Men's March
Madness
Vanderbilt's Chandler Bing said his parents had never seen the show "Friends" when they named him Chandler. Johnnie Izquierdo / Getty Images
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee forward Jaylen Carey, a 6-foot-8, 267-pound son of a former NFL offensive lineman who looks and plays like it, was giving Vanderbilt trouble in the first half of an SEC tournament quarterfinal Friday.
So Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington decided to … pivot … to a 6-6, 215-pound freshman to counter Carey’s physicality. He turned to a freshman named Chandler Bing.
Advertisement
Just like that, we were on a break. From the usual basketball stuff. That is, at least, if you’re anything like Byington and have spent hours (or days) watching the popular NBC sitcom, “Friends.”
“Enormous fan,” Byington said of the show, which aired from 1994 to 2004 and remains in heavy rerun rotation. “I know every episode.”
Bing doesn’t, but he’s well aware of his connection to the show. He’s been hearing about it since he was a child growing up in Atlanta. He heard about it some more in a jubilant Bridgestone Arena locker room Friday, after his defense off the bench was key in Vanderbilt’s 75-68 comeback win to set up a semifinals shot at top-seeded Florida.
“It’s fine,” he said to this apologetic, “Friends”-fluent questioner. “I’m used to it.”
One of the six main characters on “Friends” is named Chandler Bing and played by the late Matthew Perry. It’s one of those funny TV names that you wouldn’t necessarily expect a real human to share, just like Cosmo Kramer or Les Nessman.
But that’s what Bing’s parents, Calvin and Tara, chose on June 6, 2007, the name Chandler serving as a tribute to a preacher close to the family. Bing is a distant cousin of Dave Bing, the former mayor of Detroit and a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer.
“Friends” enthusiasts did not take long to notice.
“Especially when I was younger, I didn’t know what everyone was talking about,” Bing said. “I had never seen the show, and obviously, my parents had never seen the show. At one point, I remember going to them and being like, ‘Come on. Did y’all watch the show and you’re just not telling me?’”That was before Bing started doing things on the basketball court to make himself a public figure. He originally committed to Texas State, but Byington got in late and thought he had a worthwhile project on his hands.
Advertisement
When news of Bing signing with Vanderbilt hit the internet, Byington’s phone blew up. It was, in part, because Byington’s UNC Wilmington teammates and friends called him “Bing” back when he was in college — a “Bada Bing” reference, not a Chandler Bing reference. There was also the fact that many of the 49-year-old Byington’s friends love “Friends.”
“Everybody threw their jokes in there — ‘Pivot!’” Byington said, a reference to the episode in which Chandler and Rachel try to help Ross move a couch up a narrow staircase in their New York apartment building, and Ross keeps yelling “Pivot!” to no avail.
Byington got, “We were on a break,” too, a reference to the episode in which Ross and Rachel break up.
“Anything ‘Friends’ you can think of was on my phone,” Byington said, but he mostly kept those jokes to his generation and went about seeing what he had on the court in young Bing.
Like Bing himself, most of his teammates had no idea why his name was so fascinating to people — most of them.
“I love ‘Friends,’ it’s my favorite show,” said third-year walk-on guard Coleson Messer of Dallas. “My mom made me watch it when I was little, and it just stuck. So when he committed, I was like ‘What the heck?’”
Vanderbilt sophomore guard Tyler Tanner said he was familiar with “Friends” because when he had nightmares as a young child and went into his parents’ room, they would always have the show on.
“But I’ve never actually watched it for fun,” he said.
The Commodores quickly became aware of their new teammates’ connection to the pop culture phenomenon. They also saw his potential to help the 2025-26 team.
“We took him because he’s a really good student, an exceptional student,” Byington said. “His family cares a lot about academics, and we thought in a year or two, maybe he could be good. And then (last) summer, the staff is talking in a meeting and everyone is like, ‘Chandler Bing is gonna play for us this year.’”
Athleticism and basketball aptitude were there. Some surprising skills were, too. Vanderbilt strength coach Brady Welsh, who previously worked at Kentucky, Purdue, Illinois and Temple, told Byington that Bing was the strongest incoming freshman he had ever seen.
Advertisement
“He came in this summer lifting as much as our biggest guys,” Tanner said, “and that’s when we knew, ‘All right, he’s gonna be a problem.’”
It didn’t happen right away. Bing was in and out of the lineup — he didn’t play at all in Vanderbilt’s 98-94 loss to Florida in the teams’ only meeting, on Jan. 17. Injuries forced him into more action, though, and he started to make himself indispensable as an active, versatile defender.
He had 8 points and 32 minutes of mostly stifling defense in Vanderbilt’s 84-76 win at Auburn on Feb. 10. Two of those points came on a soaring dunk in transition, at which point SEC Network announcer Tom Hart proclaimed: “Miss Chanandler Bong throws it down!”
Press break 🔨 pic.twitter.com/Rluouha9co
— Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball (@VandyMBB) February 11, 2026
(That’s a reference to the episode in which it was revealed that the TV Guide that gets delivered to Chandler’s apartment is actually addressed to “Miss Chanandler Bong.”)
“It’s funny for people who know the show, it’s one of the most popular shows for my generation,” said Hart, 49, who also got a “Pivot!” during the same broadcast. “So you hope more people are aware of it than not.”
Bing’s name will earn him attention throughout his career. His game is starting to earn some, too.
“I want to go stop somebody, shut them down, make their night long,” he said.
“Handle it,” Byington told Bing in the first half when the Commodores needed someone to be physical with Carey, who began his career at Vanderbilt.
In the second half, Bing spent a stretch harassing Tennessee point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, a period that helped flip the game in Vanderbilt’s favor. But he spent most of his 23 minutes attached to Vols star and projected first-round pick Nate Ament, doing the bulk of the work to force Ament to take contested mid-range shots and finish 1-for-13 from the floor.
That’s a wide-bodied post player, a shifty guard and a slashing 6-10 wing, all in one day.
“He can guard a point guard, he can guard a four man,” Byington said. “And anything in between.”
Could he be any more versatile?
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today's puzzle
Joe Rexrode is a senior writer for The Athletic covering college football. He previously worked at The Tennessean, Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal, and covered the Pyeongchang, Rio and London Olympics for USA Today. Follow Joe on Twitter @joerexrode
