PROVO — It started as a thought, developed into a plan, and turned into a viral social media moment.
Richie Saunders looked at his roommate, walk-on point guard Jared McGregor, during BYU’s stay in the Big 12 men’s basketball tournament in Kansas City and uttered four words that hatched a plan: I gotta get out.
The only problem? The stir-crazy Saunders, who tore his ACL nearly a month prior in the first minute of a game against Colorado, could hardly move. Locked into a knee brace that ran the length of his leg and bound to a pair of crutches, walking the short distance from the team’s hotel to a late-night rendezvous with Insomnia Cookies in downtown Kansas City in question.
Even an Uber or Lyft might be difficult.
The solution?
“We figured that the hotel bell cart was the best vehicle for the trip,” McGregor told KSL.com.
And that’s how McGregor’s latest post on his Instagram — with over 400,000 views in less than a week — was born.
Saunders, the Cougars’ third-leading scorer who averaged 18.0 points in 25 games of his senior campaign, has found a new way to contribute to a BYU men’s basketball team that will open its 33rd NCAA Tournament all-time Thursday against the winner of an 11th-seeded “First Four” game between Texas and North Carolina State in Portland (5:25 p.m. MDT, TBS).
His work was on display in an 82-76 win over then-No. 10 Texas Tech in the Cougars’ regular-season finale. But it was in Kansas City that “Coach Richie” was fully activated, head coach Kevin Young acknowledged.
“He’s showing a bit more of his personality,” Young said. “I don’t want to speak for him, but when I’m watching him from afar and looking at his body language and the vibes he puts out, I feel like he’s in a good place mentally. He knows that this is just a minor step back in his career, and he can’t change what has happened.
“I think he feels good about the plan that is in place for him, personally,” he added. “And I think that’s allowed him to put his own self aside and just be there for the guys as an older brother type.”
BYU will count on Saunders for his experience with the tournament that Young holds in high esteem.
So will McGregor, Keba Keita, Mihailo Boskovic and the rest of the squad that experienced last year’s run to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2011. Talent is one thing, and no moment has been too big for leading scorer AJ Dybantsa.
But the NCAA Tournament is a different beast, which is why Young and his coaching staff will rely as much on veterans and a group of role players stepping into bigger roles for what he hopes to be a second March run.
BYU forward Dominique Diomande (24) dunks during the first half of the game against the Houston Cougars during the quarterfinal of the 2026 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Thursday, March 12, 2026. (Photo: Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News)
One of those role players who broke out in Kansas City — and not in the bell-cart-to-Insomnia kind of way — was Dominique Diomande. The 6-foot-7 redshirt freshman from France by way of Washington had 12 points, six rebounds, six steals and two blocks in wins over Kansas State and West Virginia, and added 4 points and three steals in the 73-66 loss to No. 5 Houston.
Few will forget Diomande’s windmill dunk in transition against the Mountaineers, which even sent Dybantsa’s jaw to the floor.
Paired with fellow reserve Khadim Mboup, who pulled down 22 rebounds during the Big 12 tournament, the two became a sort of “bomb squad” of energy off the bench.
“He is one of our hardest workers, a serious-minded young man that only knows one thing: to play really hard,” Young said of Diomande. “You just never know when an opportunity is going to call.
“I wasn’t sure how big of a role he would play. But the message I had to the guys a few weeks ago was ‘make me play you’ … I think he’s taken that to heart, he’s done a great job with his energy and getting us in transition, and I think it’s a testament like Trey Stewart last year where if you stick with something long enough, then that rock will kind of just break.”
Good teams need stars and role players to be great, and BYU hopes it has found that in March — along with a redefined defensive identity that Young describes as “think less, play more.”
If nothing else, the heartbeat of BYU men’s basketball that is Saunders has returned.
“He is still a really loud voice for this team, and he still tries to lead us,” McGregor said. “He does a really great job from the bench, doing what he can to help lead these guys.
“We’ll do anything for Richie. Even if it’s wheeling him around the city in a bell cart, we’ll do that. We’re just super grateful to have Richie with us despite his injury.”
