NEW YORK -- If anybody knows Deion Sanders' mind, it might be Travis Hunter.

And the two-way Colorado star says Coach Prime is indeed staying put with the Buffaloes.

"I got a lot of insight. He ain't going nowhere. He's going to be right where he's at right now," Hunter said Friday in Manhattan, where he's a heavy favorite to win the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.

In his second season at the school, Sanders coached No. 20 Colorado to a 9-3 record this year and its first bowl bid since 2020. Hunter, Sanders and the Buffaloes will face No. 17 BYU (10-2) in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28.

Sanders' success and popularity in Boulder has led to speculation the flashy and outspoken former NFL star might seek or accept a coaching job elsewhere this offseason. Sanders, however, has dismissed such talk himself.

Hunter followed Sanders from Jackson State, an HBCU that plays in the lower level FCS, to the Rocky Mountains and has already racked up a staggering string of individual accolades this week, including The Associated Press Player of the Year.

The junior wide receiver and cornerback plans to enter the 2025 NFL draft and is expected to be a top-five pick -- perhaps even No. 1 overall. But he backed up assertions from Sanders and his son, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, that both stars will play in the Alamo Bowl rather than skip the game to prepare for the draft and prevent any possible injury.

"It's definitely important because, you know, I started this thing with Coach Prime and Shedeur and most of the coaches on the coaching staff, so I want to finish it off right," Hunter said. "I didn't give them a full season my first year [because of injury], so I'm going to go ahead and end this thing off right. It's going to be our last game together, so I'm going to go out there and dominate and show the loyalty that I have for him.

"Definitely looking forward to it. I'm just excited to go out there and play football one more time before the offseason."

The Minnesota Wild claimed defenseman Travis Dermott off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers on Friday.

Dermott, who turns 28 on Dec. 22, signed a one-year, two-way contract with Edmonton just before the season began. The Oilers placed him on waivers Thursday.

Dermott did not produce a point in 10 appearances for the Oilers. He averaged 13:05 of ice time per game and accrued two penalty minutes with three shots on goal.

The journeyman will join his fifth NHL team.

Originally a second-round draft pick in 2015 by Toronto, Dermott has played in 339 games for the Maple Leafs (2017-22), Vancouver Canucks (2022-23), Arizona Coyotes (2023-24) and Oilers. He has totaled 62 points (16 goals, 46 assists).

Scotland international Ché Adams scored from almost the halfway line as Torino ended a run of poor form to win at Empoli 1-0 in Serie A on Friday.

Adams replaced Antonio Sanabria in the 64th minute and made his mark almost immediately. With 70 gone, he spotted the Empoli goalkeeper off his line and lobbed the ball over his head from inside the center circle.

Che Adams from the halfway line!

You have to see it to believe it! #EmpoliTorino 0-1 pic.twitter.com/gMSJ7Xa2VV

Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) December 13, 2024

The goal ended his personal eight-game drought in spectacular fashion, and will ease pressure on coach Paolo Vanoli.

The Turin club was unbeaten in its first five league games and topped the table for a time. But it has won only one of 10 games since, back in late October.

Friday's win lifted Torino into 12th place, two places and three points behind Empoli.

Kylian Mbappé will miss one Spanish league game with a leg injury but Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti hopes his striker will recover from in time to play the Intercontinental Cup final next week.

Ancelotti said Friday that the left-thigh injury that Mbappé sustained this week will rule him out of Saturday's La Liga match at Rayo Vallecano.

But the Italian coach said that Mbappé will travel with the rest of his teammates to Qatar for the Intercontinental Cup final on Dec. 18, when Madrid will face either Pachuca or Al Ahly.

"We will see if he can play without taking any (injury) risks," Ancelotti told reporters. "He will travel because we think he can recover from the injury."

Mbappé hurt his leg and was substituted after scoring his 50th Champions League goal in Madrid's 3-2 win at Atalanta on Tuesday.

"It's difficult to say where they [injuries] come from," Ancelotti added.

"In the last two international breaks he has been here working with us. He has improved. Thankfully it's a small period he will be out for. I don't think he will lose what he has been able to generate in the past few games."

Ancelotti confirmed that France midfielder Eduardo Camavinga is available having recovered from a hamstring problem while Austria defender David Alaba is closing in on a return from a knee injury.

CHICAGO -- The struggling Charlotte Hornets got a boost for their frontcourt Friday, with forward Miles Bridges returning to the lineup against the Chicago Bulls after sitting out 10 games because of a bruised right knee.

Bridges had not played since a loss at Brooklyn on Nov. 19. He was averaging 16 points and 6.5 rebounds. Rookie forward Tidjane Salaun was also available after sitting out the previous two games because of a sprained left ankle.

The Hornets had lost 12 of 15. They dropped eight in a row before winning at Indianapolis on Sunday. But having Bridges and Salaun -- the sixth overall draft pick -- back gives them more options up front.

"More depth, more versatility," coach Charles Lee said. "There haven't been any excuses made, and there's just been an overall competitiveness. But the one thing that we gain from those two guys is more competitiveness. But offensively, I think they help us create different types of shots, some better shot opportunities because of their ability to get a piece of the paint."

LAS VEGAS -- The Milwaukee Bucks are the only team returning here for the NBA Cup for the second straight year, a stark turnaround following their 2-8 start to this season.

Milwaukee has gone 11-3 since and enters Saturday's East semifinals matchup against the Atlanta Hawks undefeated (5-0) in Cup play so far, giving it a chance to settle what star Giannis Antetokounmpo called a "bad taste" in the Bucks' mouths after losing in the semifinals last season.

"We were playing very, very bad basketball at the beginning of the year, and we just needed to win games," Antetokounmpo said at media day Friday. "We were just trying to turn the season around for us. We were bad. Now we've been competing, we've been playing better, guys are together, and we've had a great stretch. We've just got to keep it going."

Antetokounmpo acknowledged that the Bucks' slow start resulted in them needing to play with more urgency early in the season and that the NBA Cup gave them games with higher intensity to do so.

But even when the Bucks were struggling early, one thing Damian Lillard said gave them confidence: his conversations with Antetokounmpo and his co-star's attitude.

"His mind was never shut off, he was never discouraged, he was never overly concerned," Lillard said Friday. "There was always fight. Our conversations had always been like, 'We going to turn it around, we going to figure it out, we got to lead, we got to keep going, we got to dominate.'

"That was the conversation and that's my spirit naturally. Just to be in a situation like that and to see that that's his spirit naturally as well, that's what made me just believe I wasn't overly concerned. I knew that eventually it would turn around just based off of that."

Coach Doc Rivers called the NBA Cup a litmus test for his Bucks, whom he jokingly called the "old team" in the field compared to the others still alive -- Atlanta, the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

"Every year your team's on a different journey," Rivers said. "Mixing those two groups together and seeing how we react is a good thing. It's a great teacher. I'll learn something through this. I just don't know what it is. Every team will get something out of this that will help them moving forward."

Lillard agreed that this trip is a chance for the Bucks to test themselves in playoff-like environments.

"We've gotten ourselves going in the right direction," Lillard said. "We've been able to win a lot of games lately, and this is just another opportunity for us to continue that, but with more on the line and with us to get even more momentum from an experience like this."

Although the Bucks are back here, they're trying to go a step further after falling to the Indiana Pacers in the semifinals last season.

Getting back to this point after a rocky start is an accomplishment for the Bucks, but for Antetokounmpo, continuing to play strong basketball each day after starting so slowly has been the focal point since the start of the season.

"In the beginning of the season when we were 2-8, it's a feeling like you don't like," Antetokounmpo said. "Nobody likes losing; everybody plays to win. I think we definitely had as a team, a little more urgency. We had to fix some things. We had to play more team basketball, we had to compete in a higher level.

"Me and Damian came together and realized that's very important. From the time we did that ... we've been playing great basketball."

LAS VEGAS -- Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers sees one drastic difference in Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young this season.

"He's earned the trust of his players," Rivers said after the Bucks' practice Friday at T-Mobile Arena in preparation to face the Hawks in the NBA Cup semifinals. "This team likes playing with him. That's obvious. I couldn't say that in the past, but now they love playing with him."

Young, 26, is a three-time All-Star who led the Hawks to the 2021 Eastern Conference finals, but he has frequently been criticized for being a poor defender and often portrayed unfavorably as a teammate.

Young, who is averaging 21.0 points and a league-leading 12.2 assists, indicated Friday that he considers the negative aspects of his reputation to be unfair.

"The narrative about me not being able to do certain things or being too mad or frustrated about certain things is -- I mean, just aren't true," Young said. "I think you're just now being able to see like with the young team we have, just some of the different things we've been doing this year, I think just now you're starting to kind of see it because the results are showing and we're winning now. We're here in this final four of the Cup, and it's a big deal.

"I think that's why you're seeing it and understanding it, but for me I've always been this way."

The Hawks have a young core headlined by All-Star contender Jalen Johnson, rookie No. 1 overall pick Zaccharie Risacher and guard Dyson Daniels, who arrived as part of the trade return for Dejounte Murray, a former All-Star whose two-year partnership with Young did not produce any playoff series victories.

After a slow start, Atlanta has won seven of eight games, a run that started with consecutive victories over the Cleveland Cavaliers, who own the NBA's best record.

"When you win, everything else takes care of itself," Young said. "That's kind of what's happening right now."

Rivers said it was apparent from Young's play that the guard has been "really studying the game on both ends of the floor." He specifically credited Young for masking his defensive limitations by figuring out ways to keep himself out of actions when teams target him by communicating and switching.

"When we talk with Trae and we talk about Trae, the word I like to use is evolution," Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. "Every player evolves. They just evolve in different ways. He's been an important part of our young guys' growth and being able to elevate them. ... We know what a talented offensive player is, but I think in his mind being successful as a team, not just Trae, we've all got to do our part defensively. And he's doing that."