Mark Byington defines what would make a successful coaching debut at Vanderbilt

Mark Byington kicks off his tenure as the Vanderbilt head men’s basketball coach on Monday night. But he’s not too caught up in the specific outcome.

In his debut as the Commodores head coach, Byington is really going to be measuring his team by some non-score-centric measures. And if they pass the tests he laid out talking with reporters, Byington is confident his team will end up on the right side of the scoreboard.

“I think you wanna see how we’re going to build it. I think you’ll see the framework of our team. I think you’re going to see guys flying around, playing really hard. Hopefully playing unselfish, playing basketball the right way. And you do those things, the score takes care of itself,” Byington said.

And as his team approaches the opener, Byington remarked on a bit of roster chicanery he got up too — and explained that, to him, it’s not really a gimmick.

Byington turned heads when he released the team’s official roster, which listed every player as a point guard. On Thursday, Byington explained his unusual decision.

“To me, there’s only two positions: you’re either a player or not a player,” Byington said, per Vandy Hustler Sports. “For us, point guard skills, point guard abilities, it fits us, it fits our style.”

Vanderbilt wanted its men’s basketball program to receive a makeover and Byington is delivering. This offseason, the Commodores parted ways with coach Jerry Stackhouse, who led the program for five years.

In the 2023-24 season, Vanderbilt finished with a 9-23 overall record and a 4-14 mark in conference play. In five years under Stackhouse’s guidance, Vanderbilt failed to make an NCAA Tournament appearance.

The program was ready for a fresh face to take over, and Mark Byington was that fresh face. Before coming to Vanderbilt, Byington spent four seasons as James Madison‘s head coach. Similar to his situation at Vanderbilt, Byington didn’t inherit a winning program.

In the year before Byington became head coach, James Madison went 9-21. In comparison, Byington led the team to a 13-7 record in his debut season at the helm. He didn’t stop there, finishing his time at the program with an 82-36 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2023-24 season.

Now, Byington hopes to find similar success with the Commodores. Nonetheless, he isn’t concerned with proving the doubters wrong.

“It’s not something that we were going to get caught up in,” Byington said. “Whatever number somebody else thinks we are, that’s going to be a weakness, so we’re going to try to focus on who we are and the best we can be.”

On3’s Grant Grubbs contributed to this report.