Why Mark Byington and Vanderbilt Basketball Feel They're Peaking At The Right Time – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—Tyler Nickel has never been one to mix words or align with the politically correct answer if he doesn’t believe in it, so everyone in the lobby of Vanderbilt’s Huber Center on Wednesday morning should’ve known what was coming as he addressed whether Vanderbilt had a home-court advantage in the SEC Tournament. 
Vanderbilt players has so often repeated the company line in regard to this program having some sort of competitive advantage in regard to the crowd, and Nickel did a season ago. He knows better now, though. 
He also knows that the circumstances surrounding the run that this Vanderbilt team is set to embark on could be different than they were a season ago. 
“I feel like no one really cared about it being a home thing for Vanderbilt for a long time because no one thought that we could actually win it,” Nickel said. “That's not just possible, but it's our expectation. So, there's definitely a little more pride now, knowing that we can really go out there and get it.” 
A year ago, Vanderbilt may have said it could’ve done what it’s setting out to do these days. It was still closer to the bottom of the league than it was the top of it. That got it into the NCAA Tournament, but it wasn’t good enough for it to have any real belief that it could win this event. 
Even if it thought it could, it fell to Texas the first time it got on the floor and had no real hope of winning this whole thing. 
Vanderbilt still isn’t the favorite these days, but it’s got the first two days of this thing off and only has to win three games to end this thing as a champion. Byington says he doesn’t anticipate any sort of home-court advantage at Bridgestone Arena for his team this week. 
He appears to be of the same belief Nickel is, though. At the very least, he likes its trajectory. 
“I thought defensively, if you looked at us against Tennessee, I thought that was the best version we've been with this group in a while,” Byington said. ”We have more weapons, we can share the ball, we can pass, we're more versatile, and this is a group that we anticipate is our best group. And I'm glad they're rolling at the right time.” 
Byington says he’s got three versions of his team since its inception. It saw what it could do at full strength in the season’s first month. It saw how this all looked without Duke Miles and Frankie Collins. Now, it’s got what it’s got and doesn’t appear to have anything else. This is its team the rest of the way. 
This is the group that put together a 24-win season in which its floor is a five seed in the NCAA Tournament. This is the group that’s challenging the program's season wins record. The question, though, is how close this group is to its peak. 
“You want to be playing your best this time of year,” Byington said. “So there's no more opponents on the schedule. That won't be a great opponent, and so we know it's the challenge. That's what we like.”
It appears as if this group may have just turned a corner in Knoxville when it took down Tennessee 86-82 at Thompson-Boling Arena for the program’s first win in Knoxville since the 2016-2017 season. For once, Vanderbilt basketball was the aggressor in the place in which it’s often not been in games. It was nearly as physical as Tennessee was–as evidenced by the 40-to-31 final rebounding score. In a lot of ways it was just flat out better than the Volunteers were. 
Since then, it’s gotten a few days to focus on itself and get its legs back before taking the floor on Friday at Bridgestone Arena. Now, this group will look to prove that it’s closer to that team that won in Knoxville than the team that had to grind it out. Perhaps a deep run in this thing could manifest itself if that’s the case. 
“The SEC, I think, is the best conference in the country,” Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner said. “Winning that would be really, really cool for us because it's something we've worked for the whole year. It's not our end goal, but it's definitely a stepping stone. It gets us where we want to be.”
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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