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Utah’s first Big 12 win is going to have to wait, after the Runnin’ Utes fell 85-73 to Colorado at the CU Events Center in Boulder, Colorado, on Wednesday.

That dropped Utah to 8-7 on the season and 0-2 in Big 12 play.

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Here are three takeaways from the game.

Buffaloes made the plays at the start and the end

Colorado got out to a quick 11-1 lead, much like the 14-2 deficit Utah found itself trailing by last Saturday against No. 1 Arizona.

To the Utes’ credit, they rallied and made a game out of this one.

Colorado, though, simply was the more consistent team in earning the win.

The Buffaloes shot better from the field, 46.8% to 39.4%, outrebounded the Utes 41-35 and outscored Utah in bench points, 33-8.

The Utes made it tough, eventually whittling a 10-point Colorado lead down to two points in the last 10 minutes.

After a Keanu Dawes jumper made it 69-67 with 3:58 to play, the Buffaloes responded with a decisive 8-0 run over the next couple of minutes and Colorado pulled away for the win.

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The Buffaloes ended the game on a 16-6 run.

Utah’s Big 3 showed up big-time

As is becoming the norm, Utah’s top three players carried the effort for Utah.

Don McHenry led all scorers with 24 points, with 18 of those coming in the first half. He finished with seven rebounds and an assist, to just one turnover.

Keanu Dawes contributed across the board, with 16 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Terrence Brown, meanwhile, also had 16 points and added three assists and two steals. He shot just 5 of 17 from the field, though.

There were some other bright spots for Utah. That included Utah finishing with seven turnovers, to 11 for Colorado, and the Utes owned a 15-11 edge in second-chance points.

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It wasn’t enough, though.

Colorado’s balance won out

The Buffaloes entered the night with five players averaging in double-figures.

They ended Wednesday night’s contest with four players scoring in double digits. That was led by Sebastian Rancik, who had 19 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Bangot Dak was big in the paint, as he posted a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds and added two assists.

Colorado also made more 3-pointers, eight to five, and was better at the free-throw line, going 19 of 21 while Utah was 16 of 23.

In a game where Colorado led for more than 39 minutes but Utah still hung around, too many little things went against the Utes.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — MJ Collins Jr. scored 20 points as Utah State beat Air Force 99-62 on Tuesday night.

Collins shot 8 of 14 from the field, including 2 for 6 from 3-point range, and went 2 for 3 from the line for the Aggies (13-1, 4-0 Mountain West Conference). Kolby King scored 15 points while shooting 4 for 7 from beyond the arc and 3 of 3 from the free-throw line. Mason Falslev had 13 points and shot 4 of 6 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line. The Aggies extended their winning streak to six games.

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Caleb Walker led the Falcons (3-12, 0-4) in scoring, finishing with 12 points and six rebounds. Air Force also got 11 points from Kam Sanders. The loss was the Falcons’ eighth straight.

Utah State took the lead for good with 19:37 left in the first half. The score was 45-31 at halftime, with Adlan Elamin racking up 11 points. Utah State extended its lead to 58-35 during the second half, fueled by a 9-0 scoring run. Collins scored a team-high 11 points in the second half to close out the win.

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided byData Skriveand data fromSportradar.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – Morgan Scalley has been a Ute since the day he was born. His father played for the Utes, and after graduating from Highland High, Scalley became an All-American safety at Utah.

Now, after 18 years as an assistant coach, Scalley has his dream job.

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“I’m one of you,” Scalley said at his introductory press conference Tuesday. “I’m a fan. I’m a Ute. I have been forever, and always will be.”

Scalley, who is already 1-0 as the Utes head coach after leading Utah to a 44-22 win over Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl, has had opportunities to leave. But he couldn’t pass up his dream job.

Kevin McGiven named Utes offensive coordinator

“I never wanted to leave here,” Scalley said. “My family is here and I don’t want to ever uproot that as long as I felt valued. There have been opportunities. YDo you listen to those opportunities? Yeah. But then you tell those opportunities, thank you, but no thank you.”

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Scalley admits he wouldn’t be here without Kyle Whittingham, who stepped down as Utah’s head coach after 21 years last month. Scalley said he will be eternally grateful for what Whittingham has done for him.

“Kyle Wittingham has given me chance after chance after chance for my entire career,” Scalley said, fighting through tears. “I love Kyle Whittingham for mentoring me, tutoring me, breathing life into me when I didn’t necessarily love football.”

As for why Whittingham left, and eventually took the head coaching job at Michigan, athletic director Mark Harlan said they both agreed it was the right time.

Colton Swan named Utah defensive coordinator

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“I just think there was a peace that came over him,” Harlan said. “That’s that’s my own take. But maybe not enough for him to say, I’m going to step away. He did not want to use the word retirement, and I understood what that meant. The legacy of Kyle doesn’t change by by any of us. He was extraordinary for this university, and he trained Morgan to be the very best he can be.”

Scalley has been busy since taking over the program a couple weeks ago. He has already promoted linebackers coach Colton Swan to defensive coordinator, and brought Kevin McGiven over from Utah State to run the offense. As a defensive coach, Scalley has always loved McGiven’s offensive innovation.

“If you watch and study the film, you’ll see the issues that his offense can present,” Scalley said of McGiven. “Being the head coach in waiting, there is a lot of people who will reach out to you because they think any year is the next year. Every year, his name comes up.”

Scalley is now scouring the transfer portal and trying to keep the talent he has on the team.

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“You have to trust the process that we’re going to continue to reload and that we’re continuing to get the right people in here,” he said. “To those who are fearful and and want to leave, that’s OK. Because we will bring the ones that want to be here.”

Scalley says the identity of Utah football will not change, and they will continue to pursue the ultimate goal.

Morgan Scalley era begins with Las Vegas Bowl romp

“We are physical, we’re going to score and we’re going to play great defense,” Scalley said. “The goal now is playing in January, and getting the national championship. I’m not ashamed to say that we can do it here at the University of Utah.”

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Do you want to see a hilarious statistic? 6-6. In the past 12 games, this is the win-loss record of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the number one seed in the Western Conference and owners of the best record in the entire National Basketball Association. Having most recently lost to the Charlotte Hornets 124-90, the top-seeded Thunder and NBA Draft Lottery-bound Hornets share that 6-6 stretch.

So, what’s the big deal? Stuff like this happens all the time in sports, and especially so during an 82-game season, right? Well, yes, basketball teams go through cold spells all the time, but something about this tumble feels particularly curious when considering this season’s edition of OKC.

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Prior to this 6-6 stretch, Oklahoma City held a 24-1 record, having lost just one game in its first 25 contests. This is a feat shared by only one team in the history of the NBA: the 73-win Golden State Warriors.

Oklahoma City had the basketball community scrambling for answers. Just like the Warriors in 2015-16, the NBA had no response to OKC’s dominance, only this team was built to last another decade. Stuffed with young talent in MVP-winner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren, a ‘big three’ of that caliber has already proven capable of lifting the NBA Finals trophy in June, and all three of those players are still below the age of 27.

But suddenly — inexplicably — the Thunder began to flop. Losses to Charlotte, Phoenix, and Minnesota were one thing, but a pattern of failure against the San Antonio Spurs was truly eyebrow-raising. Three losses force-fed by Chef Wembanyama and friends painted a pattern of inadequacy and exposed gaps in what once seemed to be an impregnable defense around Castle OKC.

Enter the Utah Jazz on a four-game losing skid, with a no-refund ticket package into the Paycom Center. I’m no doctor, but this, to me, seems like an excellent remedy for losing.

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Utah, with a 12-23 record and the sixth-best odds on the NBA Lottery ladder, enters Oklahoma City with very little desire to show up the reigning champions. Finally back under the top-eight protection umbrella of their first-round pick, the Jazz are actively fighting to retain their first-round selection from the already bloated war chest of OKC’s draft capital.

The Jazz are winners in just four of their last 14 games, plummeting back to Earth in spite of the extra-terrestrial performance of breakout guard Keyonte George this season. George and Markkanen are averaging 24.3 and 27.7 points per game to this point in the season, respectively, which are both top 20 in the association, but Utah’s defense has been… how do I put this delicately? Utah’s defense has been an affront to the very sanctity of Dr. Naismith’s vision.

There are many reasons why Walker Kessler is such a coveted center on the trade market every season. This is what happens when Utah’s defensive anchor is absent. With Kessler out for the season, and the tanking Jazz finally returning to familiarity, this game is Oklahoma City’s for the taking.

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We’ll see what actually happens, though. These two teams — at least recently — have been complete mysteries.

How to watch Utah Jazz vs Oklahoma City Thunder

Date: Wednesday, Jan 7, 2026
Time: 6 PM Mt
Location: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK
Channel: Jazz+, KJZZ
Odds: OKC -17.5

Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.

In his first interview since Kyle Whittingham stepped down, Utah athletic director Mark Harlan addressed the former coach’s departure from the program.

Whittingham was careful to use the words “stepping down” in his statement about leaving Utah’s program on Dec. 12, with reports popping up soon after that the longtime coach could pursue other coaching opportunities.

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“I will say that he did not want to use the word retirement, and I understood what that meant. He might go coach again, whether it was a head coach, whether it was maybe in the NFL where his son (Alex) has been,” Harlan said.

On Dec. 26, Whittingham was announced as Michigan’s new head coach, a little more than two weeks after the job in Ann Arbor surprisingly came open late in the coaching cycle after Sherrone Moore was fired for having ”an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.”

Suddenly, Utah’s all-time winningest coach was inking a deal with Michigan.

Harlan called Whittingham’s decision to step down a “mutual understanding.”

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“Kyle and I spoke about what he was thinking about the team, about the program, and of course where he was at with his decision-making. That conversation went on for a few days, I would say. And then after talking it through back and forth, we just kind of both came to a mutual understanding that now was just a good time for him to step down,” Harlan said.

Harlan said that Whittingham did not ask for a contract extension during his conversations with Utah. Whittingham, whose contract at Utah ran through 2027, inked a five-year deal with Michigan that runs through the 2030 football season.

“No, we talked about everything as it related to the program. He was already on his final — he had a few more years on his contract,” Harlan said. “So it was more about where the program is and what he wanted to do. But we didn’t change his contract or (he) certainly never asked for an extension. It was just more about what was his feeling about coming back for another year.”

In what would be his final interview with the Utah media on Dec. 18, Whittingham said he did not want to “overstay his welcome” at the school.

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“I’m at peace and I did not want to be that guy that overstayed his welcome and people just saying, ‘Hey, when’s this guy going to leave?’ That was not my intention ever, and I hope I didn’t do that. I’m sure with some people I did do that, but to me the timing is right,” Whittingham said.

In his introductory press conference at Michigan, Whittingham said he made a “mistake” by answering questions about his retirement.

“Well, I signed a five-year contract (at Michigan). What I made (as) a mistake at Utah is when they started asking me about retirement, and I started answering questions and giving my own thing,” he said. “I am not that old. I am 66. It is not that old. I feel like I got enough energy and juice to see this through.”

Asked if there was “miscommunication” between Utah and Whittingham about retirement, Harlan said no.

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“I go back to after last year where he was seriously contemplating (retirement) and we talked about it and he really was passionate about coming back and fixing it. I mean, what he said publicly is exactly what he told me privately,” Harlan said.

“He did not want to leave it this way (last year). And a part of me always felt because his love for Morgan (Scalley) and wanting Morgan to really take it at a healthy place. And so it was similar to this following cycle where — I can’t get in his head and I don’t think anybody but him can really say — but I just think he felt the time was right to do that.”

Harlan said that the former Ute coach will be honored by the university at some point.

“There will be a time and a place to celebrate everything he brought to this university,” Harlan said.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the book that inspired the hit musical and blockbuster adaptation, is one of a number of books recently banned in some Utah school districts.

The state’s education board said the book had been banned because it contained “objective sensitive materials.”

Newsweek has contacted the Utah State Board of Education via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Book banning in the U.S. has been accelerating in recent years, with PEN America having recorded 6,870 instances of books being pulled from school libraries across 23 states and in 87 public school districts from July 2024 and June 2025, according to a report called “Banned in the USA.”

That report found that the majority of instances of banned books were in three states—Florida, Texas, and Tennessee.

PEN also warned that book censorship has become “rampant and common” in the United States.

What To Know

Three books have been added to Utah’s list of banned books in schools. Each of the three are removed in the following districts: Davis, Tooele, and Washington.

The book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire is one of them. While no specific reason has been given for the book being banned, a note at the top of the Utah State Board of Education’s list states “The titles below have been determined to contain Objective Sensitive Materials in a final determination.” 

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult and The Perks of Being a Wallflower have also been added to a list that totals 26 banned titles.

Beyond the Utah ban, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was the sixth most-banned book of the 2024 to 2025 School Year, according to PEN. It is tied with The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Maguire told MassLive in December 2024, around the time of the film’s release, that the book is not for children.

The novel’s substance is much darker than that of the film. In an extensive interview given to the outlet Them, also in December 2024, Maguire said, “I wanted to write about evil, about the murder of [British toddler] Jamie Bulger and the war in Iraq, the Desert Storm War, the ‘coalition of the willing,’ and seeing a headline referring to Saddam Hussein as ‘the next Hitler.'”

Beyond this, Maguire said in the interview that his retelling was also inspired by the AIDS epidemic.

Despite the subject matter not being suitable for children, book bans spark concern irrespective of the book’s content.

What People Are Saying

Kasey Meehan, director of PEN’s Freedom to Read program and an author of the report, said in a statement following the release of the “Banned in the USA” report: “Censorship pressures have expanded and escalated, taking on different forms—laws, directives, guidance that sow confusion, lists of books mislabeled as ‘explicit’ materials, and ‘do not buy’ lists.

“A disturbing ‘everyday banning’ and normalization of censorship has worsened and spread over the last four years. The result is unprecedented.”

What Happens Next?

More states could follow suit to ban this book or similar ones as we move into 2026.

PORTLAND — The Utah Jazz currently have the worst defensive rating in the NBA (122). If they finish the season that way, it would be the third straight year with the dishonor of having the worst defense in the league.

Of course, there are some caveats that are necessary to point out. Like the fact that this team has been bad by design and built, in large part, to lose games. And, there has been an emphasis on getting offensively gifted players and fostering their development.

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It’s also important to point out the lack of Walker Kessler this season and the amount that the Jazz have to try to cover up for what he provides on defense. But even with Kessler, a good defensive player, the last couple of years the Jazz’s overall defense has been very bad.

On offense, the team is generally trending in the right direction — the Jazz had the 7th best offensive rating for games played in December. The emergence of Keyonte George as a massive scoring threat helps that.

“It’s crazy, for how good our offense has been, how little we actually talk about it as a group,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “Defense is what we’re attacking every day, and it’s what we’ll continue to attack until we get it right.”

Personnel

It’s not like the Jazz players haven’t been continuously told that they need to be better on that side of the ball. They know where they’ve ranked and they know where they are now compared to the other 29 teams.

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But, do the Jazz actually have the personnel to play good defense in the NBA?

“I think any group of people can perform to a certain level,” Hardy said when asked that question. “I don’t want to put a limitation on our group at all on that side of the ball. If I didn’t believe in the ability for a group of people to outperform the sum of their parts, or if I didn’t believe in the ability for individuals to grow and get better, then this would be a horrible profession for me. I go to bed with that belief. I wake up with that belief.”

You’ll notice that wasn’t a “yes.”

The Jazz’s point-of-attack defense has been abysmal throughout the rebuild. George has improved this season, but not to the point that he has been a good defender. Statistically he’s still been a negative defender, along with Isaiah Collier, Brice Sensabaugh, Cody Williams and Kyle Filipowski.

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The Jazz are hopeful that Ace Bailey can become a positive defender, but he’s still so young and is still trying to adjust to being in the NBA. His growth on defense is something to worry about in the years to come. There’s some grace that Filipowski deserves considering how much he’s been playing the five this season, where he is known to have deficiencies as a defender.

There’s a lot of hope riding on Hendricks, who was drafted in large part because of his defense, but lost last year to injury and has yet to recover the reaction time or quickness required to be the kind of defender the Jazz need at his position.

Some of the Jazz’s best defenders this season (and that’s not saying much) have been Svi Mykhailiuk, Kyle Anderson and Jusuf Nurkić, and those are not the players that the Jazz desperately need to see defensive improvement from.

The future

At some point in the near future, the Utah Jazz are going to have to face the fact that they have a major problem on defense.

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“Defense is tiring. Defense is not fun,” Hardy said. “But defense is what gives you the opportunity to win. We can’t show up to the games thinking that we’re just going to outscore everybody. That’s an unsustainable approach. And right now, where we are as a team and as a program, we’re trying to build sustainable habits, a sustainable approach for long term success. Our focus on the defensive side of the ball, individually, has to go up.”

It’s not like the Jazz’s defense needs to be better to win games this season. We all know that’s not the ultimate goal of the front office. But if they were to try to win games next season with this exact roster, the defense would be a problem.

And there’s blame to go around. The Jazz front office has not drafted defensively sound players, Hardy has not been head coach of a good defensive team, and the players on the team have not shown that they care enough on that side of the ball or that they can improve to a reasonable level.

It’s possible that with winning being the goal, the players would care more, that Hardy would coach differently, that players would buy in, etc. But that’s not concrete evidence for us to work with right now.

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On Monday night they gave up 137 points to the Portland Trail Blazers, a bottom-10 offensive team. It was just the latest, in a multi-year string of poor defensive outings. The Jazz’s defensive issues are not going away anytime soon. So something has to change if the Jazz want to be a good team in the future.