Skip to main content
Join
Team Avatar
Vanderbilt

Mark Byington happy to showcase improvement of Vanderbilt program with Top 10 win

FaceProfileby:Thomas Goldkamp•about 11 hours
Mark Byington Vanderbilt
© Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It’s not exactly a secret that the SEC has become a powerhouse basketball conference, but where Vanderbilt stood in the mix was a little unclear until Saturday.

Then the Commodores upset the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers, engineering a tight 76-75 win.

A raucous home crowd at Memorial Gym came to life, helping first-year coach Mark Byington start to realize his dream with the program.

“That was my feeling when I walked off the court, I was happy for the players, I was happy for the fans. And former players, alumni,” Byington said. “When you’re trying to build something you want people to buy in, you want them to support. And sometimes they’re apprehensive until they see results.”

Vanderbilt, of course, was having a pretty solid season before Saturday anyway. The program was 14-3, and the losses were respectable.

The non-conference schedule was a little light, but still included a win over Seton Hall, as well as a road win over Virginia Tech and a home win over TCU.

Saturday against No. 6 Tennessee, the crowd helped make the difference, providing a huge win for the resume.

“They showed up and they had a great environment, great crowd,” Byington said. “They helped us win.”

That was a real difference from a couple weeks prior, when Vanderbilt lost to then-No. 14 Mississippi State at home. Byington took some lessons from that one.

Chiefly, that he didn’t want to disappoint a home crowd while he’s trying to build support for the team.

“I can tell you guys, when we lost against Mississippi State I was really upset, distraught, because we had a great crowd against Mississippi State and I was sitting there thinking, I was like ‘All right, we’ve got to get them to come back and we’ve got to get them to believe in us,'” Byington said. “Today seeing this, I know they can walk around with pride on the ‘V’ on their shirts and things like that. That makes me feel good that they can do that right now.”

Vanderbilt will get a chance to build on that win with another game against a top-10 SEC opponent. No. 4 Alabama is on tap Tuesday night at 7, with a broadcast slated for the SEC Network.