The Starting Lineup

Turn on the game!

Three must-see events this week:

1. Dallas Stars at Avalanche (1:30 p.m. Sunday, TNT/truTV) — Welcome back, Mikko Rantanen. His No. 96 sweater one day will hang in the rafters of Ball Arena — even though his initial return to Colorado could hear some boos.

2. Nuggets at Golden State Warriors (8 p.m. Monday, ESPN) — Denver right now is the 3 seed, Golden State the 6 — the same setup that started a Warriors dynasty in 2013.

3. NCAA Tournament First Four (Tuesday/Wednesday, TNT/truTV) — The play-in games of the Big Dance has produced a pair of Final Four teams — 2011 Virginia Commonwealth and 2021 UCLA.

Numbers game

9 — NFL tight ends in 2025 are scheduled to make more than the $11.5 million acquitted to Evan Engram, per Spotrac, making it imperative the Broncos maximize their splashy free agent

On this day

March 16, 1995 — Jalen Rose set a Nuggets rookie record with 16 assists in a 123-101 win over the Sacramento Kings, part of Rose’s 389 assists that also stand as a team rookie record

Box office

NCAA Tournament at Ball Arena (Thursday, Saturday) — In 2023, LoDo welcomed 38,301 fans to four tournament games. Only one site brought more fans than the crowds in Denver, which shows up for March Madness. All-session tickets are ridiculous ($427.68 on Ticketmaster).

They said it

“We got our quarterback. That’s the No. 1 (thing). We got our quarterback.”

—Broncos wide receiver Courtland Sutton, almost giddy, to Altitude TV’s Vic Lombardi 

Report card

TBD — As in to be determined, the Broncos’ decision to gamble $24 million on Engram, a pass-catching tight end who works in the middle of the field and has played a full season in only three of eight seasons to show for it.

—Paul Klee, The Denver Gazette