BYU Basketball’s Richie Saunders Goes Viral Following ESPN ‘Tater Tot Tale’
Mar 13, 2025, 5:45 PM | Updated: 8:03 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - JANUARY 18: Richie Saunders #15 of the Brigham Young Cougars reacts after sinking a three pointer against the Utah Utes during the second half of their game at the Jon M Huntsman Center on January 18, 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – In the second half of the Kansas-UCF second-round Big 12 Championship game, the commentators dropped a fact about a BYU player that instantly went viral.
Coming out of a break, Sean Farnham told the world something about Richie Saunders’ family that was unknown to most.
BYU’s Richie Saunders great grandfather invented tater tots??
Learn something new every day.
pic.twitter.com/6t8AVcEcmA— Mark Titus Show (@MarkTitusShow) March 13, 2025
“Richie Saunders’ great-grandfather invented tater tots. Which makes me love him even that much more.”
The names and jokes started rolling in from there. Richie “Tater Tot” Saunders. Richie “Give Me Your Tots” Saunders. King of Tots.
Part of the reason the story gained so much traction was Saunders’ excellent play this season. Over his last ten games, Saunders has averaged over 18 points on 53 percent from the field and 40 percent from three.
To top it all off, he led BYU in scoring in the Big 12 tournament semifinals with 23 points in another efficient outing. Naturally, he leaned into the new-found fame following the win.
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BYU Takes Down Iowa State, Advances To Big 12 Semifinals
The good times rolled on for BYU basketball as they took down Iowa State in the Big 12 Tournament Quarterfinals. BYU defeated the Cyclones 96-92, the most points scored by a team against a TJ Otzelberger-coached ISU team.
Saunders finished with 23 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field. The First Team All-Big 12 pick was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line.
BYU finished the game with a season-high 18 three-pointers. That mark also set a Big 12 Championship record for any single game.
It’s also the fourth consecutive win for BYU over Top 25 opponents. The longest streak for the program since 1951. BYU has now won nine consecutive games.
With the four-point victory, BYU advances to the Big 12 Conference Tournament for the first time in program history.
Like @JonRothstein says… THIS IS MARCH ‼️@BYUMBB wins an absolute thriller in its 2025 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship debut to advance to Friday.
BYU will play either No. 16-seed Colorado or No. 1-seed Houston in the first of two semifinal games tomorrow at… pic.twitter.com/Ue0waJkne7
— Big 12 Conference (@Big12Conference) March 13, 2025
Richie Saunders First Team All-Big 12, Most Improved Player
Saunders finished the 20-game Big 12 season fourth in scoring at 17.9 points per game, first in 3-point field goal percentage at 45.1%, and fifth in field goal percentage at 52.4%.
Last season, Saunders was viewed as a “glue guy” off the bench. Under first-year head coach Kevin Young, Saunders emerged as one of the top players in the Big 12 Conference this season.
Saunders had 10 games this season where he scored 20+ points. Notably, eight of those 10 games with 20+ points were against Big 12 Conference opponents.
“I just want to congratulate Richie Saunders on being named First Team All-Big 12 as well as Most Improved Player, Egor (Demin) as Honorable Mention all-league and first-team freshmen in the Big 12,” said BYU head coach Kevin Young. “I thought we had some other guys that were deserving, but happy for those guys.”
The 6-foot-5 junior from Riverton, Utah, made a compelling case for Big 12 Player of the Year. However, that recognition was given to Texas Tech’s JT Toppin.
Toppin, a transfer from the University of New Mexico, was in the top three of the Big 12 in scoring, rebounds, and field goal percentage this season.
