Richie Saunders injury forces BYU’s late-season reset to look less like luck and more like a hard choice
In Portland, the absence of richie saunders is not being treated as a footnote to BYU’s season but as a pressure test that exposed what wasn’t working—then forced a public pivot in how the Cougars say they lead, practice, and hold each other accountable ahead of Thursday’s NCAA Tournament game against Texas at the Moda Center.
What changed after Richie Saunders went down—and why it wasn’t just “next man up”
BYU’s late-season turn is being framed internally as more than a standard rally after injury. Head coach Kevin Young described a moment of clarity less than a minute into a loss at Cincinnati, when a play the staff had specifically drilled still produced an immediate score. Young said practice looked sharp, but execution in the game did not translate, leaving the team “defenseless. ” That disconnect, in his telling, triggered a reevaluation of his own approach.
The timing matters. Young said the team had recently secured a win over a ranked opponent—No. 6 Iowa State on Feb. 21—and looked as if it had moved past the shock of losing richie saunders to a season-ending injury the week before. But what followed was described as a collapse: an “embarrassing” home loss to UCF and additional road losses at West Virginia and Cincinnati that made the season feel as if it was slipping away.
Rather than presenting the turnaround as a motivational speech or a tactical revolution, Young put the emphasis on subtraction. On the cross-country flight that followed, he said he arrived at a “less-is-more” plan that reduced over-coaching and refocused the group on playing “harder, longer and faster. ” He also said simplification helped clarify accountability—an implicit admission that complexity had muddied it.
How Kevin Young’s “less-is-more” message became the organizing principle in Portland
In Portland on Wednesday, the reset was described as something the roster could “fully grasp, ” with Young arguing that the new approach immediately translated into results. BYU closed the regular season with a win over No. 11 Texas Tech on March 7, then carried momentum into the conference tournament with wins over Kansas State and West Virginia. Young also pointed to the tone of a loss to No. 5 Houston in the quarterfinals as a confidence-builder, saying the effort level shifted and the group looked more capable of competing against top teams.
Players reinforced the idea that the stage itself is not the primary challenge. Young described the program’s deliberate exposure to high-visibility environments this season, including multiple NBA arenas and showcase settings, arguing that familiarity reduces the risk of being overwhelmed by the NCAA Tournament. In his words, there is “comfort in the known, ” and the goal of those environments was to give players experience with the pressure of being watched and discussed.
Young also described a mindset he said he learned from professional postseason basketball: focus narrowly on what is in front of you and avoid looking beyond the next task. He framed that as a personal lesson, saying looking too far ahead in his NBA life cost him playoff series. In Portland, he presented that discipline as central to BYU’s survive-and-advance approach.
Who benefits from the new roles—and what the locker room admits changed without richie saunders
In BYU’s open practice media availability at the Moda Center, the roster described the season as defined by persistence through injuries. AJ Dybantsa said the team had “about four season-ending injuries” and still “persevered, ” while Robert Wright III said the group stayed together and is “rolling at the right time. ” Kennard Davis Jr. added that sticking to the game plan and growing “as a family” helped them reach this point.
The most direct acknowledgment of how the injury reshaped internal dynamics came when Davis was asked about his role change since richie saunders went out. Davis said other players had to step up, including himself, and described Saunders as “one of our vocal leaders. ” Davis characterized himself as “a quiet guy, ” but said he had to become more vocal and pick up “some of the things he do. ”
That detail matters because it clarifies what the team lost beyond on-court production: a leadership voice. It also underscores why Young’s emphasis on simplified accountability resonated. When leadership responsibilities shift suddenly, the margin for mixed messages shrinks, and the team’s own comments suggest they needed a clearer framework for who leads, who speaks, and what gets demanded.
As BYU prepared for Texas, Wright said the team watched the Longhorns during a team dinner and described Texas as fast-paced with a dominant big man and a player wearing No. 12 who hit big shots late. Dybantsa echoed the impression of pace and individual performances, while Davis called Texas impressive and unselfish, adding that “everything is going to be hard to shot, hard to pass, ” reflecting the defensive pressure BYU expects to face.
Thursday’s game is scheduled for March 19 at 4: 25 p. m. PT at the Moda Center, which is 7: 25 p. m. ET.
What BYU is presenting in Portland, then, is not a mystery turnaround but a stated sequence: a season rattled by injuries, a coaching self-correction triggered by a failed game-plan-to-game translation, and a locker room that says it redistributed leadership after richie saunders was lost—then used a simpler message to turn effort into results when the margins narrowed.
