Ace Glass On Tyler Tanner Returning “This news turned us from a top 25 team to a Final Four contender."

Vanderbilt basketball guard Tyler Tanner returns to school, and his backcourt running mate Ace Glass is fired up about it.

Ace Glass and Vanderbilt basketball have high expectations after Tyler Tanner's Wednesday night announcement that he's returning to school for one more year. | Vanderbilt

NASHVILLE—News like Vanderbilt basketball received on Wednesday night doesn’t allow for anyone involved to mince words, and transfer guard Ace Glass certainly isn’t. 

Vanderbilt star Tyler Tanner has pulled his name from the NBA Draft process and will return to Nashville for his third season. Tanner tested the NBA Draft process after a breakout sophomore season, in which he averaged 19.5 points, 5.1 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game while shooting 48.5% from the field as well as 36.8% from 3-point range. He was Vanderbilt’s leading scorer and started to draw buzz in regard to the NBA Draft as Vanderbilt began conference play. Now, though, he’s back. 

Glass has his running partner in the Vanderbilt backcourt and believes that the group he’s a part of has a chance to do something that this program hasn’t in its history. Glass and company feel as if they can dream big, though. 

“This news turned us from a top 25 team to a Final Four contender, in my opinion,” Glass told Vandy on SI. “I’m super excited for this great upcoming season.” 

Glass has never been one to shy away from expectations since committing to Vanderbilt in the spring after a breakout freshman season at Washington State, and certainly isn’t on this memorable day for Vanderbilt hoops. Glass said in the days following his commitment that he’s not worried about Vanderbilt making the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2006-07 season and that he’s far more interested in playing into the final weekend of the season.

In Glass, Vanderbilt appears to have a starting two guard that will be among the most efficient off the bounce scorers in the SEC. The primary evidence that indicates Glass’ skillset will translate is that he scored in double figures against Seton Hall, Washington and Gonzaga—which he did it against twice. USC was the only power-five team that Washington State faced that Glass didn’t reach double figures against. His best game came in a 40-point outing in Washington State’s overtime loss to Arizona State.  

Glass has said previously that he believes Vanderbilt’s system is a good fit for his skillset because of the way Vanderbilt uses ballhandlers interchangeably. Now, it will use Glass, Tanner and Missouri transfer TO Barrett in that way. 

That appears to excite Glass. 

“I’m very excited for Tanner to be back,” Glass said. “I feel like we complement each other very well on the court and off. I feel like him coming back pushed us even more to be the great team we will be.”

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