COACH, TWO PLAYERS ON CSU MEN’S GOLF TEAM EARN HONORS
» Colorado State men’s golf coach Christian Newton was named the Mountain West coach of the year Saturday. Newton’s Rams finished runner-up at the conference championship this month and hold a No. 40 national ranking by Golfweek.
CSU sophomore AJ Ott and senior Max Oelfke were named All-mountain West.
The accolades are voted on by the league coaches.
CSU will find out its destination for the NCAA regional on Wednesday.
Former Falcon High player headed to Dolphins. Former Falcon High School standout Kalen Ballage was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the fourth round (No. 131 overall) Saturday.
Ballage, 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, ran a 4.6-second 40-yard dash at the NFL combine in Indianapolis.
As a junior at Arizona State in 2016, he became the first player in FBS history to score eight touchdowns in a game against a Power 5 opponent — seven of those were rushing. He finished his collegiate career with 1,984 rushing yards and 27 rushing touchdowns.
Rubio will miss Game 1. » HOUSTON
Utah Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio will miss Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Houston Rockets because of a strained left hamstring.
Rubio left Friday night’s game against the Thunder in the first quarter with the injury. The team says it does not know how long he will be out, but coach Quin Snyder said after Friday’s game he hoped it wasn’t too serious. He said the injury “caught up with him a little bit” in a “tough series.”
Rubio missed a few games late in the season with soreness in the same hamstring, but had not left a game with the problem in the postseason until Friday.
Bryant returns. » Chicago
CHICAGO
Cubs slugger Kris Bryant returned to the lineup on Saturday, six days after being hit in the head by a pitch in a game at Colorado.
Bryant batted third in Chicago’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers after missing four games. He wore a protective flap on his helmet.
“I feel good,” Bryant said. “The last two days, it was good doing full baseball stuff and everything felt great.”
The pitch from Rockies’ German Marquez hit the brim of Bryant’s batting helmet and then struck him in the forehead. Bryant, who wasn’t diagnosed with a concussion, was medically cleared to play Saturday.
Also, the Cubs activated Ben Zobrist (back tightness) from the 10-day disabled list and optioned David Bote to Triple-a Iowa.
Three remain for NHL lottery. The Carolina Hurricanes have vaulted into a position to land one of the top three picks of this year’s NHL draft.
They’re joined by the Montreal Canadiens and the last-place finishing Buffalo Sabres as the three teams still in the running after the league unveiled picks No. 4 through 15 as part of the NHL draft lottery conducted in Toronto on Saturday night.
The order of the top three selections will be announced later during the second intermission of Game 2 of the second-round playoff series game between the Vegas Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks.
The Hurricanes entered the lottery with a three percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick after they finished 21st in the standings. Montreal is also making a move up after having the fourth-best shot at landing the No. 1 selection.
The Sabres won at least one of the three lottery drawings after finishing last in the standings and having the best odds — 18.5 percent — to land the No. 1 pick.
The Hurricanes and Canadiens moved ahead of Ottawa and Arizona. The Senators dropped from the second slot to having the fourth pick, and Arizona dropped from third to fifth. — The Associated Press