I’m sure this was noted in the presser thread but wanted to mention who I saw there today

Dort was the first person I saw lol
Lang
West
Lewis (in the portal)
Smith (in the portal)
JRT (in the portal)

Was nervous that Ven wasn’t there but he walked in about 5 min in.

Assumed Tyrin wasn’t there but saw him after the presser. I said “1 more year” and he smiled.

I’m assuming JQ and Presley were in class.

It sounds like Byington will retain most of these guys. While it’s not ideal to keep guys like lang, I admire the message it sends. Byington clearly cares a ton about his players.

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Just my 2 cents as a former season ticket holder that said I won’t be back until we have good success. I think it would be good to do everything to bring former season ticket holders back. So here’s my thought give each former season ticket holder the equivalent of the last number they held for a couple of non conference games. Give a voucher for concessions. Have a welcome back party in the auxiliary gym with some type of promotion. T-shirts shakers or things similar. Just my thoughts I’m ready to take our gym back.

I saw a poster say he wouldn’t pay 30k for any player on our roster which got me thinking…

Our new coach will have to have staff evaluating the value of each player throughout the year and making them offers prior to hitting the portal to help with roster retention, right?

Here’s my guess as to what that looks like for our current roster:

Tyrin - 3-500k
VAL - 500k, maybe more
Colin Smith - 100k
Paul Lewis - a bag of Chex cereal with powdered sugar (that stuff is good)
JQ - a VU diploma
Malik - Upgraded meal plan in the cafeteria
West - Vintage set of Lawn Darts
JRT - 10 free sessions with a sports psychologist
Lang - A one way bus ticket back to Virginia

Bartlett (Tenn.) OLB Austin Howard visited Vanderbilt for practice on Thursday, he details his visit and why the Commodores are in-line to get a summer official

Everything I post is gossip. I’m not a reporter.

Through a connection made a few years ago, I’ve been able to look at the program from a the coaching/Admin POV, and that led to a connection with couple major donors. For the search, I’ve mostly communicated with boosters. Admin connection was a ghost. Coaches in building know as much as we do. A shared info in DMs during the fun of these past few days. But wanted to wait to put it out there once the coach was announced. I’ll say that Vandy did not leak at all they even interviewed Byington and boosters who knew didn’t say his name until this morning. I do think Vandy knew going into Friday who they were hiring once May said no. Sprinkle going out west was likely but Vandy hoped more money for both might land them.

The first thing, it’s my opinion, this is the most big money influenced search since I’ve been a fan. Starts with big money firing Stackhouse. I still don’t believe the 20+ million buyout for solely Stackhouse is accurate. But that’s not my money, and I don’t really care to find out either way. Just glad the right choice was made to fire the coach. Any candidate that was interviewed got the nod from big money before hand. I’ve heard that Chancellor and a mega donor were in all the face to face interviews. May was their top choice. Followed by sprinkle. Byington was option 3. Being turned down by May and sprinkle doesnt seem like an embarrassing situation imo. May picked a blue blood. Sprinkle wanted to stay out west.

Chris Mack- the smear campaign by Louisville athletic department clearly was well executed. I would be surprised if he lands a power 4 job this cycle. Big money wanted Mack, and I do think if Vandy got another no or two, they would’ve pulled the emergency cord and taken the “chance”.

Bucky got an interview. He wasn’t in the top 5. And personally I’m happy about that. Huge will Healy vibes. Just my opinion. I would’ve been fine with hire, but the boom or bust potential was high.

Clemson coach was a plant. Does not appear to have been interviewed or even in consideration.

Vandy identified several coaches to interview who were in the tourney, and it appears the top 3 were all done before the tourney started. Imo, that shows they had a plan.

NiL- 4 million on hand cash, 7 million pledged is the latest figure I’ve heard. I don’t know a ton about college basketball nil to compare it, but would think it’s a very solid budget considering the roster size. I’ve heard Vandy wants walk-ons to have the nil needed to off set tuition for those who don’t qualify for the schools free tuition based on income. Don’t have a problem with that.

Finally- CSL’s seat is warm. There is frustration about the Jerry situation. I don’t think there is anything imminent but it’s warmer than it was before the buyout bill was put on the table.

I haven’t been this impressed with a Vanderbilt press conference maybe ever. That goes for all of the speakers, not just Byington, but also CSL and DD. DD mentioning that Byingtons teams had “record NET rankings” definitely caught my ear, and it’s clear that while CSL may have liked Jerry, she definitely knows the things he did wrong with the program, as many of his shortfalls were mentioned as being strengths of Mark Byington.

Coach Byington did an incredible job. Could tell he was a bit nervous, but very confident in his message. He gets it. I’ve never seen a coach be as vocal about getting alumni involved as he was in this presser, even mentioning he had an hour long call with Will Perdue. I also loved how he mentioned he wasn’t even looking for a house yet and would sleep in the locker room when his temporary housing went up. He also talked about how he would spend all of his time on the roster, and then later get to the fan engagement. This is clearly a guy who is going to put everything in his job, and a guy who is humble enough to know he can’t do it alone. He also understands the importance of others, whether it be players, fans, alumni, whoever. I wouldn’t call him CJF, but this guy is not a yes man and will do everything in his power to get what he needs to make this program succeed.

Spoke with CMB on Tues and CMB confirmed he wanted him. Doesnt mention other commits

Terrence Edwards doesn’t go pro, but picks another school (other than Vanderbilt) ?

This is the official game thread.

After taking a deeper dive into this one I'm pretty impressed with this hire. I tend to look at coach's impact based on performance vs coaching tenures immediately before and after.



Byington's rep as an offensive mind is well deserved. The decrease in offensive performance with his successor was staggering, dropping 191 spots! in PPG ranking. You may think this is due to overall pace, and thats partially true; but remarkably despite increased FGA, there was also a GREATER rise in FG % . AKA this guy runs some effective s***. That being said, the delta in defensive efficiency was equally brutal, with only two bright spots in accordance with his rep: perimiter defense ( 3p%) and steals per game. This makes me think this is likely a team that will live or die by having a very effective rim protector inside.



In his James Madison era ( a longer sample here at 4 and 4) we see a learning creature. An almost identically remarkable increase in offensive performance across the board - again 191 spots! in ppg and similar jumps in 2p and 3p %. But the defense actually improved in PPG. Perimeter D still vastly improved under Byington but as was the case at georgia southern, and a huge increase in steals as a consequence. A worrisome decrease in ranking of opponents assists per game- perhaps a testament to his risky style of D that leaves weaknesses inside. Would like to see how that translates to the big man talent we have in this league.


Overall though the dude is as advertised, a great offensive mind who pushes the ball up the floor and schemes good open shots at a far greater clip than his contemporaries. 3 out of the last 6 years he's in the top 15 in PPG in the NCAA. The concerns are on D but it seems like in the JMU era he unlocked something to make his overall defensive strategy more effective despite its inherent weaknesses.

Looking at all this has left me far more positive about the higher and excited about the aggressive brand of basketball we'll be seeing next year.

So - it looks like almost all of Vandy’s top choices will take a new job this year. May, Sprinkle, Smith, Schertz, Kelsey. And, they all appear to be going to programs that had the same performance issues as Vanderbilt. It will be very interesting to see how they all do and how Byington fares relative to all the other candidates. It will be pretty easy to judge if Vanderbilt made the right choice.

Now that we have a men’s basketball coach, perhaps we can turn to fixing our play-by-play issue. I have given up the ghost that Joe Fisher will ever return to us. I don’t recall this ever having been written here, but I’d get behind Willie Daunic . He checks every box and then some: two sport athlete at Vanderbilt, unabashed Vandy guy, experienced at play-by-play, smart, by all accounts a great dude. Thoughts?

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just committed to Maryland.

I know CMB hasn't even had a press conference yet, but I'm ready to get this party started.

Hearing Mark Byington's introductory press conference is scheduled for Thursday.

I listened to an pre-tournament interview. He said he had been talking with Dusty May since May was in a similar position entering the NCAA tournament last year and obviously handled it successfully.
In the podcast with Chris Dortch, he said more than once that he wasn't sure how Byington got connected to Vandy but that he hoped someone in the industry who knew the potential of Vanderbilt basketball had recommended the job to Byington. I have a feeling that May recommended this job to Byington.