AAC Basketball: Top 15 impact players from 2020 recruiting class

9. AAC Basketball recruit rankings – Mike Saunders (Cincinnati)

In the 28 games Mike Saunders played in his senior year at Wasatch Academy, he averaged 14.4 points per game. If given the opportunity, he is capable of producing similar numbers for Cincinnati Basketball as they look to stay atop the AAC in 2020-21.

Getting that opportunity is going to be significantly easier during the 2020-21 season as the 6’0 point guard will be in competition with sophomore Mika Adams-Wood (5 PPG, 1.6 APG), whereas the 2021-22 season will see Michigan transfer David Dejulius become eligible. Fans of the Bearcats should be prepared to see a player who does not need the ball to score and when he gets the ball in the open court, he is going to the basket.

At times with Wasatch Academy, when Saunders was not on the court, the offense ran just as well without him, that however is more of a testament to the Wasatch offense than Saunders’ shortcomings. Ranked No. 42 at point guard, Saunders will still be able to demonstrate his ability to hit the open man which led to him averaging 3.6 assists per game and his ball-handling will be good enough to limit the number of turnovers.

It can be argued that Saunders’ best play happened in the Under Armour Association during AAU play as opposed to high school and that can be taken for what it is worth. When it is all said and done Saunders will make his biggest impact distributing the ball on offense and using his ability to pick up the ball full court defensively.