Mark Byington on Vanderbilt: ‘We’ve got something to prove’

Vanderbilt is hitting its stride at the perfect time as March Madness rears its head. After sitting on the bubble two weeks ago, they appear to have made their case with three consecutive wins over ranked opponents.

The Commodores defeated No. 24 Ole Miss, No. 12 Texas A&M and No. 14 Missouri in the past week. After the most recent victory over the Tigers, a 97-93 win in overtime at home, head coach Mark Byington explained why his squad is playing with such an edge heading into the postseason.

“We’ve got something to prove, and that’s a great motivator,” Byington said. “We’ve talked about the NCAA Tournament. We talked about this league. Some people want to run from the challenge of this league. They want to run from the competition.

“Like I said, six straight-ranked teams. Nobody else is going through that besides the SEC. What that does is it kind of figures out how strong you are, how good you are, and you better learn along the way. And these guys are doing it.”

Byington wouldn’t say whether or not he believed Vanderbilt was in the tournament after Wednesday’s road upset over Texas A&M. He reiterated that the Commodores have proved themselves time and time again against ranked opponents in the SEC, but Byington wants Vanderbilt to take the decision away from the committee’s hands entirely.

Still, the Commodores are 8-8 in conference action, 5-6 against AP Top 25 opponents, and have a 5-8 record against Quad 1 competition. Still, this late-season stretch appears to have pushed Vanderbilt through the bubble heading into the final week of the regular season.

“We make mistakes, we learn from them. And you know, they got more to prove,” Byington said of his team. “And now we’ve got 20 wins. But this is not something where we run across the finish line. It’s still in front of us.”

Looking ahead, Vanderbilt will round out its regular season against Arkansas at home on Tuesday night, and then on the road at Georgia on March 8. Those games will be important for the Commodores, as they will have SEC Tournament implications.

At 8-8 overall in SEC play, the Commodores can still earn itself a single bye as a top-eight seed in Nashville. Currently, they’re 10th overall but tied for eighth place with No. 17 Kentucky and No. 24 Mississippi State. These final two matchups will be the difference between a first-round game and a first-round bye.