we’ve got to really push back on are the organizational boundaries and the cultures that are going to try to slow us down or to prevent us from working together,’ Guetlein said. 

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is ‘really good at protection of the homeland from an ICBM,’ according to Guetlein, but they need the Space Force to build space capabilities, and the Air Force and Army to manage counter-drone systems. 

The National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the U.S.’s spy satellites, also has space capabilities needed for homeland protection. 

Guetlein said the nation would have to ‘break down the barriers’ between Title 10 and Title 50 of the United States Code, the federal laws that govern the nation’s defense and clandestine operations.

‘Without a doubt, our biggest challenge is going to be organizational behavior and culture to bring all the pieces together,’ Guetlein said.

The Golden Dome would be a major step up from the current Ground-Based Midcourse Defense system, which relies on missile interceptors stationed in Alaska and California designed to protect the homeland from a small number of ballistic missiles that could be fired from North Korea. 

Guetlein said Iran has provided a ‘real life example’ in the Middle East, where U.S. forces helped thwart a barrage of missiles targeting Israel last year. 

Trump said during his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday that he would be asking lawmakers to appropriate funds for the project. 

‘My focus is on building the most powerful military of the future,’ Trump said. ‘As a first step, I’m asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art, ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense shield to protect our homeland – all made in the USA.’ 

The president claimed that Ronald Reagan had wanted to build such a system, but it wasn’t possible given the technology of the time. 

‘Israel has it, other places have it, and the United States should have it, too,’ he said. ‘This is a very dangerous world. We should have it. We want to be protected. And we’re going to protect our citizens like never before.’ 

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Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., has filed a resolution to punish the Democrats who derailed House floor proceedings as Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, was censured on Thursday.

‘We have a country to run. The failed policies of Joe Biden is why they lost the House, why they lost the Senate, why they lost the presidency. They can lick their wounds all day, but they still have to behave on the House floor,’ Ogles told Fox News Digital in a brief interview.

‘We can disagree on issues and politics, but we’re gonna respect one another, and I’m tired of this crap.’

Ogles’ resolution is aimed at stripping committee assignments from the Democratic lawmakers who temporarily plunged the House into chaos on Thursday. 

He told Fox News Digital that he intends to deem the resolution ‘privileged,’ meaning House leaders will have two legislative days to take the measure up. 

It could be voted on as early as next week, when Ogles is planning on broaching the matter with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

All but 12 House Democrats voted against censuring Green for disrupting President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. Ten Democrats voted with Republicans to reprimand Green, while two, including the Texas lawmaker himself, voted ‘present.’

Before the formal censure could be read out to Green, however, Democrats upended House floor proceedings by gathering with the Texas Democrat and singing ‘We Shall Overcome.’ Johnson was forced to call the House into a recess after failing multiple times to quell the protest.

The House floor briefly descended into chaos as a small group of Republicans and Democrats continued confronting each other, with one Republican heard calling Democrats ’embarrassing’ for their behavior.

Ogles’ resolution, first obtained by Fox News Digital, directs the House Sergeant-at-Arms to ‘provide a determination’ of ‘which members ignored the speaker’s directive to leave the well of the House.’

‘Upon submission of that list to the speaker,’ they would be ‘removed from any standing committee on which they currently serve for the remainder of the 119th Congress,’ the text said.

Ogles first posted his intent to file his resolution on X.

‘The speaker, he’s a good man, he’s a Christian man. He has a kind heart. With grace gave them the opportunity to stop and they refuse to do so,’ Ogles told Fox News Digital. ‘So, look, if you wanna act like a petulant child on the House floor and you’re giving a warning and a reprimand, and you choose not to stop, then actions need to be taken.’

Green was removed from Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night after repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president’s speech.

He shouted, ‘You have no mandate!’ at Trump as he touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House.

Johnson had Green removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms.

The 77-year-old Democrat was unrepentant when given the chance to speak out in his defense on Wednesday.

‘I heard the speaker when he said that I should cease. I did not, and I did not with intentionality. It was not done out of a burst of emotion,’ Green said. ‘I think that on some questions, questions of conscience, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences. And I have said I will. I will suffer whatever the consequences are, because I don’t believe that in the richest country in the world, people should be without good healthcare.’

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Katie Taylor, the reigning undisputed super lightweight champion, will face Amanda Serrano for the third time in a highly anticipated showdown on July 11. The fight will headline an all-women’s boxing card at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions will organize and promote the event, which will stream on Netflix. This will be the third time these two boxers face off, with their first meeting in 2022 making history as the first women’s bout to headline a fight card at Madison Square Garden. Taylor emerged victorious by split decision, setting the stage for a rematch. The rematch took place as the co-main event of the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul card in November 2024, where Taylor successfully defended her undisputed super lightweight titles in a controversial unanimous decision.

‘It’s only fitting that during Women’s History Month that we are able to announce this must-see trilogy between two of the greatest female athletes of all time, on an all-women’s card,’ Jake Paul said in a statement to ESPN.

The undercard, which will feature only women, will be announced later, adding to the excitement and anticipation for the full event lineup.

When is Taylor vs. Serrano 3?

Katie Taylor will face Amanda Serrano in the main event on July 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Where can I watch Taylor vs. Serrano 3?

The Taylor vs. Serrano 3 fight will be available to stream only on Netflix.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

Hampton Dellinger, the former head of the Office of Special Counsel who was fired by President Donald Trump on Feb. 7, announced on Thursday that he will not contest his firing further.

Dellinger, appointed to the role by former President Joe Biden, sued the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., federal court after his firing, but a federal appeals court had cleared the way for the firing to proceed on Wednesday.

‘My fight to stay on the job was not for me, but rather for the ideal that OSC should be as Congress intended: an independent watchdog and a safe, trustworthy place for whistleblowers to report wrongdoing and be protected from retaliation. Now I will look to make a difference – as an attorney, a North Carolinian, and an American – in other ways,’ Dellinger said.

D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had argued in a filing last month that Dellinger’s firing was ‘unlawful.’

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the Trump administration in a Wednesday ruling, however. 

Jackson claimed that the court ‘finds that the elimination of the restrictions on plaintiff’s removal would be fatal to the defining and essential feature of the Office of Special Counsel as it was conceived by Congress and signed into law by the President: its independence. The Court concludes that they must stand.’

Dellinger has maintained the argument that, by law, he can only be dismissed from his position for job performance problems, which were not cited in an email dismissing him from his post.

Earlier in February, liberal Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to outright deny the administration’s request to approve the firing.

Conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented, saying the lower court overstepped. They also cast doubt on whether courts have the authority to restore to office someone the president has fired. While acknowledging that some officials appointed by the president have contested their removal, Gorsuch wrote in his opinion that ‘those officials have generally sought remedies like backpay, not injunctive relief like reinstatement.’

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: President Donald Trump reflected on his first address of his second administration to a joint session of Congress, telling Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that he ‘felt very comfortable there’ and that ‘even the fake news said good things.’ 

‘I felt very comfortable there,’ Trump told Fox News Digital Thursday morning. ‘I was very comfortable with the subject matter.’  

‘People liked the delivery,’ the president continued. ‘So, it all ended up well.’ 

The president told Fox News Digital that he ‘got wonderful reviews.’ 

‘Even the fake news said good things,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. 

The president spoke for about an hour and 40 minutes — the longest address a president has delivered before a joint session of Congress, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara. 

The president used his first address to a joint session of Congress to highlight the accomplishments of his administration thus far, using his infamous ‘art of the weave’ technique to tie each section together. 

The theme of the president’s speech was ‘the Renewal of the American Dream,’ focusing on border security, the economy, energy, the end of ‘woke’ America, his plans for peace around the world and a strengthened military, and more. 

‘To my fellow citizens, America is back,’ Trump declared at the start of his Tuesday speech, prompting the audience to break into chants of ‘USA, USA, USA.’ 

A CBS News poll found that a large majority of those who watched the president’s address approved of his speech. It reported 76% of Americans who watched Tuesday night approved of the speech. 

A CNN poll also showed that at least 7 in 10 Americans who watched the speech said they had at least a ‘somewhat positive’ reaction to the speech, with 44% saying they had a ‘very positive’ reaction. 

The New York Times also published a piece titled: ‘What Some Reluctant Trump Voters Thought of His Speech,’ featuring interviews with a number of Americans — some of whom said his address brought ‘confidence,’ ‘hope’ and ’empathy.’ 

Meanwhile, the president’s address was interrupted by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who eventually was thrown out of the House Chamber by the Sergeant-at-Arms.

The House of Representatives Thursday, in a bipartisan vote, censured Green, D-Texas, for repeatedly disrupting the president’s address. 

‘He should be censured,’ Trump told Fox News Digital.

‘He should be forced to pass an IQ test because he is a low IQ individual and we don’t need low IQ individuals in Congress,’ Trump told Fox News Digital, further blasting Green as ‘a fool and a clown.’  

‘Nobody takes him seriously,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘He is an embarrassment to Congress but a much bigger embarrassment to the Democrats.’ 

Green did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

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: President Donald Trump told Fox News Digital Thursday that Rep. Al Green ‘should be forced to pass an IQ test because he is a low IQ individual, and we don’t need low IQ individuals in Congress,’ after the Democrat disrupted his joint session address. 

The House of Representatives on Thursday, in a bipartisan vote, censured Green, D-Texas, for interrupting the president’s Tuesday joint session address to Congress. 

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the president reacted. 

‘He should be censured,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. 

The president also blasted Green as ‘a fool and a clown.’ 

‘Nobody takes him seriously,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘He is an embarrassment to Congress but a much bigger embarrassment to the Democrats.’ 

The 77-year-old Democrat was removed from Trump’s joint address to Congress Tuesday night after repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president’s speech.

He shouted, ‘You have no mandate!’ at Trump as he touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had Green removed by the U.S. Sergeant-at-Arms.

Green, on Tuesday night, after being thrown out of the House chamber, spoke to the White House press pool and said he was ‘willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me. I didn’t say to anyone, ‘don’t punish me.’ I’ve said I’ll accept the punishment.’

‘But it’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president’s desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security,’ he said, according to the pool report. 

Green did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

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House lawmakers have voted to censure Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, after he was thrown out of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.

Ten Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the measure. Green himself voted ‘present,’ along with first-term Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Ala.

‘Al Green’s childish outburst exposed the chaos and dysfunction within the Democrat party since President Trump’s overwhelming win in November and his success in office thus far. It is not surprising 198 Democrats refused to support Green’s censure given their history of radical, inflammatory rhetoric fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital.

Before the formal censure could be read out to Green, however, Democrats upended House floor proceedings by gathering with the Texas Democrat and singing ‘We shall overcome.’ Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was forced to call the House into a recess after failing multiple times to quell the protest.

Decorum eroded further afterwards, with several Democrats including ‘Squad’ member Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., engaging in a heated exchange with Republicans, including first-term Rep. Ryan MacKenzie, R-Pa.

The 10 Democrats who voted to censure Green are Reps. Ami Bera, D-Calif.; Ed Case, D-Hawaii; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Laura Gillen, D-N.Y.; Jim Himes, D-Conn.; Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.; Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.

Republicans raced to introduce competing resolutions to censure Green on Wednesday, with three separate texts being drafted within hours of each other.

Fox News Digital was told that Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., whose resolution got a vote on the House floor Thursday morning, had reached out to Johnson about a censure resolution immediately after Trump’s speech ended on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus had aimed to make good on a threat to censure any Democrats who protested Trump’s speech, and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, crafted his own censure resolution against Green that got more than 30 House GOP co-sponsors.

But Newhouse took to the House floor on Wednesday afternoon to deem his resolution ‘privileged,’ a maneuver forcing House leaders to take up a bill within two legislative days.

Newhouse told Fox News Digital after the vote, ‘President Trump’s address to Congress was not a debate or a forum; he was invited by the speaker to outline his agenda for the American people. The actions by my colleague from Texas broke the rules of decorum in the House, and he must be held accountable.’

A bid by House Democrats to block the resolution from getting a vote failed on Wednesday. Green himself voted ‘present.’

The 77-year-old Democrat was removed from Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night after repeatedly disrupting the beginning of the president’s speech.

He shouted, ‘You have no mandate!’ at Trump as he touted Republican victories in the House, Senate and White House.

Johnson had Green removed by the U.S. Sergeant-at-Arms.

It was part of a larger issue with Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday night, with many engaging in both silent and vocal acts of protest against Trump. Democrats were also chided for not standing up to clap when Trump designated a 13-year-old boy an honorary Secret Service agent.

The House speaker publicly challenged Democrats to vote with Republicans in favor of the censure on Thursday.

‘Despite my repeated warnings, he refused to cease his antics, and I was forced to remove him from the chamber,’ Johnson posted on X. ‘He deliberately violated House rules, and an expeditious vote of censure is an appropriate remedy. Any Democrat who is concerned about regaining the trust and respect of the American people should join House Republicans in this effort.’

Green, who shook Newhouse’s hand before speaking out during debate on his own censure, stood by his actions on Wednesday.

‘I heard the speaker when he said that I should cease. I did not, and I did not with intentionality. It was not done out of a burst of emotion,’ Green said.

‘I think that on some questions, questions of conscience, you have to be willing to suffer the consequences. And I have said I will. I will suffer whatever the consequences are, because I don’t believe that in the richest country in the world, people should be without good healthcare.’

Other recent lawmakers censured on the House floor have been Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., former Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and now-Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

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Kalen DeBoer revived his two-man band with Ryan Grubb. How will it compare to one of the best duos of all time? That’s Nick Saban and Kirby Smart.
Ryan Grubb will be tasked with reviving an Alabama offense that transitions to quarterback Ty Simpson.
Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb go way, way back, and working with his consigliere might give DeBoer more comfort in his second season.

Let’s rewind to the peak years of Nick Saban’s Alabama dynasty and identify an important truth.

Batman worked best with his trusted Robin.

Chief lieutenant Kirby Smart helped Saban build an unforgiving defense, turning the Crimson Tide into an unrelenting thresher that ate up opponents and spit out their bones.

Don’t misunderstand, Smart didn’t make Saban. Many would say it’s the other way around, but I’m not sure that’s right. Each independently proved himself a great mind and an elite recruiter. Working together, they delivered four of the six national championships Saban would win at Alabama.

“He’s the best assistant coach we ever had,” Saban said of Smart during SEC media days last summer.

Smart previously worked for Saban as an assistant at LSU and with the Miami Dolphins.

I’ve been thinking about Saban and Smart lately, after Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer smartly rekindled his union with Ryan Grubb.

Grubb will coordinate Alabama’s offense this season. If there’s reason to be bullish about DeBoer’s second season at Alabama, start there. Maverick and Goose fly together again, after a year apart in which neither individual flourished. Maybe, the familiarity of working with Grubb will help DeBoer accelerate in the SEC.

Kalen DeBoer’s offseason message leads him to Ryan Grubb

DeBoer’s offseason messaging hinges on a five-word theme: Control what you can control.

DeBoer controlled how he’d revise his coaching staff after a turnover- and penalty-filled season throughout which Alabama’s offense regressed.

Batman, phone Robin.

Saban thought highly enough of Grubb that he tried to pluck him off DeBoer’s staff while they worked together at Washington. Grubb stayed with DeBoer, and he followed him to Alabama for a short stay that ended when the NFL came calling last winter.

The Seahawks fired Grubb within 11 months, and it seemed obvious DeBoer would demote offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan and make room in the driver’s seat for Grubb to ignite Alabama.

What to expect from Grubb’s offense?

‘Aggressive. We’re gonna be aggressive,’ Grubb told reporters Wednesday.

I’m not suggesting Grubb provides the sole brainpower within DeBoer’s operation, but even Saban’s success became linked to coordinators, whether it be Smart or Jeremy Pruitt on defense or Lane Kiffin or Steve Sarkisian on offense. In those rare instances Saban didn’t get his coordinators quite right, the product showed blemishes.

Grubb worked with DeBoer at Sioux Falls, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State and Washington.

Maybe, the DGB – DeBoer Grubb Band – will revive the hits.

“He is one of the best offensive minds in the country,” DeBoer said of Grubb.

They said the same about DeBoer, until last season, but let’s acknowledge he had a lot on his plate – replacing Saban and all – and losing Grubb last February to the NFL left him in a pickle he failed to adequately solve.

Now, with DeBoer’s honeymoon long gone and the pressure mounting, here’s his one and only mulligan.

Ryan Grubb, Ty Simpson will influence Alabama season

DeBoer issued no cry for patience – he’ll leave that to Hugh Freeze at Auburn – and he won’t attempt to convince you last season counts as a success.

I respect DeBoer’s straight talk, but if you combine that with 50 cents, you’ll have 50 cents. That’s not enough for college football’s gold standard.

“We need to be that championship program,” DeBoer said during a recent Fox News appearance.

Grubb can help. Sheridan will coach quarterbacks, leaving Grubb to cook up solutions for an offense that ranked in the middle of the SEC. In Alabama’s perfect world, he’d serve a dish looking more like Washington’s offense in 2023 that took the team to the national championship game and less like what we last witnessed from Alabama. Circus music would have been the appropriate accompaniment while the Tide blundered into three turnovers and just 13 points in a bowl game loss to Michigan.

Too bad Grubb couldn’t bring Michael Penix Jr. with him. He’ll inherit a quarterback depth chart featuring a combined 31 career completions. Grubb might come to wish DeBoer had added a transfer to a quarterback competition headlined by career backup Ty Simpson.

“We’re in a much better position,” DeBoer told Fox News of his program when compared to a year ago.

That’s probably true of his coaching staff and of the roster at select positions. Notably, DeBoer added Miami transfer Isaiah Horton to upgrade the Tide’s wide receivers. At quarterback, jury’s still out.

At least DeBoer’s got his consigliere back at his side to help to fix the position. If DeBoer and Grubb pull this off, it’ll be a reminder of that old lesson from Saban’s tenure: Even sharp minds benefit from a reliable wingman.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

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Drake’s coach Ben McCollum just wins. Google him. He could be a smart fit for Indiana, especially if the ‘big fish’ aren’t biting.
Indiana made a shrewd move hiring football coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison. Remember that playbook with this hire.
Drake coach Ben McCollum won three Division II national championships.

Don’t overthink this, Indiana.

Hire a winner. Never mind whether he’s a household name that’ll light up talk radio or whether he played for Bob Knight or whether he’s a disgruntled coach of the blue blood built by John Wooden.

The Hoosiers don’t need to check any of those boxes, because they just need a winner. Someone like the hoops version of football coach Curt Cignetti might work quite nicely.

When Dolson hired Cignetti from James Madison 15 months ago, the new coach got so miffed by repeated questions about his background – he’d never been so much as a coordinator at a Power Four school – that he shut down that line of inquiry with a quote that became legendary at Indiana:

“I win. Google me.”

He won in Division II. He won in the Championship Subdivision. He won at James Madison. He won a record 11 games in his first season at Indiana. Nobody needs to google Cignetti anymore to know he wins, and Dolson looked like a savant for hiring a guy who’d previously been coaching in the Sun Belt.

Now, google Ben McCollum. What do you see?

He wins at an 81.8% clip across multiple divisions. That includes four Division II national championships in 15 seasons at Northwest Missouri State and a 27-3 record amid his first season at Drake. The Bulldogs are seeded No. 1 in this week’s Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

College basketball requires annual roster reconstruction, and that’s particularly true after a coaching change. McCollum, 43, rebuilt Drake with a starting lineup of five transfers. Four of those starters followed McCollum from Northwest Missouri State. They haven’t missed a beat. Read that again. Drake’s starting lineup featuring four Division II transfers produced 27 victories and counting and a résumé worthy of NCAA Tournament consideration in McCollum’s first season.

Remind you of anyone? Cignetti made his Indiana splash with a bunch of players who followed him from James Madison.

BRACKETOLOGY: Tennessee rises to No. 1 seed in projected NCAA field

Ben McCollum just keeps winning. Sounds like Curt Cignetti

The Bulldogs play tough defense, and they rebound. They beat Vanderbilt and Kansas State. They won the regular-season conference title of one the nation’s best mid-major leagues by two games.

Heck, there was a time earlier this season when Indiana was mired in a rut that Drake probably would have beaten the candy-striped pants off the Hoosiers, despite not having Indiana’s war chest.

Is McCollum a sure thing? No, but point me to the sure thing who would definitely leave their current gig.

Florida didn’t hire a sure thing when it rolled the dice with a 31-year-old Billy Donovan, who’d coached Marshall for two seasons. Donovan became one of the best hoops hires of the past 30 years.

Alabama smartly seized Nate Oats before another power-conference school caught onto the guy winning at Buffalo. Indiana would be well-served by Oats, but why should he leave Alabama? Answer: He shouldn’t. He can win a national championship where he’s at, maybe as soon as this season. It’s too late to hire Oats, but the window of opportunity remains open on McCollum.

Indiana basketball has a lot to offer, even if you wouldn’t know it based on how its past few coaches fared. Because of the program’s pedigree, financial commitment and its hungry fan base, the Hoosiers could convince themselves they need a “big fish.’ I won’t say that’s a terrible mindset, but coaching searches differ from talk radio. In searches, the “big fish” don’t always say yes.

Captain Ahab never caught the white whale, and Brad Stevens is not walking through Indiana’s door any more than Donovan walked through Kentucky’s.

Drake’s Ben McCollum offers a smart, realistic choice for Indiana

Kentucky fans convinced themselves they’d hook a lunker last year, before reality set in that neither Donovan nor Baylor’s Scott Drew nor Oats planned to plug Rupp Arena into the GPS, and Kentucky hired Mark Pope from Brigham Young. I’d bet Mississippi’s Chris Beard would drive to Assembly Hall tomorrow, as long as Indiana would make room for his trunk full of baggage.

Forget baggage, though, and never mind the big fish who aren’t leaving their honey holes, and don’t fret that Dusty May, the guy Indiana should’ve hired last year, will stay put at Michigan.

There’s more than one coach who could win at Indiana. McCollum wouldn’t be the only choice, but I think he’d be a good one. The Hoosiers can wait for someone else to hire him, and if he enjoys another season or two at Drake like this one, someone will. Athletic directors know about this guy. Here’s Indiana’s chance to cut to the front of the line.

McCollum’s introductory news conference would be easy. Just repeat the four words Cignetti said.

Blake Toppmeyer is a columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer. Subscribe to read all of his columns.

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Lin Manuel Miranda and the producers of his hit show ‘Hamilton’ are throwing away their shot to light up the stage at the Kennedy Center in protest over the Trump administration replacing the failed leadership at the far-left institution.

The cancelation is just another example of the progressive elites in our nation insisting that we are living through some political emergency that must occupy our entire lives and impact every decision we make.

We saw this attitude of existential crisis from Democrats in Congress this week with their childish displays during President Donald Trump’s joint address, in which lefty lawmakers refused to stand or applaud for a childhood cancer survivor because … Trump.

Meanwhile, at Columbia University, pro-terrorist protests are erupting again, taking over libraries, because the political emergencies of our time make the mere act of simple studying an unacceptable luxury.

For the perpetually outraged Left, it all boils down to one message: ‘This is not normal.’ They claim Trump is such a danger that we must, with every waking hour and breath, acknowledge and confront that fact.

But here’s the thing, and I hear it everywhere I go, from Texas to West Virginia, from California to Wisconsin: People want normalcy back. They want to be able to talk to their family and friends on the other political side, they want to enjoy a beer without engaging in the culture war.

By and large, the people standing in the way of a return to normalcy today are those on the Left, and Miranda’s hare-brained scheme to close his own show is a perfect example.

Let’s imagine for a moment that Richard Grenell, Trump’s new president of the Kennedy Center, decided to cancel ‘Hamilton,’ in which the founding fathers are played by people of color, and replace it with the 1970s hit ‘1776,’ with an all-White cast.

All bloody hell would break loose, and rightfully so. But that didn’t happen, and would never happen, because like most conservatives, Grenell has no interest in censorship. 

Miranda and his ilk are laughably claiming they are protesting political bias in the leadership shakeup, as if the ideological makeup of the Kennedy Center hasn’t been somewhere to the left of Chairman Mao for decades.

Long story short, the Trump administration is not censoring Miranda, Miranda is censoring Miranda.

Now, it will be argued that Trump himself is not exactly courting national unity with his breakneck executive orders, mass firings of public employees and moves like the Kennedy Center shakeup itself, but there is a key distinction: Trump’s actions are political, not social.

The president has always played by mafia rules. If you are in the game, you are a fair target, but he doesn’t attack regular folks. Trump rarely, if ever, demeans those who didn’t vote for him, perhaps in part because he doubts they even exist.

It isn’t normal to refuse to perform a play, or refuse to politely listen to a speech, or refuse to allow fellow students to do their work. It’s downright abnormal.

What Miranda is doing by canceling ‘Hamilton,’ what Democrats in Congress did with their ridiculous antics during Trump’s address and what the hoodlums backing Hamas at Columbia have in common is their compulsion to invade your social life if you don’t share their world view. If you are a Trump supporter, they don’t even want to be in a room with you.

In my travels, I have met heartbroken parents whose kids won’t talk to them because of Trump, lifelong friends cast aside. In fact, almost everyone I ask has some such story. And you want to know something? That is what isn’t normal.

It isn’t normal to refuse to perform a play, or refuse to politely listen to a speech, or refuse to allow fellow students to do their work. It’s downright abnormal. Yet again and again, it is the choice that the American Left is making.

Perhaps progressives such as Miranda are rightfully scared that Americans will like the huge changes being wrought by the Trump administration, but can they give it six months to find out? After all, he did win the election.

The good news is that, unlike eight years ago when the widespread fear and disdain towards Trump was so flammable that stunts like canceling ‘Hamilton’ in protest caught the fire of the public imagination, it can now barely light a candle.

The American people don’t want preening histrionics from our elites, they just want dinner and a show without their whole lives having to be about Donald Trump. 

But sadly, Miranda and his show will not go on. Instead, he is boycotting the room where it happens, and that is a loss for everyone. A decade ago, ‘Hamilton’ brought the country together. Today it divides us. Fortunately, the American people can see a better way forward, even if Lin Manuel Miranda cannot.

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