Utah
Recap: Stanford MBB bounces back against Utah Valley
On Tuesday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Utah Valley by a final score of 77-63. Stanford center Maxime Raynaud had a double-double for the Cardinal with 14 points and 17 rebounds while guard Jaylen Blakes had 18 points and six rebounds. Utah Valley guard Dominick Nelson was the top performer for the Wolverines with 22 points. Stanford improves to 7-2 overall while Utah Valley falls to 4-4.
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference: Utah Valley
BOX SCORE: Utah Valley at Stanford-Tuesday, December 3rd
“Yeah, thought that was a good win for us,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. “I think a lot of respect, you’re talking about they’re one of the better rebounding teams in the country. They really get on the offensive glass and even really make it hard to get offensive rebounds and I thought we did a good job there and we definitely addressed our defensive issues from the previous game. Trying to get back to building that identity and we weren’t perfect, but we were definitely more centered, focused on that area and it was a good win for us.”
Utah Valley got off to a nice start, leading 12-8 with 14:51 to go in the first half. Dominick Nelson was up to five points for the Wolverines while Jaylen Blakes was up to four points for Stanford. Utah Valley was shooting 4-8 from the field while Stanford was shooting 3-6. UVU had two threes and Stanford had zero.
Stanford would then lead 16-15 with 11:44 to go in the half. Stanford freshman Evan Stinson checked in for the first time of his career and nailed a 3-pointer. He was a nice spark off the bench.
“You know, we need, it’s funny because it, we have some guys that I would call combo forwards that are just, we need another perimeter guy and it’s kind of a 3-2, 2-3, 6’6”, 6’7”, some size,” Smith said of Stinson. “Ryan has been pretty much that guy for us and probably playing a little heavy minutes. So it just seemed like we need more size on the perimeter bottom line with Oziyah. Oziyah’s a good sized two guard and then Ryan’s a good size three and then Evan, try to get some help there and I think he’s gonna be a good player moving forward. Put him in a tough spot. He really hasn’t practiced that much, but it’s just kind of what we need. I think moving forward and he played well. So hopefully he can continue.”
Stanford would lead 26-19 with 7:41 to go in the half. Blakes was up to seven points for the Cardinal. Stanford was shooting 10-16 from the field while Utah Valley was shooting 6-18.
Stanford would lead 28-25 with 4:29 to go in the half. Blakes was up to nine points for Stanford while Tanner Toolson had ten points for Utah Valley. The Wolverines had closed the gap.
At halftime, Stanford led 38-26. Stanford closed the half on a 10-0 run over 4:08. Utah Valley had made one of their last eight field goals. The Cardinal played great defense to close the half.
Stanford got off to a hot start in the second half, leading 49-30 with 15:40 to go. Jaylen Blakes was up to 14 points and four rebounds for Stanford while Maxime Raynaud had 10 points and eight rebounds. Stanford was outscoring Utah Valley 11-4 so far in the second half.
Stanford would lead 49-36 with 12:05 to go. Utah Valley was on a 6-0 run over the last 2:41. Dominick Nelson had 13 points and six rebounds for the Wolverines. He was doing what he could to keep his team in the game.
Stanford would lead 61-51with 7:44 to go. Blakes was up to 16 points for Stanford while Nelson had 18 points for Utah Valley. Utah Valley was hanging around.
Rather than allowing Utah Valley to make things even more interesting, Stanford would put the clamps down as they led 67-53 with 3:22 to go. Oziyah Sellers was up to 15 points & four rebounds for Stanford, doing a nice job of helping the Cardinal finish strong.
“Even when things are not going good, we can still play defense hard,” Sellers said. “We can still bring energy and all that would translate.”
“A lot of times you can have a perfect game plan but on defense, but if you don’t have the toughness or the energy or mindset to get a stop or stop the guy in front of you from driving or fighting through a ball screen and none of it will work,” Blakes added.
“So for us it was just a mindset that we can’t let these guys score. We have a mindset of getting kills, three stops in a row. That’s our mindset for every defensive possession is to get a stop and don’t let the guy in front of you score the ball. And if he does get by you, believe that the person to your right and left has your back.”
In the end, Stanford would walk out with a 77-63 victory as a thunderous dunk by Evan Stinson was the exclamation point of a nice bounce back win for the Cardinal. Utah Valley played Stanford tough, but in the end the Cardinal came through as they were expected to.
“Yeah, I mean, the motivation was pretty obvious,” Blakes said. “I mean coming off of two losses, didn’t sit well with us and the team. And for us, you know, we just had to keep moving forward and obviously there’s motivation every game because we always have something to prove individually or as a team, but especially when you’re coming off two losses, two games that we felt that we should have won. And for us it was we had to double down our fundamentals and get back to what we do and that was play defense and for us that’s what we did.”
For Stanford, this was an underrated win. What I mean by that is on paper, beating Utah Valley might not seem like a big deal, but given they were coming in having lost two straight games, they really needed to get back in the win column. They also needed to have a bounce back performance on defense and they did that.
“I’d say we’re not a confident group yet, like used to winning,” Smith said. “So I was like, I gotta be careful, I didn’t jump them too much. I was like, we little bit, just we weren’t ourselves. And so the deal was just try to get back to what we talked about previous six, for six months. Like, if we don’t defend we’re hoping. You’re hoping to win you exchange baskets and so it’s just about let’s guard them right.
“We started off slow with Chisom Okpara gave us a big lift. Just kind of got us going. I think he was his plus/minus was tremendous tonight. Plus 19 in 23 minutes he gave us. When he checked in the game, he got the scoring going that way and he was in there the last two minutes, first four minutes of the second half and did a great job.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at Cal on Saturday, December 7th to open up ACC play. That will tipoff at 1:00 PM PT on ACC Network.
“You know, we got kind of a short, we’re gonna get tomorrow off, get rested up, and then we’ll practice Thursday and Friday,” Smith said looking ahead to Cal. “It’s an early game Saturday so there’s not a lot of prep time. I really haven’t watched much of them. I think they, just by their scores and little I’ve seen, they’re getting better, they’re pretty good. They had a tough one tonight, but to get up big on the road and SEC, obviously that’s a good sign, so it’ll be fun.
“It’s first ACC game. First league game, first ACC game, and it’s your rival. Kind of why you come to college. That’s what college basketball is about. So, I’ve coached in that gym before, but not wearing the Cardinal. So it’ll be fun.”
“I’m super excited,” Sellers said of facing Cal. “You know, obviously people know that I grew up in the Bay Area, so that’s a game that I looked forward to watching, going to, things like that. So to finally play in it, I’m super excited and yeah, that’s all I can really say. USC, you know, I faced them I think four times over the two years. So I’m kind of familiar just with, I mean, the arena obviously. Got a new team and stuff like that, but yeah, I’m excited for Saturday for sure.”
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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz missed out on the NBA Playoffs, but still scored a big win thanks to a coin flip.
In Monday’s tiebreaker coin flip to determine who had the fourth-worst record in the league last season, the Jazz came out winners over the Sacramento Kings, who had the same 22-60 record.
Had the Jazz lost the coin flip, they would have been fifth in NBA Draft Lottery odds. Only the worst four teams are guaranteed to remain within the top eight of the lottery.
If Utah had fallen to fifth, there would have been the chance they could have dropped out of the top 8 teams in the lottery, and owed the draft pick to Oklahoma City, which was top-8 protected in a previous trade.
The Jazz now have an 11.5 percent chance to win the first overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
The Utah Jazz are rolling into a big offseason before they into what’s projected to be a wildly different-looking 2026-27 campaign from what they had just seen this past 22-win season.
But before that season is able to get underway, the Jazz have some priorities to address in the offseason––both in terms of constructing their roster and retaining a few key pieces from last year’s group into next year.
That makes their salary cap situation and everything around it important to be aware of in the next few months. So with that in mind, we’ve put together an offseason cap tracker for a glimpse of what the Jazz are dealing with in terms of cap space, contracts, and any of their own free agents hitting the open market.
Let’s break it down:
Maximum Possible Cap Space: $24.7M
The Jazz are currently projected at just under $25 million in cap headed into the summer. That’s without any additional moves made to the roster from how they’re entering the offseason, and without factoring in any free agents’ pending cap holds.
That number is bound to get smaller once the Jazz hash out their contract situation for Walker Kessler, but it could also see an uptick if Utah were to shed salary with some of their non-guaranteed deals, or any other player they wanted to pivot from.
As of now, it allows the Jazz to make a couple of moves around the edges in free agency, but the main focus will lean on signing Kessler to a long-term deal.
Contracts
A glimpse of the Jazz’s contract values for the 2026-27 season, and when they’re slated to hit free agency from their current deals:
– Jaren Jackson Jr.: $49.0M, ’29 PO
– Lauri Markkanen: $46.1M, ’29 UFA
– Ace Bailey: $9.5M, ’29 RFA
– Keyonte George: $6.5M, ’27 RFA
– John Konchar: $6.1M, ’27 UFA
– Cody Williams: $6.0M, ’28 RFA
– Brice Sensabaugh, $4.8M, ’27 RFA
– Svi Mykhailiuk: $3.8M*, ’28 UFA
– Kyle Filipowski: $3.0M, ’28 RFA
– Isaiah Collier: $2.7M, ’28 RFA
– Hayden Gray: $2.1M*, ’27 RFA
– Bez Mbeng: $2.1M*, ’27 RFA
– Blake Hinson (two-way), ’27 RFA
Total: $142.1M
*- non-guaranteed
The biggest chunk of the Jazz’s salary leans on their top two veterans, Markkanen and Jackson Jr., each making a combined $95 million next season alone.
However, the rest of the roster isn’t taking up much money. No one else will be making more than $10 million, and their payroll is a little less than $150 million in total.
Another noteworthy fact: the Jazz’s key roster pieces outside of George and Sensabaugh are all under contract through the next two seasons.
Both of the aforementioned names are also bound to see extension discussions take place this summer, which might lock in their future for even longer.
Free Agents
A look at who from this season’s roster is set to hit the free agent market in July:
– Kevin Love (UFA)
– Jusuf Nurkic (UFA)
– Walker Kessler (RFA)
– Oscar Tshiebwe (two-way)
– Elijah Harkless (two-way)
The biggest name of note is, of course, the Jazz’s restricted free agent big man, Walker Kessler, who Utah is bound to hand a big payday, but it remains to be seen how much that contract––or offer sheet from another team––will be.
Jusuf Nurkic and Kevin Love have also expressed their desire to return to the roster as they hit free agency. Re-signing both likely wouldn’t cost much for the Jazz financially, but instead relies on a question of whether the roster space is readily available to keep both.
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Utah
Golden Knights vs. Mammoth Game 1 prediction: NHL odds, picks, best bets for Stanley Cup Playoffs
The Utah Mammoth is going to be a trendy underdog pick in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Not only does Utah have the novelty of this being its first-ever appearance in the postseason going for it, but the Mammoth tick plenty of other boxes that punters look for in a dark horse. They’re fast, dynamic, and create plenty of quality scoring chances.
The only problem is that they are running into the Vegas Golden Knights, arguably the best defensive team in the Western Conference, in Round 1.
Vegas is a -170 favorite to win the series, and it is -152 to win Game 1 on Sunday night.
Mammoth vs. Golden Knights odds, prediction
The Golden Knights had a weird season. Vegas started hot, took its foot off the pedal, and struggled to regain its form down the stretch. That led to a surprising coaching switch late in the campaign, but the move paid immediate dividends as John Tortorella led the Knights to a 7-0-1 record in his eight games behind the bench.
It should be noted that Tortorella benefited from an easy schedule since taking over in Vegas, but it’s hard to deny that the team looks sparked with a new voice in their ear.
What’s especially encouraging for Vegas is that its most glaring weakness, the play of goaltender Carter Hart, has started to trend in the right direction at the exact right time.
And Vegas is so good in its own zone that Hart doesn’t need to stand on his head to get the team over the line against Utah. If he’s just average, the Knights will stand a chance, especially since Utah’s goaltending situation is just as much of a question mark.
Betting on the NHL?
Outside of Vejmelka outplaying Hart, the Mammoth will also need to get this series on their terms if they want to pull the upset. Utah grades out as a slightly above-average defensive outfit, but its strength is up front with dynamic playmakers like Logan Cooley and Clayton Keller, plus sharp-shooter Dylan Guenther.
For those stars to have an impact, the Mammoth will need to get Vegas to open up and engage in a back-and-forth style. I just don’t see that happening with a team that was so disciplined in its own zone all season. The Knights led the NHL in expected goals against and high-danger chances conceded at 5-on-5, which shouldn’t be a shocker given the personnel in Sin City.
Not only does Vegas boast a deep blueline, but forwards Mitch Marner and Mark Stone are regarded as two of the best defensive minds in the entire sport.
Perhaps Utah can blitz Vegas and pull the upset, but I’d need a bigger number to go against the experienced, defensively savvy Knights in a best-of-7.
And if you’re looking for a play with more upside, have a good look at Vegas to pull off the sweep at 12/1.
The Play: Vegas moneyline (-152) | Vegas to sweep the series (12/1, FanDuel)
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
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