Mark Byington addresses Vanderbilt's NCAA Tournament resume after SEC Tournament loss

Mark Byington has absolutely no doubt Vanderbilt is deserving of a NCAA Tournament bid. But after Wednesday’s disappointing one-and-done appearance in the 2025 SEC Tournament in Nashville, the first-year Commodores head coach knew the question was coming.

Following a 79-72 first-round ouster loss to Texas, which is still fighting for its own March Madness fuure after Thursday’s 94-89 double-ovetime upset over No. 14 Texas A&M, Byington once again made Vanderbilt’s holistic case to make the 68-team field on Selection Sunday. Byington was clear about his hopes.

“I’m sure that’s the question on anybody’s mind. (But) what the Selection Committee does is they look at your entire season. And when you do that, (you’re looking at) our Top 25 wins, out Quad 1 wins, being in this league, and showing how good of basketball we can play,” Byington said Wednesday. “We beat a lot of teams that are probably going to be 1 or 2 seeds this year. So we’re a little bit banged up right now, but I anticipate us being fully healthy in the next couple of days and then we will look like we looked maybe a week and a half ago.

“We’ve played great basketball the entire year, but I think we had a stretch there in February where I think we were one of the best 20 teams in the country. So we’ll get back to that with the next opportunity.”

Prior to this week’s conference tournaments, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi had Vanderbilt (20-12, 8-10 SEC) among his “Last Four Byes” as a No. 10 seed in the West (San Francisco) Regional bracket. The Commodores also have a Top 50 spot (No. 48) in the NCAA’s NET rankings, while famed college basketball data analyst Ken Pomeroy has them ranked at No. 47 according to his analystics, with both rankings well within the NCAA Tournament window.

Following the loss to Texas, Vanderbilt is now 5-9 in Quad 1 games — with big home wins over No. 8 Tennessee, No. 15 Kentucky, No. 21 Missouri as well as a road win over No. 14 Texas A&M — and 4-3 in Quad 2 games. Still, the ‘Dores road woes — including going 1-7 in Quad 1 road games — stand out and could certainly play into the NCAA Selection Committee’s thinking when debating their place in the field.

Also not helping matters is Vanderbilt’s inconsistency of late, losing six of its last nine games to end the season, including entering the postseason on a three-game losing streak. Nevertheless, as Byington made clear, the Commodores have proven they can play, and beat, some of the best teams in the country after securing home wins against three SEC teams — Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas A&M —currently projected as Top 3 seeds in Lunardi’s latest bracketology.