Vanderbilt Men's Basketball Coach Has Unique Take on Team's Official Roster
The Vanderbilt Commodores Men’s Basketball season is just a few days away, and the team will kick off the season without any forwards or centers.
Well, at least that’s what the official roster says. On Wednesday, the team updated the roster, and every player is listed as a point guard on the website. It’s no typo or glitch however, it is entirely intentional.
As the Commodores look to rebuild after five seasons without coach Jerry Stackhouse, new head coach Mark Byington is looking to build his own new identity in the program quickly. In the past, Byington has stated that he wants multiple players on the roster to think and act like a point guard on the floor, regardless if you are playing a ‘true forward’ position.
It’s gonna be multiple guys on the court that are gonna act like point guards and play like point guards," Coach Byington said in an interview with Vandysports. "I even got a vision of my lineup, sometimes you might see three point guards on the court at the same time."
Vanderbilt basketball has every player listed as a point guard, which is intentional.
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 30, 2024
Mark Byington has said in the past that he wants multiple guys to think and act like point guards on the floor. pic.twitter.com/Jces1BlHku
This has a lot to do with the pace that he intends to instill with the Commodores this upcoming season.
“I think the first thing you'll notice when you watch my team is the pace. We're up-tempo, my teams are usually top 40 country in tempo and right now we're probably playing faster than we ever have,” said the new Commodores coach at SEC Media Days in mid-October. “It's not something I'm saying we're going to play slower we will adjust but if you watch the tempo of our team, it's really fast.”
With ten new players added from the transfer portal, the team will quickly look to bounce back from its 9-23 record last season, which included going 4-14 in SEC play. The 48-year-old coach has a history of turning programs around quickly, however.
Before joining Vanderbilt, he was recently the head coach of the James Madison Dukes, where he took over a struggling program. After four straight losing seasons, Byington took charge and turned the program around for a combined 82-36 record over the four years with him at the helm. He capped off his final year with JMU with a 32-4 record in 2023 that included an opening-round win in the NCAA tournament against the Wisconsin Badgers.
The team will begin its first season in the Mark Byington era this Monday, November 4th, against Maryland Eastern Shore at Memorial Stadium in Nashville.
