Ryan Day said he “had an inkling” Ohio State‘s headsets might go down during Saturday’s game at Michigan — so the Buckeyes coach had a backup communication plan already in place.

Ohio State lost the ability to communicate over the headsets during the second half of its 27-9 win over the Wolverines.

The Buckeyes had quarterback Julian Sayin come to the sideline between plays and get the calls directly from Day before going back to the huddle, until the problem was fixed later in the half.

“I was just getting us through it until we got the headsets up and running, which took a little while to get done,” Day said Tuesday. “But yeah, just by chance we had planned for it, and so we were ready to go.”

Day was then asked why he had the inkling.

“You just got to be ready for anything,” Day said. “When you go into any big game, you’re always trying to put contingency plans in place for anything that could possibly happen.”

Sayin said, after the game, that running to the sideline before each play reminded him of playing in high school. Day said he met with his assistant coaches Friday to go through the contingency plan.

“I think some of the guys on the staff were looking at me sideways,” Day said, “like, ‘Why would you think that would happen?’ I said, ‘I just don’t know. We just got to be ready for anything.’ It’s funny how your mind works.”

Day then winked, drawing several laughs.

In August, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions penalized Michigan after investigating the school for stealing signs through advance scouting. The NCAA fined the Wolverines at least $30 million, imposed recruiting restrictions and suspended coach Sherrone Moore three games, including next season’s opener, noting it had “overwhelming” and concerning evidence of a cover-up by Michigan staff. The NCAA committee also levied an eight-year show-cause penalty for former Michigan staffer Connor Stalions and a 10-year show-cause for former coach Jim Harbaugh, now coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

The top-ranked Buckeyes will face No. 2 Indiana in Indianapolis on Saturday, with the College Football Playoff’s top overall seed on the line.

Day said his team had already put the Michigan win in the past and is “locked in” on winning the Big Ten title.

“This is going to be an electric atmosphere,” he said. “It’s a great opponent. This is a very important game for us. We got to go play our best.”

Longtime NBA forward Danilo Gallinari announced his retirement from basketball Tuesday morning.

Gallinari, 37, spent 16 years in the NBA, playing in 14 seasons — and missing two others with torn ACLs — for several teams, beginning with the New York Knicks, who selected him sixth overall in the 2008 draft.

One of 299 players, per the Elias Sports Bureau, to have played at least 14 NBA seasons, Gallinari also played for the Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics (no games logged), Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks.

The son of Vittorio Gallinari — a teammate and roommate of longtime NBA head coach Mike D’Antoni while the two were members of Olimpia Milano in the 1970s and ’80s — Gallinari is the second-highest-drafted Italian player ever, behind former No. 1 selection Andrea Bargnani, and his 11,607 points is the most of any Italian player in NBA history.

He was best known for his time with the Knicks, where he was the fresh-faced on-court part of their rebuilding project ahead of the star-studded 2010 free agency class while D’Antoni was the head coach, and with the Nuggets, where he arrived as part of the massive trade that brought Carmelo Anthony to New York in 2011.

It was in Denver that Gallinari was part of a 57-win Nuggets team in 2012-13 that was made up of several of the players who came with him as part of that Anthony trade and that appeared ready to make a run in the Western Conference playoffs when Gallinari tore his ACL late in that regular season.

Injuries were, unfortunately, a major storyline of Gallinari’s career, as he missed at least 10 games in all but one of his NBA seasons. He not only missed two entire seasons — 2013-14 and 2022-23 — to ACL tears but also missed the vast majority of his rookie year with a back injury.

But when he was on the court, Gallinari was a tremendously skilled offensive player — particularly given that he was 6-foot-10. His 1,456 3-pointers is the sixth most by any player in NBA history who is at least that tall. In February 2021, while playing with the Hawks, he became one of eight players in league history to hit at least 10 3-pointers while coming off the bench.

That season with Atlanta marked the only time Gallinari would make it as far as the NBA’s conference finals in his 14-year career, although he capped off his professional career by winning the Puerto Rican league title, and winning the championship series MVP award, with Vaqueros de Bayamon this past summer.

Gallinari’s last game in the NBA was Game 6 of the Bucks’ first-round loss to the Indiana Pacers in the 2024 NBA playoffs.

NEW YORK — Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are facing a May trial on federal charges that they took bribes to help gamblers betting on their pitches.

U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto on Tuesday said jury selection would tentatively begin May 4 in Brooklyn federal court, with the trial opening the following week or sooner.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Sherman told the judge at the brief hearing that prosecutors anticipate the trial could last two weeks.

He said that both sides have been in discussions since the pitchers were arrested last month but that they have not yet talked about a possible plea deal in the case to avoid trial.

Matsumoto initially proposed a February trial date, but prosecutors and defense lawyers pushed for a spring start.

Sherman said prosecutors began providing defense lawyers with evidence and other materials this week in anticipation of a trial, including hundreds of gigabytes of files pulled from a number of electronic devices.

Clase, Ortiz and their lawyers declined to comment outside the courtroom. They’re due back in court Jan. 15.

The two have been out on bail since pleading not guilty last month to wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery.

According to prosecutors, the two accepted thousands of dollars in bribes to help two unnamed gamblers in their native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of their pitches.

The prosecutors allege that Clase, the Guardians’ star closer, began providing the bettors with information about his pitches in 2023 and then recruited Ortiz into the scheme earlier this year.

Lawyers for the men have denied the charges. Ortiz’s lawyer has maintained that payments between his client and individuals in the Dominican Republic were for legal activities, not payoffs.

Clase, 27, is a three-time All-Star and two-time American League Reliever of the Year who is on the fourth season of a $20 million, five-year contract.

Ortiz, 26, earned a $782,600 salary this year as a starting pitcher for Cleveland.

The two pitchers have been on nondisciplinary paid leave since July, when MLB began investigating what it said was unusually high in-game betting activity when they pitched.

The Guardians open spring training in February. The team’s home opener is April 3.