CLEVELAND – In a quiet backstage hallways at Rocket Arena, Vanderbilt basketball coach Mark Byington was headed to the court Thursday when a passing SEC colleague greeted him.
“Congrats,” Alabama’s Nate Oats told him. “You did a hell of a job this year.”
“You all, too,” Byington replied.
Oats: “We were expected to. You were not.”
As true a statement as any on NCAA Tournament eve in Cuyahoga County.
Vanderbilt was not supposed to be here. Not even close, really.
Byington’s transfer-laden first Commodores team, famously, was picked to finish dead last in the SEC. Which said a little bit about the SEC’s overall strength and a lot about Vanderbilt’s lessened reputation in the wake of the Bryce Drew and Jerry Stackhouse eras.
Instead, here we are. And there they were, out there practicing Thursday on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ court in advance of Vanderbilt’s first NCAA tournament game since 2017 in men’s basketball.
“This is where we wanted to be, playing in March,” said Vanderbilt’s AJ Hoggard, who experienced this event before at Michigan State. Most of his new Vandy teammates had not. “It’s like when you’re a kid and you wake up on Christmas and there’s presents under the tree.”
A weight has been lifted. Vanderbilt (20-12) has been playing for months with the pressure of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
No more. All gravy from here. And as for what’s in those presents under the tree?
Perhaps the 10th-seeded Commodores are destined for a rematch with Oats’ second-seeded Crimson Tide in Sunday’s second round. But to get there, Vanderbilt must get through Saint Mary’s, and that won’t be easy. Vanderbilt – surprise – isn’t supposed to win. The seventh-seeded Gaels (28-5) of the West Coast Conference are favored by about four points over the Commodores.
There are good reasons for it. The Commodores show up having lost three games in a row, and while they have that wide-eyed, new March Madness feel about them, the seasoned Gaels are more accustomed to this spotlight. This is their fourth NCAA Tournament in a row.
They are known for defense, the Gaels. They are 24-0 when reaching 70 points in a game this season, and the last 12 teams to play Commodores scored more than that amount. Saint Mary’s is also known for interior height and rebounding. It’ll carry a plus-353 rebounding margin (an edge of more than 10 boards a game) against a relatively undersized Vanderbilt front line.
Those who’d doubt Byington’s bunch off hand, however, haven’t paid much attention this season. To how Vanderbilt plays, who is playing and why those 11 transfers wanted to be a part of this.
To guys like leading scorer Jason Edwards, who started out in Division II before ending up becoming a coveted transfer after averaging nearly 20 points a game at North Texas.
“I was gravitating toward schools who weren’t historically powerhouses,” Edwards said. “That means a lot to me to be a trailblazer and be one of the people that takes a chance on a program. … I wanted to start something and create a whole new standard here.”
“We really wanted to find players that had something else to prove,” Byington said, “to where it was not a case where they’re in the SEC and they’re happy or living in Nashville and they’re happy or making money and they’re happy. It had to be a process of them wanting to win and finding players that really cared about that.”
In succeeding so quickly on West End, Byington has also proved a little something about himself after 11 seasons leading programs at Georgia Southern and James Madison, which he finally took to the Big Dance last season. Now he’s back with a high-major. This time, it only took him one season.
During this season, there were rumbles already about Byington and the job opening at Indiana, which was filled by West Virginia’s Darian DeVries, another first-year coach who’d gotten the mid-major call-up and had a promising start at a larger program.
Whether Byington was truly on the Hoosiers’ radar or not, it was a sign that Vanderbilt athletics director Candice Lee would be wise to be proactive this offseason with her popular new men’s basketball coach.
Because this is a good thing Vanderbilt has going. After wandering the hoops wilderness for too long, the Commodores are back. That is thanks to two good, respected coaches who are each at an NCAA Tournament site this week: Shea Ralph on the women’s side and Byington, whose accomplishments in this first season – while competing against the best SEC of all time – have been extraordinary.
That’ll be true even if Vanderbilt’s bubble finally bursts Friday.
But it’d be a lot cooler for Commodores fans if it didn’t.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social
