BYU basketball recruiting: Sharpshooting 3-star guard Richie Saunders commits to BYU

BYU basketball has landed one of the best shooters out west as Wasatch Academy (Utah) guard Richie Saunders announced his commitment to the Cougars on Wednesday night on Instagram.

The 6-foot-5 shooting guard is rated as the 146th player player in the 2020 class by 247 Sports and third best player in the state of Utah; the two guys ahead of him are his high school teammates at Wasatch.

Saunders had Creighton and Utah State in his final three and also had scholarship offers from Utah and Oregon State.

Saunders is originally from Riverton, Utah, where he was 6A first team all-state as a sophomore before transferring to Wasatch Academy last year. Saunders averaged 18.8 ppg as a sophomore before averaging 11.5 ppg on 47% shooting on the more talented Wasatch team as a junior.

Marty Haws was his AAU coach and gave the following assessment of Saunders to VTF in November 2018: “Richie is a very good shooter and a consistent scorer. He is also a really good finisher in transition. Richie can score at all three levels. He possesses a special mid-range game. He can really stuff the stat sheet.”

Saunders joins JUCO guard Spencer Johnson as the second commit of the 2020 class. Richie is expected to serve a Church mission first before joining the team in 2022. When he returns, he will be a main cog and foundational piece for future BYU teams.