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If there’s one thing that’s sure to help a team coming off a loss (and in the midst of dealing with an overly condensed schedule), it’s a double helping of patsy, sandwiched around the week’s biggest challenge.

The Spurs more or less thrashed the Jazz just before going the distance with the Rockets, and now they have the still-banged-up Utah team in their crosshairs after a quiet but public challenge to their mental and physical toughness from their coach, Mitch Johnson.

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How a team responds to that kind of critique is always worth watching, but you have to feel a little bit bad for the Jazz if the Spurs come out with a chip on their shoulders.

The Spurs were lights out against the Jazz on Monday, shooting just shy of 56% from the field and 42% from three, in a game where the final score fell short of expressing how over-matched the Jazz were.

The Jazz will still be without their leading scorer in Markkanen, and their best post defender in Walker Kessler, so San Antonio should be able to more or less arrange a layup line in this contest, even if their streaky outside shooting fails them.

The Spurs have been on a relative heater, though, ranking 7th in Effective Field Goal Percentage, 9th in True Shooting Percentage, 10th in Field Goal Percentage, 12th in Three-Point Percentage, and 7th in Offensive Rating, all of which are improvements over their extended post-Christmas slump.

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They’ve also avoided giving the ball away, ranking 8th in limiting turnovers and 6th in assist-to-turnover ratio, offering no help to a Jazz defense that’s been one place shy of dead last (29th in defensive rating) during that same stretch.

The only area in which the Jazz have outperformed the Spurs is in 2nd chance scoring, something the Spurs have struggled with both producing and preventing for most of the season.

So, if the Spurs go cold again, the Jazz are likely to be able to prevent them from taking another shot and to corral their own misses, which feels like their most realistic chance at victory.

If, however, the Spurs take Mitch Johnson’s post-game comments to heart, I wish the Jazz the best of luck because I would personally not want to be on the other side of an angry Spurs team that ranks in (or near) the top 10 in most offensive categories this season.

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January 22nd, 2026 | 8:00 PM CT

Watch: FanDuel Southwest| Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)

Spurs Injuries: Devin Vassell – Out (Groin), Luke Kornet – Questionable (Groin), Jeremy Sochan – Day-to-Day (Illness)

Jazz Injuries: Walker Kessler – Out (Shoulder), Georges Niang – Out (Foot), Keyonte George – Questionable (Forearm), Lauri Markkanen – Out (Conditioning), Brice Sensabaugh – Questionable (Illness)

If anybody asks why Clayton Keller will be representing Team USA in this upcoming Olympics, immediately show them the game-winning overtime goal Keller just had in the Mammoth’s 5-4 overtime win against the Flyers.

Thanks to Dylan Guenther capturing the attention of two Flyers, Keller was simply left too much space to work with as he quietly readied himself for the upcoming pass from Guenther.

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Cutting to the middle with ease, Keller launched the puck over the head of Samuel Ersson and scored the game-winning goal.

Naturally, he did the same with his hockey stick too:

“A lot of it is belief, and the mental talk that I’m saying to myself in my head,” said Keller. “I’ve always trusted my training. I know I’ve done everything possible to leave myself in a good position and let the rest take care of itself… I work on those touches and all those things.”

Any game-winning goal is sure to be a feat anyone can appreciate, especially when it comes in overtime.

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But not only did Keller score the game-winning goal, but he also singlehandedly- no seriously, it was an unassisted goal- got the game-tying goal and became the first player in franchise history to score an extra attacker goal.

“Just ‘nice play, nice shot.’ To get a 6-on-5 goal –we haven’t had one this year– it was a really nice individual effort by him,” said Dylan Guenther. “Nice route by him, too. Kind of a 2-on-2, caught his guys sleeping with nice shots, so he had a good game tonight.”

It doesn’t stop there. On way to scoring his unassisted goal, Keller also stole the puck from the Flyers’ Olympic-bound defenseman Travis Sanheim, who will be playing for Team Canada.

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Subsequently, Keller collected the puck, found the angle to drive past Sanheim, froze Ersson in the net before finally scoring the game-tying goal.

And just to add a little style to the goal, Keller finished the goal off with a leap over Philadelphia’s Cam York before his big, loud celebration.

No, there was no hockey stick thrown into the crowd on this one… that would be a dire penalty.

Considering the Mammoth were also down 3-0 earlier in the game, Keller was also able to lead just the second ever three-goal comeback in franchise history. The first came against the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this season

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It didn’t matter that Utah played a sloppy game or faced several multi-goal deficits, Keller was not going to let this team lose.

But even in a night where Keller had two of the most important moments of the game, there was one play that could have derailed all the hard work the Mammoth did to mount this comeback.

With an extra attacker in net and no Karel Vejmelka to make saves for the team, the game looked to be all but over when Garnet Hathaway collected the puck near center ice.

There was no one blocking Hathaway’s shot on the goal. All he had to do deliver the final blow was take the shot and give the Flyers a 5-3 win on the road.

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But there was just one hangup: Nick Schmaltz was not going to allow Hathaway to take the shot.

Instead of securing the win for Philadelphia, Hathaway’s slight hesitation gave Schmaltz just enough time to strip the puck from behind to prevent a shot on goal from happening.

“We talked about it in the room after, none of this happens if Nick Schmaltz doesn’t backcheck and give everything he’s got to strip them before they score on the empty net,” said Keller. “And that’s the difference sometimes.”

Without his high effort play, Utah would never get back on defense to prevent the Flyers from extending the lead and Keller never would have tied the game.

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Without Schmaltz, this game was over.

“You know what I’m happy about–I’m happy that everybody (saw) that. Because that’s what we see from (Schmaltz),” said André Tourigny. “Not everybody will see that and you need to pay attention. And when there’s a highlight play like that; I liked his performance and how he impacts our team. I’m glad for him and for everybody–who were here at the Delta Center or at home watching our game–who sees that. It can highlight what Nick Schmaltz means for our team.”

But even if Schmaltz had the most important save of the game, Vejmelka put in work against the Flyers too. Namely, on this save here, when he snatched the puck midair and stole a goal from the Flyers:

Making 25 saves on route to his win over Philadelphia Vejmelka now has won seven straight starts for the first time in his career. His previous high was six.

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On top of that, Vejmelka also has won seven home games in a row too. He is proving to be worth every penny for the Utah Mammoth.

There was a lot of key contributions from Mammoth players throughout the game whether it was Schmaltz heroics or when Utah scored two goals in just 36 seconds to cut the lead 3-2 in the second.

But thanks to the very clutch fight Jack McBain had with Philly’s Noah Juulsen, which drew an additional roughing minor on Juulsen, Utah was able to get a power play opportunity and score to cut the lead to 4-3.

“No. I love Jules, but take a punch in the mouth. You’ve got to win the game. I don’t even know what happened,” said Philadelphia Flyers’ Rick Tocchet. “You can’t take a penalty there, and then the PK has to come out and block the shot, play aggressive and we sunk. We let Guenther, one of the best shooters in the league, go and shoot the puck. We unraveled, and we got to put the pieces back.”

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McBain was able to both deliver a great fight for the fans and give his team a much needed boost in the third.

Fighting matters kids!

For the third straight year, the BYU-Utah football showdown will take place in the middle of the season.

The Big 12 Conference released its 2026 football schedule Wednesday morning, with the Cougars and Utes set to face off in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 7.

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In 2025, BYU hosted Utah in Provo on Oct. 18, and the two rivals played on Nov. 9 back in 2024 for their first meeting as Big 12 foes.

While the 2024 and 2025 contests resulted in memorable BYU victories, many fans have criticized the Big 12’s decision to schedule such compelling rivalry action in the middle of the season rather than as the regular-season finale, considering the final week of the college football season is widely known as “Rivalry Week.”

During BYU’s and Utah’s joint 12-season tenure in the Mountain West Conference between 1999-2010, the Cougars and Utes battled in the regular-season finale every year except for 2001 and 2007.

Thus, when Utah joined the Big 12 prior to the 2024 campaign, many expected the rivalry games to take place in late November once again, only for the league to opt for midseason matchups instead.

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When the topic of scheduling came up at the 2024 Big 12 football media days, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark addressed the issue, as the Deseret News previously reported.

“Well, I think rivalries are critically important. … I mean Utah-BYU, Arizona-Arizona State, Kansas-Kansas State, Baylor-TCU are, I mean, great rivalries.”

Yormark added at the time that vice president of football Scott Draper and his scheduling committee came up with the plan as a way to draw interest throughout November.

“They were focused on the rivalries that obviously mean something, not only to the history of our conference, but to our fans. And I think we landed in a great place,” Yormark said.

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“We don’t necessarily have a rivalry week. We spread them around. I’ve discussed that a little bit with our head of football. So I don’t have a great answer on that other than we are focused on rivalries,” Yormark told The Salt Lake Tribune in 2024. “We’ve got great rivalries in our conference. We want to maintain those rivalries. And I think we did. But from a scheduling standpoint, it is not like we put everything on one weekend.”

However, the Big 12 did schedule four other rivalry games for the last week of the regular season in 2026: Arizona/Arizona State, Kansas State/Iowa State, Baylor/Houston and TCU/Texas Tech.

The likely explanation for putting BYU/Utah at midseason is the attempt to stand out amid the national football slate for the week and attract a wider television audience.

The 2024 game on Nov. 9 garnered 2.1 million viewers on ESPN, which at the time was the network’s third-highest late night mark of the year.

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But in 2025, despite both teams being ranked in the top 15, the Cougars and Utes only picked up 1.97 million viewers on Fox.

For comparison, when BYU played at Cincinnati on Fox in late November (at the same kickoff time as the Utah game had been) that game yielded 2.6 million viewers.

On one hand, it makes sense for the Big 12 wanting to place the BYU/Utah rivalry in a unique spot on the calendar to try and attract more national interest — especially when “Big Noon Kickoff” or Dave Portnoy come to town as a result.

But when the Cougars and Utes clash, it becomes the biggest event of the year in the state of Utah, and the 2025 contest ended up determining which team appeared in the Big 12 championship game.

Something like that might deserve the dramatic buildup of an entire season before serving as the grand finale.

SALT LAKE CITY ― The Flyers were in control until they weren’t.

LOGAN — In what may have been UNLV’s final visit to the Spectrum, the Rebels left off where they started 43 years ago.

Down by 14 points with just under 13 minutes to go Tuesday night, UNLV rallied back to stun the Aggies on their home court, 86-76.

Ranked 23rd in the AP Top 25 last week, the loss to the Rebels (10-8 overall, 5-2 in the Mountain West) marked the first back-to-back setbacks of the season for Utah State, which also lost at Grand Canyon, 84-74, last Saturday.

“There’s no excuses to play the way we did,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “It was a collective effort. We got outcoached, we got outplayed, and it was obviously our worst loss since I’ve been the coach here, for sure.”

The game was tied 38-38 at halftime before the Aggies (15-3, 6-2) pulled away early in the second half as the Rebels, who already play with a short bench, got into some severe foul trouble.

But despite keeping three players with four fouls on the floor for much of the second half, first-year UNLV head coach Josh Pastner managed to orchestrate a shocking comeback.

The Rebels, who made 12 of their final 15 field-goal attempts, outscored Utah State 42-18 over the final 12 minutes of the game.

“You know, there’s going to be a lot of highs and lows throughout a season, and this is obviously a low for us,” Calhoun said. “I don’t feel like we’ve gotten better over the last seven or eight days, and that really stinks as a coach because you put a lot of time into scouting and practice, and I’m not getting the effort from a lot of our guys.”

Utah State guard Mason Falslev (21 points) scored 20 or more points for the third straight game, while freshman forward Adlan Elamin added 15 points, senior guard MJ Collins Jr. finished with 14 and graduate point guard Drake Allen totaled 10 points, nine assists and just one turnover.

But it wasn’t nearly enough to hold off the Rebels, who put up a season-worst 86 points against USU’s defense, which was second in the Mountain West at just 67.7 points per game.

“Defensively, we need to have better practices — myself included,” said USU forward Karson Templin. “We’ve been lackadaisical, and there’s no excuse for it.

“We just need to play harder and practice and tighten up some of our stuff. That’s totally on us players, myself included.”

The Aggies, who are moving into the Pac-12 Conference this summer while the Rebels will remain in the Mountain West, had won seven-straight games in Logan over their longtime rivals coming into Tuesday’s game.

Overall, Utah State had won 11 of 13 games against UNLV at the Spectrum after losing the first 11 home games and 25 straight games overall in the all-time series, which began in 1983.

The Rebels, who trailed 9-0 to open the game, managed to reach back into their past on Tuesday, getting 21 points from junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and 20 from freshman forward Tryin Jones.

Eight minutes into the game, Jones appeared to be lost for the rest of the contest and possibly longer when he barreled into Falslev when the junior guard was shooting a 3-pointer.

The Las Vegas area native got the worst of the collision, grabbing his right knee and writhing on the floor in pain, but after being helped up the tunnel, Jones returned to the court five minutes before halftime with his leg tapped up and ended up logging 32 total minutes.

“He’s a good player … and I think he’s one of the neatest stories in the country,” Calhoun said of Jones, who finished 5 for 13 from field and 10 of 12 from the free-throw line.

“When I saw him six or eight months ago, he was not that. That kid has worked. That kid’s got a motor, and he’s going to be a terrific player. … He’s really, really good. I like him a lot.”

Overall, the Rebels shot 57.1% from the field in the second half after shooting just 43.3% over the first 20 minutes of the game.

UNLV, which was averaging 79 points points per game coming into the Spectrum, also went 7 for 14 from 3-point range, 21 for 25 from the free-throw line and outrebounded the Aggies, 40-31.

Senior forward Kimani Hamilton, who fouled out after playing just 12 minutes, added 10 points for the Rebels, as did sophomore center Emmanuel Stephen.

Senior forward Walter Brown contributed 10 of UNLV’s 19 total bench points.

Similarly, Templin came off the bench to score 10 of the Aggies’ 15 bench points, and was the only non-starter to play more than eight minutes for the home team.

“It was one of the worst bench performances I’ve seen in a long time,” Calhoun said. “We had two kids that were -13 at halftime on the scorecard. It was just a horrific, horrific effort tonight from the bench.”

First in the conference in field goal percentage at 51.6% coming into Tuesday’s game, the Aggies shot just 44.8% from the field, including a 7-for-24 performance from 3-point range.

Even worse, Utah State shot a season-worst 54.8% (17 for 31) from the free-throw line.

The hosts’ woeful performance from the charity stripe didn’t feel like it was going to be an issue after the Aggies scored 22 of the first 30 points of the second half to get the crowd of 9,642 rocking.

But Utah State seemingly went to sleep after that early burst, perhaps due to the late, 9:15 p.m. tipoff, while the Rebels kept battling, making big plays and getting key stops after switching to a 1-3-1 defense.

“I knew that for us to win this game, especially coming off of their loss versus Grand Canyon, we were going to have to be warriors today,” Pastner said. “It’s a great home-court advantage that they have. I’ve been in some great leagues and at some high-level places. I’ve been in the ACC, I was in the old Pac-10 — this is as good of a home court as there is.

“Credit to Utah State, to coach Calhoun and their program for that atmosphere. For us to come into this place and win a game like that, it was really hard to do, but we toughed it out. It wasn’t pretty, but we found ways to make plays.”

Utah State now sits in a two-way tie for second place in the Mountain West with Nevada (14-5, 6-2), behind unbeaten San Diego State (13-4, 7-0).

The Aggies head back out on the road this Friday to take on Colorado State (12-7, 3-5), a team they beat 100-58 at the Spectrum on Dec. 20.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – What’s in a name? Everything.

Perhaps no sport like hockey uses nicknames more creatively. The Utah Mammoth have several nicknames they use for their teammates. They consider it a badge of honor to have a good nickname.

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“Oh, you want to have as many nicknames as possible,” said center Kevin Stenlund. “It’s always good.”

“It’s part of the game, part of the culture, part of being in any any workplace,” said defenseman Nate Schmidt. “You start to feel like you belong. I don’t know, I love it.”

Nate Schmidt has four points in Mammoth 6-3 victory

Schmidt comes up with more nicknames than almost any player in the NHL.

“Sometimes I give out bad nicknames, but I beat them into submission so that everyone has to enjoy them,” he said.”

Rarely do players call each other by their actual first name.

“I think if I call them by their first name, they look at me like, who?” said defenseman Liam O’Brien.

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“Sometimes I call them by their first name on purpose,” Schmidt said. “Like Michael Carcone, I only call him Michael. He’s like, ‘wait, only my mom calls me that.”

The classic Mammoth nickname is goalie Karel Vejmelka’s “Veggie.”

“Veggie is great,” Schmidt said.

“Veg, yeah, yeah,” said defenseman Ian Cole. “Except he can’t pronounce his “V’s” so it’s Wedgie.”

Then there’s Liam O’Brien, AKA “Spicy Tuna.”

“Way back when, I gave Liam O’Brien the nickname Tuna when we were playing in the American League,” Schmidt said. “He adapted it to Spicy Tuna.”

Vejmelka shines again as Mammoth beat Dallas, 2-1

“He’s claiming that?” questioned Cole. “We’ll have to check the records. Let’s go to the Library of Congress and see what they got.”

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But the newest nickname that has taken the NHL by storm is Russian rookie Daniil But, AKA “Cheeks.”

“Cheeks is great,” said Schmidt, who came up with the name.

“It’s unbelievable,” said O’Brien. “It’s sticking, too. It’s not going anywhere.”

“It’s smart, it’s simple, it’s funny,” Cole said. “It’s to the point, and everyone gets it.

Well, almost everyone.

“I still don’t know what does it mean?” said But, who primarily speaks Russian. “It’s hard to explain in Russian, but [Mikhail Sergachev] says it’s one of the best nicknames in the NHL, so that’s good for me.”

Sometimes, nicknames are inevitable whether you like them or not.

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“We tried giving [Sean Durzi] a new nickname, but he didn’t like it,” O’Brien said. “You can fight against your nickname, but sometimes it just is what it is.”

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.

Kansas State’s losing streak is over.

The Wildcats defeated the Utah Utes 81-78 in a back-and-forth basketball game for their first conference victory of the season Tuesday at Bramlage Coliseum.

It didn’t come easily. K-State had to survive nine lead changes and a late charge from Utah. But its defense forced Utah to miss six of its final seven shots in crunch time.

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For that reason, and others, K-State (10-9, 1-5 Big 12) is no longer all alone in last place of the league standings. It is now tied with Utah (9-10, 1-5 Big 12) at the bottom of the table.

PJ Haggerty led the way for K-State with 34 points. He was at his best in the second half, as he came up with multiple important clutch buckets down the stretch. His big plays were enough for the Wildcats to hold off the Utes, who got 33 points from Terrence Brown.

This was a big win for the Wildcats, and it showed when Brown missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. K-State head coach Jerome Tang sprinted to the student section and danced like he has after many other notable victories during his tenure in Manhattan. Players also raised their arms and then celebrated with their supporters.

“Shout out to the fans and the student section,” Haggerty said. “Keep coming to the games and just keep believing in us.”

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K-State began conference play with five straight defeats. Now it can think about starting a winning streak.

“We have got to keep moving forward,” Tang said, “but I was very happy with the win.”

Up next for K-State is a home game against rival Kansas on Saturday.

Until then, here are takeaways from Tuesday’s action:

A fun scoring battle between PJ Haggerty, Terrence Brown

Jerome Tang made sure to share a few words with Utah guard Terence Brown during the postgame handshake line.

He felt the need to compliment Brown on a big game, even though he was on the opposing sideline.

Brown led the charge for Utah with 33 points on 24 attempts. He made shots from the perimeter and attacked the rim to give K-State’s defense problems. And he nearly outdueled PJ Haggerty. Had Brown’s final 3-point attempt of the night found the bottom of the net, fans would have seen overtime.

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But Haggerty and K-State prevailed in a battle of elite scorers.

Haggerty scored 34 points on 29 shots to go along with eight rebounds and four assists. He was at his best in the second half, as he scored 28 of his points when things mattered the most.

Utah tried a variety of defenses and double teams to get the ball out of his hands in the final minutes, but Haggerty kept finding ways to score. He was responsible for all but seven of K-State’s points after halftime.

David Castillo said the offensive strategy was easy late in the game.

“Give him the ball,” he said.

That confidence helped fuel Haggerty as the game went on.

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“My teammates trusted me to take those shots,” Haggerty said. “They tell me, just take shots and they will live or die with me. I took good shots, they went in and we came out with the win.”

Maybe David Castillo should start all the time

Sophomore guard David Castillo won the respect of Tang and his K-State teammates when he volunteered to come off the bench earlier this season.

He was viewed as a team-first player when he suggested that he could help the Wildcats in that role because they were lacking bench scorers. His theory even paid off initially after he moved to the bench and knocked down shots when his team needed a boost.

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But he has been in a bit of a slump lately.

Returning to the starting lineup for the first time since early December seemed to bring out the best in Castillo. He came out red-hot and scored 17 points in the first half. There were a few times in the early going when he was outscoring the Utes all by himself.

He finished the day with 20 points

It seems likely that injuries will thrust him back into the starting lineup full-time moving forward. That could be a good thing for him, even though he viewed himself as an ideal sixth man earlier this season.

“I’m fine with whatever,” Castillo said. “I’m going to do whatever the team needs.”

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Kansas State played this game without three usual starters

The Wildcats were not at full strength when they took the floor against Utah.

In fact, they were down four players. Three of them are typically in the starting lineup.

Abdi Bashir and Khamari McGriff were the biggest two absences.

Bashir is the team’s top outside shooter. He was unable to play after the CBS Sports Network broadcast crew announced that he had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his foot. He will be out indefinitely as he recovers. The Monmouth transfer was averaging 11.3 points per game.

McGriff was also a notable loss. The starting forward was deemed a game-time decision, but he watched from the bench in street clothes. He was averaging 10.3 points and 4.2 rebounds.

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Elias Rapieque and Mobi Ikegwuruka also both missed this game for undisclosed reasons. Rapieque has been out for three straight games. Ikegwuruka has been out for four.

Without them, the Wildcats used a starting lineup that featured Dorin Buca at center, Castillo at guard and Taj Manning at forward along with usual starters Haggerty and Nate Johnson.

“It’s next man up,” Haggerty said. “(Castillo) hit six 3-pointers. (Andrej Kostic) came in and made some shots. So did CJ (Jones). We have got everybody just doing their role and just playing a big part in our team.”