Exclusive: Inside Chandler Bing's Path to a Second Year Leap for Vanderbilt Basketball – Sports Illustrated

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There Chandler Bing is, sitting on the side of the ballroom in front of an SEC backdrop with a microphone behind him. Vanderbilt’s best players seldom don’t pass through this room before emerging as key pieces on winning teams. Now, Bing can say he’s no different. 
If Bing looked across the room, he’d find that Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner was pulling in a significant crowd and was among the most sought after players at the two-day event. Bing didn’t board Vanderbilt’s private jet and go there to represent it for no reason, though. 
Bing is a natural messenger. He’s friendly. He can take a joke. He’s the second-most tenured player in the program after Vanderbilt’s roster largely turned over after a 27-win season. But, those things wouldn’t have gotten him here on their own. 
Vanderbilt taking Bing to Birmingham was a vote of confidence from Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington. Byington already liked what Bing did as a defense-first, complementary piece in 2025-26. 
Bing thinks he’ll like what he has in store in 2026-27, too. 
“A big leap,” Bing told a Vandy on SI correspondent at SEC Media Days in Birmingham. “I feel like confidence is the biggest thing for me. I’m going into it with the coaches believing in me and I’m just very confident in my abilities and I’m just ready to impact winning.” 
Bing doesn’t have the statline or efficiency metrics to indicate that he’ll be one of the SEC’s biggest breakout candidates, but there’s been an undercurrent of optimism coming from Vanderbilt’s Huber Center all summer in regard to what Bing can do in his second year under Byington. 
Vanderbilt left 2025-26 entirely sold on Bing after he was its biggest surprise contributor and eventually forced his way onto the floor for significant stretches of its most important games. That version of Bing was a significantly more dynamic one than the one that began the season as a relative non threat offensively. Bing became a progressively more aggressive straight-line driver and a more reliable shooter as Vanderbilt’s run went and the indication coming out of the Huber Center is that he appears to be building on who he was down the stretch. 
Bing feels as if he’s come a long way since arriving a season ago, and Vanderbilt’s coaching staff appears to agree. 
“Everybody always thinks it's a scoring jump when you mention a jump, I think it’s a jump in all parts of his game,” Byington told Vandy on SI this summer. “He made impactful plays for us as a freshman and I think he’s even gonna continue that more.” 
Bing agrees with the idea that his leap doesn’t have to come in the form of a big scoring increase, but does appear to believe he’s improved as a shooter and is more than merely a defensive ace at this point. He’s worked to develop his offensive skillset consistently with Vanderbilt grad assistant Jack Miller as well as Vanderbilt Special Assistant to the Head Coach Tre Corrigan and appears to be intent on demonstrating his growth. 
Byington doesn’t need Bing to be one of the country’s most improved players–particularly on the offensive end–but he appears to trust that he’s significantly better than what he showed while going 1-for-4 from the field for two points in Vanderbilt’s exhibition win over Virginia in Charleston. 
Bing likely thinks of that as a missed opportunity to showcase the developing he’s done, but he understands that the bigger moments are coming and declares that he’s worked all offseason for them. When they do come for this Vanderbilt team, Bing will change the outlook of them one way or another. 
“My role offensively, that will grow and be bigger this year compared to what it was last year,” Bing said. “But, I feel like for me not forcing things, letting the game come to me and just taking the right shots, finding my teammates to make the right play and play the right way [is a difference].” 
Tanner has declared that he’s seen shades of his younger self in Bing since well before they sat across the room from each other on Tuesday. Tanner has long loved Bing’s story–which took him from a Texas State commitment to a flip to Vanderbilt once he finally got SEC attention—and believes they approach work in the same way. 
Now, he believes that will manifest into results for his teammate. 
“He’s improved so much,” Tanner said. “He’s in the gym every day. He’s locked in on getting better. He was already so good last year, but a bigger role, bigger opportunity for him this year, I know he’s going to take it on the chin, I know he’s going to be great.”
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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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