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CU women’s basketball has returned to national prominence, but JR Payne and the Buffs still have boxes left to check

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

BOULDER — This year’s CU women’s basketball team isn’t Ceal Berry’s Buffs. They might be better.“This team is identical to the 1994-95 team from my senior year,” said Shelley Sheetz, the former Buffs star who’s in her first season as a CU assistant. “That was an Elite 8 team and the best team that’s ever come through this program with the highest ranking, a No. 1 seed in the tournament, (a program-record) 30 wins and finishing the season No. 2 overall in the nation.“This team has that, and possibly more. I’ve told them, ‘Why not raise a different banner that we don’t have in the rafters?’ We don’t have that Final Four banner yet. This team has the pieces of the puzzle to take this program to the next level.”Over the last three years, the omens pointing to the Buffs’ ascent have become hard to ignore.The Buffs toppled Stanford in overtime in 2021 at the CU Events Center, a triu...

Challenged by Michael Malone, young Nuggets neighbors talked through struggles and bounced back: “We knew that was on us”

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

When the Nuggets finally got home from a dreadful road trip, not everyone was ready to sleep it off.Christian Braun, Peyton Watson and Julian Strawther are apartment neighbors. They hang out almost every day, usually congregating at Braun’s place. “It’s an open house,” he said.In this situation, it was open invite. The Nuggets had just landed in Denver after nine days and a 1-4 record on the road. The three neighbors happen to be part of a second unit that had just been called out by coach Michael Malone. After a 105-86 loss to the Rockets, Malone told his team in the locker room that he planned to make changes to bench players’ minutes.Back in Denver, the young players gathered.“We just talked through it,” Braun told The Denver Post. “We knew that was on us. We knew we’ve gotta play better, so we just hung out and talked about it.”“Just keeping each other in the right mental space,” Watson said. “In a positive space.”...

Rockies winter meetings primer: Will Colorado be a wallflower again?

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

Major League Baseball’s winter meetings begin Monday in Nashville. The hot stove could sizzle, especially with No. 1 free agent Shohei Ohtani looking for his next team and a huge contract.Will there be a blockbuster trade involving Juan Soto or Pete Alonso? Will the Orioles open their wallets and sign a big-name closer? Will the Diamondbacks build on their surprising run to the World Series?But the Rockies? They tend to be wallflowers at the winter meetings. Perhaps things will be different this year, but don’t expect the Rockies to stoke the hot stove at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.Here’s a look at the Rockies’ needs and possible moves at the winter meetings and in the coming months:Starting pitching: Colorado made a significant trade last month by acquiring right-hander Cal Quantrill in exchange for minor league catching prospect Kody Huff. Coming off a 103-loss season, general manager Bill Schmidt said the Rockies would be “op...

Avalanche Journal: 20 observations from an up-and-down but ultimately successful first quarter

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

The first quarter of the Colorado Avalanche’s season has felt like a three-act play.Colorado ripped off six wins in a row to begin the season, but players and coach Jared Bednar kept warning everyone that improvements were needed. Then came five losses in seven games, four of which were by four-plus goals.The final act has looked more like what this team expects itself to be. The Avs are 7-1-1 since an embarrassing 8-2 loss at home to St. Louis. In totality, the Avalanche’s start has been a successful one.“Even as a group, our players identified that our details weren’t tight (at 6-0),” Bednar said. “When you go through a little struggle and now you’re not getting results, guys quickly identified that, ‘Hey, we’ve got to be a lot better in a lot of different areas in order to have success.’“Once you start having the failures, then you get guys really digging in to put more importance on the details of the game, eventually that process leads to good results.”Colorad...

Letters: Major Denver overhauls — DIA, 16th Street Mall, library — in a slow race to the finish

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

The renovation race is onJust like those between-innings races featuring dental characters on the scoreboard at Coors Field, the City of Denver has its own race that is well underway. Who will finish first? Remodel at DIA? Remodel at the Denver Central Library? Or the rebuild of the 16th Street Mall? The pace is slow but somebody has to finish first. Place your bets.Ben Eastman, DenverThe crux of our current political climateThe electorate has the luxury of believing as they will, endlessly disagreeing with their neighbor, and voting for the candidates of their choice.But few issues are black and white. None should be used as a litmus test for any candidate because few candidates are all of one persuasion, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. We all possess a mixture of those traits at any one time, and those traits change over time and circumstances and issues.Yes, we elect our representatives because we believe they think like we do most of the time on most issues. But...

Winter meetings: A’s seeking low-cost solutions via free agents, trades, draft lottery

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

Major League Baseball’s upcoming winter meetings in Nashville, where trades and free-agent signings are the main courses on the menu, could help produce the single most important player for the future of the A’s franchise.He will be a player to be named later — their most consequential one ever.When baseball’s executives assemble Monday, don’t expect seismic changes to a downtrodden A’s team coming off a team-record 112 losses. The A’s don’t have any stars left so they probably won’t get a potential difference-maker in a trade any time soon. Owner John Fisher has never spent his money on a meaningful free agent and he won’t start now.This means Tuesday’s MLB Draft Lottery represents the one realistic path for the A’s to acquire a franchise-altering player. At least the odds of earning the No. 1 pick are in their favor – the lone perk for being MLB’s worst team in 2023. They’ll share the best odds of winning the lottery (18.3%) with fellow also-rans Kansas City and Colorado.The...

Nantes supporter dies before league game in latest incident to mar French soccer

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

NANTES, France (AP) — A supporter from Nantes died on Saturday following a fight that took place before the club’s 1-0 win over Nice in the latest outbreak of violence to mar French soccer this season.Nantes said in a statement overnight that the fan was “fatally injured” close to the club’s stadium. According to the L’Equipe newspaper, the fan was a member of the Brigade Loire, Nantes’ main group of diehard fans. “In circumstances which are the subject of an ongoing judicial investigation, the 31-year-old collapsed, hit in the back,” the club said. “Despite the intervention of emergency services, the fan could not be saved.”Nantes said the public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into voluntary manslaughter.Nantes public prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul said the incident took place shortly before 8 p.m. local time, when several private hire vehicles carrying Nice fans on their way to the match were attacked by groups of Nantes supporters.“The very f...

El servicio de trenes de pasajeros del Eurotúnel tiene un problema importante. Ahora podría estar en camino una reestructuración radical

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

(CNN) —  La demanda de viajes en tren de alta velocidad está en auge en Europa. Los viajeros están desesperados por una alternativa rápida y sostenible a los vuelos aéreos de corta distancia y las carreteras congestionadas.Pero hay un problema.La demanda está superando la oferta en muchas rutas. Los trenes están llenos y los precios suelen estar por las nubes, lo que obliga a muchos viajeros a utilizar medios de transporte menos ecológicos.Los europeos quieren más rutas y más trenes en las rutas existentes entre las principales ciudades, donde la expansión actualmente se ve sofocada por una capacidad inadecuada, problemas políticos y falta de inversión.A diferencia de las aerolíneas, que pueden agregar nuevas rutas en cuestión de meses, se necesitan décadas y miles de millones de dólares para construir nuevos ferrocarriles de alta velocidad, especialmente cuando cruzan fronteras internacionales.En este momento, uno de los mayores cuellos de botella es el Túnel del Canal de la ...

Moscow raises troop levels, citing Ukraine war, NATO expansion

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

Russia is boosting the number of troops in its military for the second time in 15 months, citing the war in Ukraine and the expansion of the NATO defense alliance.Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ordered the military to increase the number of troops by nearly 170,000 to a total of 1.3 million as the Ukraine war grinds on after 21 months. Putin’s decree, which entered into force immediately, brings the overall number of Russian military personnel to 2.2 million, including 1.3 million troops.The Russian defense ministry in a message posted on Telegram cited the war in Ukraine and NATO’s expansion — which was spurred by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — as the reasons for the increase in army personnel. Finland joined the Western defense alliance this past spring, and Sweden said this week that Turkey has promised it will ratify Stockholm’s bid “within weeks.” NATO’s “combined armed forces are being built up near Russia’s borde...

Start over? Stay the course? Ryan Poles is nearing a series of landmark decisions with the Chicago Bears’ QB and coaching future.

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:31:34 GMT

Certainly Ryan Poles knows the cameras are everywhere, his every move being watched. Analyzed. Interpreted. Debated.Before Monday’s road matchup against the Minnesota Vikings, Poles was doing his usual pregame speed-walk around the perimeter of the field when he crossed paths with Justin Fields, who was on his way to the locker room. Without breaking stride, Poles gave his quarterback a fist bump and, quite naturally, a Chicago television reporter caught the moment, delivering it promptly to Bears fans, including all the ravenous social media sleuths seeking clues on what the general manager might be considering.Was there possibly anything in Poles’ stride or Fields’ facial expression to decode?In the third quarter of the Bears’ 12-10 victory, the ESPN broadcast zoomed in on Poles, this time inside a U.S. Bank Stadium suite after a first down running play to Roschon Johnson. Briefly, the GM shook his head and circled his right index finger in a bit of a ̶...