Author: Jesse

The Wolverines added a high-quality player at a position of need, as former Utah tight end JJ Buchanan has committed to Michigan through the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Henderson, Nevada native was a four-star recruit coming out of high school in the 2025 class. He played in all 13 games for the Utes as a true freshman this past season, catching 26 passes for 427 yards and five touchdowns. He saved his best game of the season for last, putting up a four-catch, 76-yard and one-touchdown performance in the Las Vegas Bowl against Nebraska.

Given the fact that Marlin Klein declared for the 2026 NFL Draft and Brady Prieskorn entered the transfer portal — and four-star recruit Matt Ludwig backed out of his letter of intent — Michigan was in dire need of another player at the tight end position this offseason.

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But Buchanan is not just another body in the room — he is an excellent addition with high upside that has experience under head coach Kyle Whittingham. He has some work to do in the blocking aspect of his game (59.7 run blocking grade on PFF this past season), but he should still be able to push Hogan Hansen, Zack Marshall and Deakon Tonielli for immediate playing time.

Buchanan will have three years of eligibility remaining.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Games between Utah and Cleveland will always feel like a reunion, yet still slightly uncomfortable.

Monday night at Rocket Arena will be a gathering of faces, histories and questions that haven’t yet been answered.

For Donovan Mitchell, it’s the latest chapter in a complicated story.

Drafted by Utah in 2017, he carried the Jazz on his back, a dynamic scorer whose departure left a void both in Utah’s identity and in the Cavs’ hopes. Since arriving in Cleveland, he’s brought energy, leadership and an infectious competitiveness that lifts the players around him.

But the franchise’s decision to bring him here was never just about talent — it was about timing, finances, and long-term strategy.

Mitchell’s contract looms large. As he approaches his 10th year of accrued service, the Cavs are navigating the second apron, luxury tax thresholds and the delicate calculus of sustaining a competitive roster without mortgaging the future. Every move — whether extending a young core player, trading for complementary talent or holding onto veterans — must be weighed against the singular question of playoff success. Yet playoff results have remained elusive thus far. Mitchell hasn’t passed the conference semifinals in his career.

The organization has already given up pieces like Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen and Georges Niang, each a building block that might have shaped a different path, all in the hope of advancing further in the postseason.

The stakes are mutual.

The Blue Jackets were looking tired ahead of its 3-2 overtime win over the Mammoth.

After all, Columbus were playing the second of its back-to-back series, which started with a 4-0 loss to Colorado, giving a more rested Utah team a big advantage with the game looking on track for overtime.

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There was just one problem though: Daniil But had been called for a tripping minor with just 23.9 seconds left in the third period.

Suddenly, Utah couldn’t count on winning the battle of attrition anymore.

Though the Mammoth would force the game into overtime-securing a point in the standings-Utah simply was unable to overcome Columbus’s 4-on-3 advantage on Dmitri Voronkov’s game-winning goal.

Mikhail Sergachev was certainly put in a hard position having to guard between Adam Fantilli and Zach Werenski, who assisted Voronkov on his goal, largely because of the man advantage the Blue Jackets had.

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Not only were the Mammoth at a disadvantage, the team was facing some bad luck too as it turns out that the puck didn’t even touch the blade of Voronkov’s stick- it deflected just above on the shaft.

If not for Werenski making one of the most perfect passes you’ll see in any hockey game, Utah very well could have held on and killed the Columbus’s power play.

But instead, it was the Blue Jackets who got itself a win thanks to its numbers advantage and straight willpower.

No goalie wants to be a part of a losing streak.

But with his last win coming in late October, Vitek Vanecek now has a record of 2-9-2 and is experiencing a 10-game losing streak.

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In his game against the Blue Jackets, Vanecek arguably had his best game, too, with a 33-save night. But it doesn’t matter whether Vanecek has a good or bad game — Utah can’t seem to deliver him wins.

“Tough situation [for Vanecek]. He didn’t play for a little bit, and came in and the guys did not play their A game in front of him, and he kept us there,” said André Tourigny. “I think he did a great job.”

While it was good for Vanecek to help Utah come away with a point for the first time since Nov. 11 — a 3-2 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks — it has to be frustrating to go this long without any wins, especially with Karel Vejmelka being the first goalie to reach 20 wins across the NHL.

“Every point matters,” said McBain. “The (penalty) kill did a good job to get it into overtime. It was unfortunate that (Columbus) was on the 4-on-3, that’s tough. But every point matters all the way through the rest of the season.”

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If Vanecek is going to keep playing at this level, a win will surely come, but Utah needs to make sure it plays with added urgency if it wants to help its backup goalie out.

Every game there seems to be a player from each team fighting for position in front of goalie every game and it’s for good reason- deflections often make impossible goals possible.

Usually, a player is looking to deflect using his stick or his skates to change the projection of the goal; sometimes even his body serves as a puck deflector.

But on McBains goal in the first period, something very rare happened: he scored a goal using his shoulder.

Not even McBain could have processed what just happened in that moment. He is trying to dodge the puck while simultaneously protecting his face after all. He probably couldn’t even see the puck.

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But as weird as McBain’s goal was against Columbus, nothing will be weirder than when Ottawa forward Shane Pinto accidentally ended up making a save for Utah the game prior.

If things go according to plan, Saturday’s game between the BYU and Utah men’s basketball programs will be the first of many pitting Cougars coach Kevin Young against Utes coach Alex Jensen.

Young and Jensen have some similarities in their journeys toward becoming the head coach at their respective schools: they both have G League head coaching experience and they both spent more than a decade in the NBA as assistant coaches before landing in their current roles.

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Young has one year of experience on Jensen in his current job — he is in his second year as BYU’s head coach, while Jensen is in his first season coaching his alma mater.

That familiarity with each other has fostered a healthy respect between the two coaches. On Saturday, Young’s No. 9 BYU team got the best of Jensen’s Utes, as the Cougars held off Utah, 89-84.

BYU (15-1, 3-0 Big 12) relied on its Big 3 — Robert Wright III, AJ Dybantsa and Richie Saunders — to carry the load.

Wright scored 23 points and added six assists, Saunders logged a double-double with 24 points and 14 rebounds, along with three assists, and the freshman sensation Dybantsa contributed across the board with 20 points, six rebounds, four assists, one block and a steal.

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BYU led for more than 31 minutes against its rival, and the Cougars never trailed in the second half, though Utah climbed within one at one point.

“It’s hard to give up 89 points and win, right? And if you look at all the good teams in college that win, (they) are the teams that defend and rebound,” Jensen said, about two factors that prevented Utah from pulling the upset.

He was then complimentary about the program Young is building in Provo.

“BYU has done a great job. Kevin does a good job. It’s hard to have those guys be together. They’ve done a great job as an institution, and (BYU athletic director) Brian (Santiago), giving the resources to the program,” Jensen said. “Just like (Utah’s recent loss to No. 1) Arizona, it’s a great lesson for us to learn from. They play well together.”

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Utah (8-8, 0-3 Big 12), for its part, had arguably its best overall effort of the season, perhaps only bested by a one-point win over Ole Miss during nonconference play.

Terrence Brown (25 points, five assists, three rebounds, two blocks) and Don McHenry (21 points, two rebounds, two assists, one steal) led a spirited Utah attack Saturday, while James Okonkwo’s energy and results — 13 rebounds, 4 points and two assists — helped the Utes keep pace in front of an electric crowd.

“I’ve known Alex for a long time,” Young said. “We’ve coached against each other (a) long time ago in the G League. We sort of broke into the NBA around the same time, and when I was with the Suns, he was with the Jazz.

“We had a ton of battles, so I’m very familiar with him. He’s a good person, but you still want to beat him in a game like that.”

BYU’s coach, too, was complimentary about the organization and work that Jensen has already put into revitalizing the Runnin’ Utes program.

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“He’s smart, man. He’s a smart coach, and he’s just figuring it all out, all the idiosyncrasies. He joked before the game — in the NBA, you do the anthem and the coaches wave and you play the game; in college, before the game, you walk the line, shake, and he’s still trying to figure out if we’re supposed to do this,” Young said.

“He’s still figuring everything out, but he’s a smart guy, and (Utah basketball general manager) Wes Wilcox, too. They’re smart. They have a lot of experience, and this will be some fun games over the years between our groups.”

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – It wasn’t the blowout a lot of people were expecting, but in the end, the #9 BYU basketball team had enough to hold off upset-minded Utah Saturday night at the Huntsman Center, 89-84.

Richie Saunders scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half and BYU matched a school record set in 1980 with its 12th straight victory.

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“It’s amazing,” Saunders said. “We came up here and came up short in overtime, lost by one, lost by two (the previous year). To be able to finish this time, it is amazing.”s

This was Saunders first victory over the Utes in the Hunstman Center in his fours years as BYU.

Robert Wright III had 23 points and AJ Dybantsa added 20 for BYU. For Dybantsa, it was the ninth straight game that he has reached the 20-point mark. Saunders tied his career high with 14 rebounds for the Cougars (15-1, 3-0 Big 12).

Dybantsa scores 24 as BYU opens Big 12 play with a win

“Richie’s will to win is like nothing I have ever been around,” said BYU coach Kevin Young. “We all wanted to get a win for him here his senior year. He was just possessed, man, in a good way. He just wasn’t going to lose.”

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Terence Brown scored 25 points for Utah but turned the ball over in the corner with 8.9 seconds left when his team had a chance to tie. Saunders was fouled and clinched the game with two free throws.

Don McHenry had 21 points for the Utes (8-8, 0-3), who have lost three in a row but never let BYU relax in this rivalry game.

“I think it was, there was a lot of little things, a lot of game plan things, little details that I don’t know if we just forgot or didn’t pay attention to,” Utah head coach Alex Jensen said about what cost Utah against the Cougars. ““Down the stretch, we’ve talked about it for a while because we’re going to give up size to other teams, but giving up the offensive (boards), it’s hard to get a stop and then they get the offensive rebounds. It’s a hard thing to come back from, especially the last few minutes.”

After the Utes drew to 81-80, Wright scored four points and assisted on Keba Keita’s layup — but missed a shot that left it a one-possession game.

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The Cougars went on a 12-2 run to start the second half. Saunders had six points during the surge and his reverse layup made it 57-45 with 15:43 to play.

Keanu Dawes’ thunderous dunk gave Utah a 24-20 lead with 9:29 left in the first half. BYU responded with a 9-0 spurt, punctuated by Wright’s 3-pointer, and finished the period ahead 45-43.

The schools are separated by 45 miles and there were almost as many Cougars fans as Utes supporters in the sellout crowd. At halftime, new Utah football coach Morgan Scalley introduced his staff through chants from BYU fans and then said, “This is the best rivalry in the nation” to which all fans could cheer.

Utes get run over by #1 Arizona, 97-78

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The Cougars are 9-0 when Saunders scores 20 or more.

Dybantsa has nine straight 20-point games, second-most for a Big 12 freshman behind former Oklahoma guard Trae Young.

BYU will try to set a school record with its 13th straight victory when the Cougars host TCU on Wednesday.

Utah next visits No. 14 Texas Tech on Wednesday.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – It was simply the biggest blowout in Utah Jazz history.

Brandon Miller scored 18 points, LaMelo Ball had 17 and the Charlotte Hornets built a 47-point lead in the first half of a 150-95 rout against the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.

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The 55-point blowout loss eclipses Utah’s two 50-point defeats to Dallas in 2023 and 2018. Only the New Orleans Jazz 158-102 loss in 1979 was worse.

It was the Hornets largest blowout victory ever on the road.

Markkanen leads Jazz past Dallas, 116-114

“If you want a picture of what everything going wrong looks like, that’s what it looks like,” said Jazz head coach Will Hardy. “The three-point line and rebounding hurt us early, and that ended up being the story of the game.”

The Hornets were 16 for 36 while the Jazz hit one of their 12 attempts. Charlotte out-rebounded the Jazz, 65-31.

The Jazz were coming off a hard-fought 116-114 win over Dallas, and a 129-124 overtime loss to defending NBA champion Oklahoma City. But they were never in this one. The Jazz 39-point halftime deficit was the second largest in team history.

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Tre Mann led the Hornets with 20 points in 12 minutes off the bench. Miles Bridges and Collin Sexton each scored 15 in a game Charlotte led by 57 in the second half. Nine Hornets players scored in double figures.

“I recognized that our lineup was really small at times tonight, but they had 41 second chance points,” Hardy said. “Until really late in the game, we couldn’t throw it in the ocean.”

Brice Sensabaugh scored 26 points for the Jazz, who rested leading scorer Lauri Markkanen and were without injured starting center Jusuf Nurkic.

Ryan Kalbrenner and Grant Williams returned from injuries for Charlotte, which outscored Utah by 45 points behind the 3-point line in the first half.

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Jazz come up short in OT against OKC, 129-125

Williams, playing for the first time since November 2024 after recovering from right knee surgery, hit consecutive 3-pointers to cap a 23-2 run that made it 39-8. The Jazz went scoreless for more than five minutes as Charlotte scored 17 straight points.

It was 45-14 after one and the Hornets extended it to 77-30 on Bridges’ 3-pointer with 1:41 left in the half. Utah scored the final eight points of the half.

Kalkbrenner had 12 points and nine rebounds after missing 10 games with a sprained left elbow.

“That’s one we’ve got to put away and get onto the road trip,” Hardy said.

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The Jazz next visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.

Utah couldn’t get enough defensive stops Saturday night against No. 9 BYU in the latest rivalry matchup at the Huntsman Center.

The Runnin’ Utes, though, made the Cougars work for the victory, even as a heavy underdog.

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There are no moral victories in this bitter rivalry, but if Utah can show progress moving forward from BYU’s harder-than-expected 89-84 victory, this kind of effort won’t go in vain.

“I think it was, there was a lot of little things, a lot of game plan things, little details that I don’t know if we just forgot or didn’t pay attention to,” Utah first-year coach Alex Jensen said about what cost Utah against the Cougars.

“Down the stretch, we’ve talked about it for a while because we’re going to give up size to other teams, but giving up the offensive (boards), it’s hard to get a stop and then they get the offensive rebounds. It’s a hard thing to come back from, especially the last few minutes.”

Jensen lamented his team’s defensive effort against the Cougars multiple times in the postgame press conference — BYU was able to shoot 50% in the game, and the Cougars held a 41-33 rebounding edge.

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Senior Richie Saunders, who had never beaten Utah in the Huntsman Center until Saturday, was especially destructive on the boards. He had 14, including six on the offensive end, and helped BYU have a 16-10 edge in offensive boards and 19-14 in second-chance points.

“It’s hard to give up 89 points and win, right?” Jensen said. “And if you look at all the good teams in college that win, (they) are the other teams that defend and rebound.”

Utah has made giving BYU headaches in the Huntsman a routine thing. Even though the Cougars are the program on the ascent, the Utes still won their last two games in the series played at the storied venue.

Utah even pumped some belief into the packed house multiple times over the course of the game that it could stun BYU again.

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The Utes got out to a 7-0 start in the game, then matched BYU punch for punch in the first half before going into the break down two after a questionable foul call resulted in two free throws from AJ Dybantsa just before the half.

Though BYU eventually built a 13-point lead in the second half, the Utes fought back again and made it a one-possession game multiple times down the stretch.

That included cutting it to 81-80 on two Terrence Brown free throws with 3:15 to play.

Then, the Utes had a defensive stop in the final minute down three, but a costly turnover — just Utah’s ninth of the night — gave BYU the ball back with eight seconds remaining.

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Two Saunders free throws followed that turnover from Brown, and with that, the Utes’ fight came up short.

Brown and Don McHenry showed up well in their introduction to the rivalry, as the dynamic scoring guards accounted for more than half of Utah’s points.

Brown had a game-high 25 points to go with five assists, three rebounds and two blocked shots, while McHenry had 21 points, two assists, two rebounds and a steal.

“Coach was just just saying you should be excited to play in a game like this,” Brown said. “… It was just a good opportunity, and it was definitely exciting.”

Fifth-year forward James Okonkwo provided a spark in front of a raucous crowd, to the tune of 13 rebounds, four points and two assists.

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“James has been great the last two games. It’s great because it leads us with a physicality and just his presence, and that’s kind of what we want from him as a fifth-year senior,” Jensen said.

“The last two games, he’s been great and hopefully we get that, that same James going forward.”

Speaking of the crowd, the Utes noticed just how much a packed house for the first time this season — call it the annual rivalry effect — brought an energy to an arena that is often far too quiet as Utah tries to rebuild a once-proud program.

“I think the MUSS did a really good job of, like energizing us. It was a different level of energy in the game today, and it was really encouraging,” Okonkwo said.

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“We went out on a really good run to start the game, and you could just feel it. We were locked in and it was really fun.”

It wasn’t enough to best BYU’s Big 3. Dybantsa, the projected lottery pick, had 20 points, six rebounds and four assists, Saunders tossed in 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds (six offensive), while Rob Wright III added 23 points and six assists.

Can Utah learn from this game and take some lessons into the rest of Big 12 play?

Yes, the Utes are likely to lose the majority of their games the remainder of the season — they are the worst-ranked Big 12 team in the NET and KenPom, by a sizable margin — but Utah also showed that it’s progressing, even if incrementally.

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“Honestly, like we have enough — we’re going to be so good when we clean up just a little mistakes,“ Okonkwo said. ”Honestly, that’s my opinion.

“That’s what (coach) was kind of harping on about in the locker room, just staying consistent. Just get better every day.”

There was a packed house inside the Huntsman Center on Saturday night — a rarity these days, outside of when BYU comes to town.

That was the case again, as the No. 9 Cougars made the trek to Salt Lake City for the first of two rivalry games over the next two weeks — the two teams will play in Provo on Jan. 24.

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The Runnin’ Utes, for their part, gave their fans plenty to cheer about against BYU.

Utah played the Cougars even in the first half, fell behind by as many as 13 in the second and then rallied to within a possession, even down one, late in the game before BYU sealed the win in the final minute.

Here are three takeaways from the game from the Utes’ perspective.

An impressive start and overall fight for Utah

In the Utes’ first two Big 12 contests, they found themselves down 14-2 to No. 1 Arizona and 11-1 to Colorado.

Before all the fans had a chance to settle into their seats at the Huntsman Center Saturday, though, it was Utah who found itself with a nice early lead.

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Terrence Brown hit a couple buckets and a free throw, while James Okonkwo added a dunk, and the Utes were up 7-0 less than a minute and a half in.

BYU recovered from that early spurt and took its first lead at 10-9, but it set the tone as the teams battled back and forth all night.

What resulted was a highly entertaining matchup in which each team took its share of punches and delivered counterpunches.

Though BYU used a 12-2 run early in the second half to go up as many as 13, Utah struck back and was within a possession multiple times down the stretch.

The Utes are still in search of playing a complete game, but rest assured, they made the Cougars play all 40 minutes Saturday night.

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Can Utah carry this kind of energy into games when non-rivals come to the Huntsman Center later this year?

BYU has its Big 3, but Utes’ dynamic guards — and others — played their hearts out

The Cougars are well-known for their star trio of players: AJ Dybantsa, Rob Wright III and Richie Saunders.

And understandably, those three led BYU to the win.

Credit needs to be thrown the way of Utah’s top scorers as well, though.

Brown, even though he had a costly late turnover when the Utes had a chance to tie with under 10 seconds to play, elevated to the moment against the rivals.

He finished with a team-high 25 points and added five rebounds and three assists.

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Don McHenry added 21 points, two rebounds and two assists, and time and again, the dynamic guards came up with big shots.

Okonkwo, too, brought energy inside for Utah, finishing with 13 rebounds, four points and two assists.

An electric atmosphere — and a full MUSS — finally gave the Utes nice crowd support

The Huntsman Center atmosphere has been a far cry from its former electric self, when Alex Jensen was a player at the U.

Even in these lean crowd years, Utah fans have turned out for the BYU game, and that was the case late Saturday night.

The Utes fed off the crowd Saturday, from the first half when the two teams battled back and forth, to late in the game, when hope was still alive that Utah could pull the upset.

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(Don’t pay attention to the fact the MUSS held its sign up backwards at the start of the contest and at halftime — that was a bit embarrassing).

Playing in front of an electrified crowd was a reward for a group of Utah players who finally got to see what a full arena looks like.

Only Keanu Dawes was around and played when these teams faced each other in the Huntsman last year (Ibi Traore and Jerry Huang were there last year, too, but they never played).

For guys such as Brown, McHenry, Okonkwo and all the other newcomers, they got to experience the buzz here at least once this season.

Utah made the game closer than expected, but BYU held the lead the entire second half and beat Utah 89-84 Saturday night in Salt Lake City.

BYU’s big three carried the scoring once again, led by 24 points and 14 rebounds (6 offensive) from Richie Saunders. Richie was able to get into the lane and his offensive rebounds in the second half kept Utah from being able to take the lead. BYU had 16 offensive rebounds compared to 10 from Utah.

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Rob Wright finished with 23 points and 6 assists, and AJ Dybantsa scored 20 points despite constant double and triple teams the entire night. Keba Keita rounded out BYU’s double figure scorers with 11 points to go along with 6 boards.

BYU led by 45-43 at halftime and looked like they were about to run away with the when they went ahead by 12 points two separate times, but Utah’s high-scoring guard duo of Terrence Brown and Dom McHenry made big shots and BYU missed free throws to keep Utah within striking distance. Brown scored 25 for Utah while McHenry scored 21. Utah shot just 6-22 from three, but they were able to get into the paint and shot 18-21 from the foul line. BYU was 19-29 from the free throw line.

This was BYU’s 12th win in a row and moves BYU to 15-1 on the season. These two teams rematch in two weeks in Provo. BYU next returns to the Marriott Center Wednesday to host TCU in a 9pm MT tip.