Inside The Despair of Vanderbilt's Locker Room After SEC Championship Loss – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—The blue mood lighting was as big an indicator of the headspace of Vanderbilt basketball as it walked slowly through the back tunnel at Bridgestone Arena and turned left into its locker room. 
Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington led the charge and looked at the floor as two security guards manned the rear. The guards marked the barrier between Byington and his team—which was fittingly led by seniors Devin McGlockton and Tyler Nickel. 
McGlockton and Nickel set the tone by walking silently with their heads down. As a result, Vanderbilt freshman Chandler Bing did the same as he walked alone. Vanderbilt forward Jalen Washington went behind with his hands crumbling his jersey while AK Okereke and Jayden Leverett walked in silence. So did the rest of Vanderbilt’s roster, until the cameras turned off. 
“F***,” a Vanderbilt player said as he ran through the tunnel, “That s*** crazy.”
The tone had been largely dreary and silent, but the moment was the first sign of agony from this Vanderbilt team as they grieved an 86-75 loss in the SEC Championship game. 
The era at hand has dwindled the importance of this game, particularly because of its lack of real implication on the NCAA Tournament. This Vanderbilt team didn’t get the memo, though. 
“In a good way, it'll stick with us,” Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner told Vandy on SI. “I don't think we're gonna hang our heads about it, but I do think we're gonna remember the things we did wrong and try to fix them soon, whether it's in practice or film or whatever it is.”
Tanner had already pulled his jersey off, but was among the most introspective Vanderbilt players once the locker room opened. 
Vanderbilt guard Duke Miles and Nickel were the first two players to exit Vanderbilt’s roster as a result of their press conference obligations. As they exited, neither of them said a word or engaged in any sort of eye contact. 
This was clearly hurting this group; even if it didn’t do much for its seeding in the NCAA Tournament. 
Okereke was silent until he was approached and responded politely, but he was clearly a tick off. Washington was clearly shaken up by the loss because of Arkansas’ frontcourt taking over the game under his watch. 
The most shaken up, though, wasn’t even a contest. It was McGlockton, who had an uncharacteristically poor shooting day and recorded two flagrant fouls. 
McGlockton is too polite to say no to a postgame locker room interview, but his emotions weren’t necessarily hidden. The response to the request was McGlockton sharply saying “yeah.” Perhaps that told the story of his emotions more than anything he said in the moment. 
“It is sad to lose, but they played better,” McGlockton told Vandy on SI. “Quick release, quick turnaround. We can see who we play today. So really quick turn around. 
We have to flush if we want to advance in the future.”
Vanderbilt will worry about how this all ends on Sunday night as it dives into initial preparations for its Round of 64 game in the NCAA Tournament, but nobody in that locker room was thinking that way in the aftermath of its loss.
This one hurts this team. Best believe that. It hurts for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps most notably because Vanderbilt was right there. Perhaps it’s mostly because of how this group nearly had its best and it wasn’t good enough. The premise of losing a game of this magnitude in general provides a baseline level of hurt. 
Vanderbilt has a simple prognosis on this thing. Arkansas guard Darius Acuff was the best player on the floor, went for 30 points on 20 shots and took over the game in stretches. Tyler Nickel and Duke Miles were good, Tanner was okay. Nobody matched that production, though. Nobody looked like an NBA player playing in college like Acuff did. 
Time to move on. This group has an NCAA Tournament game to play this week, a Selection Show to watch on Sunday night as it gathers at the Huber Center for a closed watch party. Easier said than done, though. Particularly since this group was right there and led for 7:12 on Sunday. 
“It's hard to just shake it off like that,” Okereke said. “You do kind of have to have the mentality like ‘all right, next game,’ you can't really sit on this one for too long, but at the end of the day, we still just lost the SEC championship and it means a lot. So you kind of just have to have a balance, really.”
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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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