Colorado Buffaloes Lock in Visit With Big 12 Transfer

Sanders split his high school career between St. Bernard High School and IMG Academy, garnering a three-star rating by 247Sports. It listed him as the No. 30 player in the state of Florida as he averaged 14.2 points and 8.1 rebounds at the latter school.

Standing 6-6 and weighing 180 pounds, Sanders was an intriguing prospect, and he garnered attention from many DI programs. He received scholarship offers from UC Santa Barbara, Northern Illinois, NJIT, UC Irvine, San Francisco and, of course, Utah. He committed to the Utes on April 16, 2025, and got to work preparing to be implemented into their scheme early in his career.

He bulked up to 230 pounds for his freshman campaign, and he saw a considerable role as a result. He was the Utes’ primary defensive forward option on the bench, providing them depth down low.

In addition to his defense efforts, Sanders averaged 5.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game on an average of 20.1 minutes. 

However, Utah struggled mightily in the 2025 season, finishing the campaign with a brutal 10-22 (2-16 Big 12) record. A resume like that isn’t exactly conducive to player retention, as the Utes are only returning four players from the 2025 roster. Sanders joined many of his teammates and entered the transfer portal on April 9.

League Ready's Sam Kayser reported that Sanders has scheduled five visits from April 15 to April 21. First, he visited UC Santa Barbara, one of the programs that offered him out of high school, on April 15. On April 17, he traveled to Starkville, Mississippi, to visit the Mississippi State Bulldogs and on April 18, he will visit the St. John’s Red Storm. The following day, he’s traveling to Cincinnati to visit the Bearcats, and on either April 20 or 21, he will visit Colorado.

Colorado’s Chances of Landing Kendyl Sanders

The Buffaloes face stout competition in his recruitment and will have quite the workload ahead of them as a result. All of the teams he has lined up for visits hold an advantage of some kind over the Buffaloes or are right on their level.

First, UC Santa Barbara has the obvious advantage of being the only school he plans on visiting that has been recruiting him since high school. Therefore, he already has an established connection with coach Joe Pasternack and his staff.

As for St. John’s, the Red Storm are fresh off an NCAA Tournament run, making them a desirable destination.

Mississippi State hails from the mighty Southeastern Conference, which is known for its high-spending boosters and its pull on recruits among the high school and transfer portal ranks alike.

As for Cincinnati, it is on roughly the same level as Colorado in terms of how appealing a destination it is. It would be a similarly lateral move across the Big 12.

Colorado will have to focus on the things unique to its program due to this competition. Boyle will need to sell the vision of the Buffaloes moving forward, and star guard Barrington Hargress will likely need to be a part of that conversation as well. Sanders would be a great addition to the Buffaloes due to his youth and frame, though, so expect Boyle and company to pull out all the stops to make sure he ends up in Boulder.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook for the latest news.