A trace of pride seeped into Richie Saunders’ voice when he was asked to confirm a straightforward detail about an event from just over two years ago. Wasn’t he indeed the very first recruit Mark Pope brought to Lexington after departing BYU to become the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky?
“That was me,” Saunders affirmed. How close had he actually come to leaving his home state and trailing his former coach? Even after a couple of years, the emotional turmoil surrounding that choice remained vivid. “Oh man,” Saunders said. “It was incredibly close.” Back then, the Kentucky basketball universe was swept up in collective elation. Pope was only days removed from his electrifying introductory press conference inside Rupp Arena, an event that carried a revival-like energy and gave the new coach tremendous momentum as he took the helm at his alma mater.
Kentucky fans tracked their new leader’s every move, and when Saunders and his wife, Sierra, landed at Blue Grass Airport to start their recruiting visit, Pope and his wife, Lee Anne, were there to welcome them. Soon after, photos of that reunion flooded social media, and it didn’t take long for Saunders to grasp the full intensity of the UK basketball fishbowl.
There was plenty of good so much that Saunders came extremely close to leaving BYU and becoming a Wildcat. There was also some backlash after he chose to remain in Provo, though he can laugh about that now. What hasn’t changed over those two years is the deep respect he holds for his first college coach. “I love the Popes, and I truly believe in that guy as a coach,” Saunders told the Herald-Leader at the NBA Combine last month. “You know, it was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made.” The 24-year-old smiled as he recalled one aspect of the process that probably wasn’t so funny at the time. “I think it’s amusing because people went after my wife on Twitter and all that,” Saunders said with a laugh. “I’m sure half-jokingly. I’m married to an SEC girl—she’s from Arkansas. So it was funny when they said something about that. But no, I wish nothing but the best for the Popes. Love them.”
The irony that his wife hailed from the same state Pope’s predecessor, John Calipari, left Lexington for wasn’t lost on Saunders, who ultimately declined the offer to transfer to Kentucky. That decision led a segment of disgruntled UK fans to search for a scapegoat, connecting those geographical dots. It’s all water under the bridge now, and the choice worked out well for everyone involved. Saunders returned to BYU and emerged as one of the Big 12’s top players under new head coach Kevin Young, who helped position the 6-foot-5 guard to become an NBA draft pick this month. Despite missing out on his former player, Pope managed to assemble a formidable roster on short notice. And if Saunders had joined early, later additions like future NBA draft pick Koby Brea, a key contributor on Pope’s first team might have ended up elsewhere. Saunders stayed focused on his own path, but he also kept an eye on Pope’s work in Lexington. He knew about the major injuries that had defined Pope’s first two seasons including one affecting his former BYU teammate, Jaxson Robinson and was clearly aware of the fan frustration surrounding his ex-coach at the time of the Combine.
Back then, Pope’s Wildcats were absent from the early Top 25 rankings for the 2026-27 season. The UK coach was on a nationally recognized streak of recruiting misses, and a growing number of fans were growing restless about the program’s future. Shortly after Saunders had joked about some of those same fans criticizing his decision from two years earlier, he turned deeply serious when asked why he was so confident that Pope would ultimately succeed big in Lexington. “That guy works. He’s a workhorse,” Saunders said. “He just knows how to get things done, and he’s going to make it happen. I believe it.” Much has transpired since that vote of confidence.
Malachi Moreno announced he would return to Kentucky for another season under Pope, despite being a potential first-round NBA pick. Milan Momcilovic committed to the Wildcats for the 2026-27 season, giving Pope the sport’s best three-point shooter. And five-star class of 2027 prospect Ryan Hampton pledged to UK, helping Pope gain much-needed momentum in high school recruiting.
Even as a lifelong BYU Cougar, each of those developments surely made Saunders smile as he embarks on his professional basketball career. Just because he didn’t follow Pope to Lexington two years ago doesn’t mean he isn’t rooting for his former coach. At the time, no player was likely closer to Pope and his family. Saunders earned a scholarship offer from BYU when he was 15, while Pope was still at Utah Valley, but he didn’t commit to the Cougars until his senior year of high school. He made that pledge six days before Pope coached his first game with the program. He watched as Pope found immediate success, leading BYU to a 24-8 record in his first season—a campaign that would have ended with the program’s first NCAA Tournament bid in five years if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. Pope took the Cougars to the NCAA Tournament the next season, while Saunders was in Year 1 of his two-year Mormon mission. He joined the team in the summer of 2022, showed promise as a freshman and even more as a sophomore, helping BYU exceed expectations in its first Big 12 season to such a degree that Pope was chosen as Kentucky’s next coach.
The ensuing decision became an example of the recruiting dilemma most coveted players face: loving the fit at multiple schools but being able to choose only one. During that time, Saunders said he sought advice from Utah Jazz executive Danny Ainge. Ainge, a three-time NBA champion as a player and executive with the Boston Celtics, was a four-year player at BYU and a longtime program supporter. Obviously, Saunders ended up staying, and he quickly thrived under Young, who was a hot name in NBA head-coaching discussions while serving as the Phoenix Suns’ top assistant before taking the BYU job. “I mean, it was two different experiences with two different coaches,” Saunders said. “And I think that was huge learning two different ways of doing things. It was massive for me as a person and as a basketball player… I’ve built my life on hard work, and being able to take (Young’s) skill set for preparing people for the NBA is something I don’t take lightly. He taught me how to play in this league and how to succeed and take that to the next level and do it.”
Saunders, who tore his ACL during his senior year at BYU, is still recovering but said he expects to be fully healthy by the start of the 2026-27 season. He’s widely projected as a second-round pick in this month’s NBA draft. He wasn’t even ranked among the top 300 recruits in his high school class. At the Combine, he praised Young for continuing his development, which had already made significant strides under Pope, and expressed gratitude for the “stability” he found as a four-year player at one school a rarity these days in high-level college basketball. And as Saunders spoke of his first college coach’s work ethic and how it strengthened his own basketball resolve, it was impossible not to recall some of Pope’s first public comments after taking the Kentucky job. The day Saunders left Lexington to fly back to Utah and ponder his basketball future, Pope sat for an extensive interview with the Herald-Leader. During that conversation, he mentioned driving “a recruit” it was Saunders to the airport early that morning after a late night working the transfer portal for more potential additions. “Have you slept?” the player asked Pope. According to the Kentucky coach, here was his response: “Imagine taking on the biggest project of your entire lifetime. Like, it will be a defining thing in your career, but also a project where your whole heart and soul—and all your love and all your family—is in it. And it’s so exhilarating. Imagine getting to do what you love most in the world with who you love most in the world, facing the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced in your life. And that’s what we get to do right now.”
Two years later, Saunders is headed to the NBA. But he still believes in the coach he left behind.
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