Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball head coach Mark Byington took the stage in Birmingham, Alabama, on Oct. 14 for the 2025 SEC Media Days. He was joined by senior Tyler Nickel, senior Devin McGlockton and sophomore Tyler Tanner — three returning players set to make a big impact this upcoming season.
Vanderbilt had a stellar 2024-25 season in Byington’s first year as head coach. The Commodores made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, boasting a 20-13 (8-10 SEC) record on the season. They fell to St. Mary’s in the first round of the Tournament but getting to that point marked a big step for the brand-new coach. Byington was quick to acknowledge the success he found last season in his opening remarks.
“With what we did last year, there were a lot of things I thought were positives,” Byington said. “The biggest thing that I’m most proud of is reestablishing hope in our fanbase and our team. There’s great history in Vanderbilt basketball. Bringing people back that might not have been there. I wasn’t a complete believer in Memorial Magic a year ago. After going through it the past year, it’s real. Our home-court advantage was special.”
Coaching in the SEC brings its fair share of challenges, too. Byington said he realized that coaching in one of the toughest conferences in the country makes it difficult to win on a weekly basis.
“I think last year all the coaches anticipated the SEC [to be] really good. I don’t think any coach could predict it [was] going to be historically the best league ever,” Byington said. “To name the challenges? Hundreds of [them]. The biggest ones were taking over a new program. The SEC was phenomenal. I really don’t think it’s going to take a step back. I’m looking at the teams, the rosters, the coaches, everything else. I don’t know that it’s going to be the best all time, but it’s not going to take a step back.”
One thing Byington said he has relied on to elevate his team is the transfer portal. Only three scholarship players — Tanner, McGlockton and Nickel — remain after numerous players opted to hit the transfer portal after last season. Mike James, Frankie Collins, Duke Miles, Tyler Harris, AK Okereke, Jalen Washington and Mason Nicholson are Byington’s newest transfer class, and he expects many of them to make an impact from the first whistle.
Byington’s squad in his first year was largely hindered by its lack of size all around. Not a single player on the 2024-25 roster exceeded 6’9”, limiting Vanderbilt’s ability to get easy points in the paint and earn offensive and defensive rebounds.
“You saw some things in the league that were weaknesses of ours [last season],” Byington said. “We had to get bigger. I thought sometimes in the second half we wore down because we just weren’t as big as some teams.”
Byington said he believes he has added the needed size to his team to make those challenges go away. The Commodores now have three guys over 6’9” — Washington, Nicholson and Jayden Leverett — to anchor the frontcourt.
“We changed our roster now. You look at our size, our length. We’ll play bigger, not just at the center position. We’ll also play bigger at the guard spots and the other four positions,” Byington said. “I just thought we got to make sure we’re not trying to be like everybody else, but [that’s] something we couldn’t overcome last year. You’ll see a big size improvement and everything else with our team.”
McGlockton echoed these same sentiments, believing he can move down to the four spot more frequently. He consistently played as Vanderbilt’s five in the 2024-25 season.
“I just feel like we’re way deeper than we were last year, and we have a lot more length,” McGlockton said. “I’ll be able to play the four a bit more. I’m still going to be at the five still a little bit, but that’s just going to completely change our team rebounding wise and defensively like protecting the rim.”
Byington’s ability to attract top transfers to Vanderbilt was likely due to NIL money. However, the most recent NCAA settlement allows schools to pay players directly through revenue sharing, as well as allowing players to sign third-party NIL deals. Byington said these impacts of the settlement are “complicated.”
“I’m not trying to dodge the question. The reason I think it’s complicated [is that] it’s ever-changing. I thought we might get to a certain spot where revenue sharing is in place, and we know what we’re going to deal with, and we don’t. Things are still changing,” Byington said. “When you’re going through such big changes in college athletics, there’s going to be some things you got to work through, some awkward times, rough times. We are going through that, and we don’t have a system yet.”
While Vanderbilt’s roster is largely constructed of transfers, Byington’s returning players are set to play a significant role this year. The second-year head coach made sure to give Tanner, McGlockton and Nickel their fair share of praise.
“The most important part of my team right now, [and] you’ll see them around here today, is the three returning players in Tyler Tanner, Tyler Nickel and Devin McGlockton,” Byington said. “Having them back gives us a big step forward compared to where we were a year ago.”
Tanner, a Nashville native, had a particularly stellar first year on West End, playing in all 33 games and averaging 5.7 points per game. While his scoring stats might not jump off the page, his ball-handling and defensive skills massively benefited the Commodores. He captured the Vanderbilt freshman steals record with 55 takeaways and was the only player in the country to record over 50 assists, 50 steals and less than 15 turnovers. Byington stressed the importance of Tanner to his team.
“If you look at our games last year under four minutes, 10 points or less, [Tanner] led us in minutes. That was a team with fifth-year guards, [and] he was the only freshman that played,” Byington said. “It shows I could trust him last year. He has gotten better. He’s stronger, he’s put on weight. His intelligence is better. He’s super fast. [An] unbelievable person who wants to learn. I naturally think it’s going to be a Year 2 jump for him. Also, there’s more responsibilities on him now.”
Tanner seems to believe he’s improved this summer, too.
“I think I’m more confident everywhere,” Tanner told Vandy on SI. “From my defense to my playmaking to my shooting, I’ve worked really hard this summer, and I can’t wait to showcase that.”
Vanderbilt has lofty expectations heading into the 2025-26 season. The Commodores were given seven votes in the preseason AP Poll and were placed at No. 19 in KenPom Rankings. With another year under Byington’s belt in the SEC, it will be interesting to see if he can replicate that same magic as last year.
Still, Vanderbilt will face a gauntlet of an SEC schedule in the new year, and Byington said he knows the road is never easy.
“I’m sure the other 15 coaches are saying the same thing. [The SEC] might be the second-highest level of basketball in the world, behind the NBA,” Byington said.
The Commodores will host an exhibition game against Virginia on Oct. 16 at 6:30 p.m. CDT in Memorial Gymnasium. The first official game of the season will be on Nov. 3 against Lipscomb.
