Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington, as well as players Chandler Bing, Duke Miles and Jalen Washington, spoke to the media the day before their Round of 32 matchup with the No. 4-seed Nebraska. The Commodores secured their first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2012 yesterday afternoon, taking down No. 12-seed McNeese in the Round of 64.

One notable observation in Nebraska’s opening game against Troy in the Round of 64 was the incredible atmosphere. The Cornhusker Faithful tend to travel well to all road games, but this environment was particularly special. Byington talked about how he and his team are preparing for this hostile climate.

“I’ve got an experienced team, and we’re going to lean on that,” Byington said. “You have to be very connected. When you are playing in a [game with a] hostile crowd or a great crowd or an enthusiastic crowd, you have to be really connected as a team.”

This type of environment isn’t anything new to the Commodores, though — they’ve faced numerous SEC opponents on the road this season. Some games have gone well; others, not so much.

“The great thing about being in our league is you have to do that multiple times in a year,” Byington said. “Playing at Arkansas, we did not handle that well. But you go to these other places — Auburn, we did well; Tennessee, we did well. I think we can lean on the experience of us playing in a crowd like this and the style of game we have to do to be successful.”

Miles touched on what he expects from his teammates in response to the crowd, as well. Throughout the season, they’ve preached the ability to weather the storm and silence the noise, and they’ll look to do the same against Nebraska.

“We’re going to treat it like a road game,” Miles said. “It’s a neutral site, but they have more fans. We aren’t going to pay attention to who is out in the crowd. We got to play a ballgame. We’re here to win and advance to the next round.”

Before they can advance, they have to beat the Cornhuskers. It’ll be a tough challenge against a team that ranks seventh in the nation in defensive efficiency and shoots over half of their field goal attempts from beyond the arc. On the defensive side, in particular, Nebraska runs a unique “no-middle” defense, taking away interior and baseline opportunities and forcing opponents to shoot a plethora of 3-pointers.

“Defensively, they’re elite,” Byington said. “The scheme is great. We’ve played against some really good defensive teams this year, but this is as good as anybody we’ve seen. Scoring against them is going to be tough. Last night, I tried to figure out some weaknesses — couldn’t find any.”

Bing commented on the physicality of Nebraska’s defense, too.

“They like to be physical on defense,” Bing said. “That’s something we kind of try to pride ourselves on: playing hard and hitting first. That’s definitely going to be a big focus for the game for us.”

It’s not just defense that Nebraska excels at, though. On the offensive end, the Cornhuskers are led by sharp-shooter Pryce Sandfort, who shoots over 40% from deep. He had an exceptional game against Troy in the first round, dropping 23 points while going 7-for-12 from beyond the arc. Byington spoke about how much of a priority it is to contain him.

“[Sandfort’s] impressive,” Byington said of the 6’7 forward. “Troy got off to a good start yesterday, and Sandfort broke the game open. Making five 3s and some of them felt like they were 4-point shots. I think they really not just changed the momentum, but gave other guys confidence. He’s as good as there is. He gets it off quick. They do schemes for him.”

Vanderbilt has the defensive infrastructure to guard a guy like Sandfort. Over the course of the season, it’s faced players like Darius Acuff, Labaron Philon and Otega Oweh — all of whom are the offensive engines for their teams. The Black and Gold have improved significantly on the defensive end compared to last season, jumping from the SEC’s least efficient defensive team to now being the conference’s fourth-best unit.

“I think people always want to talk about differences in teams from year one to year two,” Byington said. “The biggest difference is our defensive improvement. When you see the [guys who steal the ball], you see Miles getting his steals, you see Tanner getting his steals. They do a great job getting to the ball. There’s other guys, like AK Okereke. He is tremendous for us on defense [with] his communication, his versatility and what he can do. Jalen Washington has been really good for us on defense too — blocking shots, covering guys [and] doing things like that.”

For the defensive impact to shine through, Byington’s squad has to start out strong. The Commodores began the game slow yesterday, sleeping their way through the first 10 minutes in the first half. This allowed McNeese to pull ahead by as much as 11 points, but the Commodores ended up racing back into the game with strong play from its guards. 

“I have to say relying on the work that we put in throughout the season and playing together,” Bing said. “We know teams will go on runs, might have hot starts, but that’s when you know we really got to rely on each other, stay connected and just be ready to punch back and play aggressive.”

Miles was a large part of the Commodores effort to storm back against the Cowboys yesterday. 

“In the last few games we’ve gotten off to a slow start, and our opponent has been on a good start. We weather the storm and stay the course,” Miles said. “Obviously, teams make tough shots or they make a couple of open shots or we miss a couple of assignments. You can’t get mad because it’s a game of runs. We knew that their runs were going to start, and ours eventually were going to start, too. So win the game and weather the storm, we’ll be okay and we’ll be all right.”

Washington added in his sentiments about staying the course in any potential early deficits.

“Staying together, staying connected, weathering the storm and just knowing that it’s a long game,” Washington said. “We try to think about the game in four-minute increments, so we just try to stay together and win those little segments of the game.

Byington and Co. know the challenge that they’ll face on Saturday evening. In a raucous environment filled with Nebraska fans, the Commodores will look to advance to their first Sweet Sixteen since 2007.

“I know it’s going to be a hard-fought game, hard environment,” Byington said. “We’re anticipating that, but we are excited. We’re excited about the challenge and excited to go against them.”

The Commodores tip off against No. 4-seed Nebraska at 7:45 p.m. CDT on Saturday, March 21.