Comment on Smith embracing challenge of critical season

It’s not often in recent years that the Colorado football team is still playing late into December. It’s even less often when the Heisman Trophy resides in Boulder. On Saturday, fans were treated with an opportunity to celebrate Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and the Buffaloes’ football team before and during the men’s basketball game against Bellarmine at the CU Events Center. Related Articles College Sports | CU Buffs’ LaVonta Bentley capping collegiate career on high note College Sports | Coach Prime, CU Buffs excited about future for 5-star QB JuJu Lewis College Sports | Football recruiting: Former Liberty QB Kaidon Salter transferring to CU Buffs College Sports | Colorado State and Utah State suing Mountain West over penalties for exiting league College Sports | CU Buffs’ Deion Sanders: QB commit Julian Lewis has “unbelievable” similarities to son Shedeur Sanders Hunter and star quarterback Shedeur Sanders were special guests of the basketball team before the game, participating in warmups, including Hunter putting on a dunking show.

Fast break Why the Buffs won: CU dominated in all facets, holding Bellarmine to a .396 shooting percentage and outrebounding the Knights 38-30. Three stars 1. Assane Diop. Shot the Buffs into the lead early before finishing 7-for-11 with a career-high 15 points. 2. RJ Smith. The third-year guard continued his torrid shooting, going 3-for-4 on 3-pointers before finishing with 11 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. 3.

Around the AFC Allen on top: As great as Josh Allen has been over seven seasons in Buffalo, he’s almost always been in the shadow of at least one other quarterback in the league. In his one All-Pro season, it was Aaron Rodgers with the Packers. Since then, it’s been Patrick Mahomes with the Chiefs or Joe Burrow in Cincinnati.

SAN JOSE — It wasn’t a typical game day question, but Jared Bednar needed nanoseconds to offer his answer. Does the coach of the Colorado Avalanche ever have time to sit back and appreciate the guys this organization selected near the top of the draft and what they’ve become? “Every day,” he said. The Avalanche boasts three of the very best players in the world — Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen — all of whom were selected in the top of an NHL draft by Colorado.

In his last months of college wrestling, Andrew Alirez is more focused on performing well than worrying about results. If he wrestles to the best of his ability, without getting all hung up on the score or the match, he said, then he’ll do what he returned to Northern Colorado this year to do: win a second NCAA title. “I just feel in my heart nobody has seen the best version of me out there,” he said.

OAKLAND — Rickey Henderson, the Oakland kid who became the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history and his hometown A’s biggest star, has died. Henderson would have turned 66 on Christmas Day. After a frenzy of social media speculation overnight, multiple sources confirmed to the Bay Area News Group on Saturday morning that Henderson had died on Friday.