Vanderbilt’s Cinderella season is over after losing 59-56 to St. Mary’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Commodores dominated the first half and held a 12-point lead at one point in the second, but St. Mary’s physicality — and timely shot-making — proved to be too much for the Commodores to handle.
Head coach Mark Byington discussed the game and the program’s future at a postgame press conference in Rocket Arena. The first-year coach started by talking about the emotions of the loss.
“The NCAA Tournament is such a great opportunity — something we cherish,” Byington said. “There’s going to be a team that has that unbelievable feeling of jubilation and excitement, and we’re on the side of it with hurt.”
Byington then spoke to the grit his team showed all season.
“It’s such a special year. They fought and they really believed in the process of us trying to be good,” Byington said. “This was a hard-fought game, St. Mary’s is terrific.”
Turning his attention to the game, Byington discussed what went wrong for his squad.
“[St. Mary’s] made plays. Whether it was guys who don’t shoot threes making threes, or rebounds or whatever else,” Byington said. “A lot of times it comes down to something like that.”
The turning point in the game was the flurry of 3-pointers by St. Mary’s in the second half — including two by first-year Jordan Ross, who hadn’t made one in nine games, and Mitchell Saxen, who hadn’t made one in 153 games.
“It’s a hard ending to a special team, a special group, that believed in us this year and helped do a lot of good things for Vanderbilt basketball and Vanderbilt University,” Byington said.
The size disadvantage has been a talking point all season, and Byington touched on its impact against St. Mary’s
“It’s 275 pounds sometimes that you have to box out. That weight and that push, that can wear on you,” Byington said. “At times [being undersized] was a benefit to us, this second half, it wasn’t a benefit to us.”
The second half was especially bad for the Commodores, and Byington touched on what precipitated the second-half collapse.
“We started the second half off well. We just lacked defensive energy in the second half,” Byington said. “It’s not something uncommon where good teams will make a run, make a push. I think there were some plays that were kind of out of character for them, and it took a lot of us.”
The offense also faltered in the second half according to Byington.
“We missed free throws in that run. We missed some shots around the rim. We missed some open threes,” Byington said. “This team really wants to win and really cares about winning. I think sometimes you see, they want it so bad that they press.”
Byington then elaborated on the physical advantage St. Mary’s had.
“A lot of international players, and they play a physical brand of basketball,” Byington said. “They have different ways of taking advantage; it’s angles, it’s wedging a guy under the rim for a rebound, it’s screening hard.”
Fatigue, another major talking point from throughout the season, was also credited by the coach.
“I think those body blows got us. At certain points, I think we wore down on it,” Byington said. “When those guys are that size, they’re not losing weight or getting any shorter during the game.”
This year’s roster was almost a complete upheaval of last season’s.
“When everybody came together, we said, ‘We’re against the odds, the odds of being successful,’” Byington said. “ We use that as a unifying thing — that we’re going to try to overcome the odds.”
Byington then turned his attention towards the future.
“To get Vanderbilt used to being in the NCAA Tournament, that’s definitely the future goal and this was the first step,” Byington said. “We didn’t get the win today, but it could be something down the road that really does help us.”
Ultimately, the next season starts tomorrow for Byington and Co.
“The next three or four weeks is really the hardest part of the year for any college coach,” Byington said. “I’m probably going to take the rest of the night off, and then tomorrow it really gets into building the roster for next year because, unfortunately, you can’t really take much more time than that.”
The spring NCAA transfer portal officially opens on March 24 and closes on April 22 — Byington will have his hands full the coming weeks.
