Everything Mark Byington Said After Vanderbilt Basketball Upset Ole Miss

Vanderbilt basketball (18-9, 6-8) got a much needed win over the No. 24 Ole Miss Rebels (19-8, 8-6) as the Commodores continue to maximize their opportunities inside Memorial Gymnasium. Vanderbilt defeated the Rebels 77-72 for their third victory over a top 25 team.

Head coach Mark Byington met with the media to discuss what went right for his team as they improved their NCAA Tournament resume with an important win.

Opening Statement

"Yeah, I mean every win is hard, difficult and important and we just went through a really tough stretch on the road where - hard environments and our last home game here was against the number one team in the country and we've been playing good basketball. The results haven't quite been there and I told the guys the last couple of days that I was actually feeling more positive after watching the film. We've had some bad segments in a couple games but I know what we can do and the guys were focused, ready to play, we had a great start. And the second half, it wasn't like just hanging on. We actually made plays down the stretch and made free throws and made stops so pride and resiliancy. It was a needed win, all of them are this time of year. So a special, needed win against a really good team, quad one game and so we're going to enjoy it a little bit and then the challenges keep coming after this one."

Do you talk to your team about it's standing in the NCAA Tournament?

"I try to stay away from it, but you can't be naive and understand that the message isn't getting through to the players. I mean, I'll walk down the street, I'm going to Starbucks and somebody will yell at me, 'You're the last four in'. I obviously, know what they're talking about and I usually just check it once a week, but with the guys we just talk about there's not bad losses in this league, you just can't have a lot of them. Every team's good and the wins are really special and great and you've got to try to find as many of them and try to stop the bleeding, you can't have consecutive losses for very long. The mentality that I want for our guys and we've talked about this just put everything into the next game and don't worry about anything else and that way we're not worried about the past behind us or having unneeded anxiety about the future because we've got to win as many of them as we can and then let the selection committee do its thing."

Chris Manon's game today?

"Yeah, I'm so happy for him because he just has a great energy about him all the time and when he's on the court, in practice he's got a smile, he's great to be around. A guy comes here for one year and sometimes you're worried about somebody being selfish and he's the complete opposite. He's so happy for everybody's success that he deserved that success tonight by the way that he treats other people and the way that he is as a person."

How do you think the team is handling the pressure of the NCAA Tournament bubble?

"Well, the thing about it is - it is a great thing the fact that people are talking of us in the NCAA Tournament. We were picked 16 in the league and so you're not anticipating us being any kind of bubble or the bottom bubble or whatever else. And the fact that that's being mentioned and we've got a chance, we're playing meaningful basketball at the end of February. We'll play meningful basketball into March, that's what you want this time of year. Some teams in this league are playing for one-seeds, some teams are fighting to get in and everything else and it's going to keep making us better, every single game. Makes me a better coach, makes our guys a better player and we're learning along the way and we got to win some and we got one today."

What did Ole Miss do to pressure and draw the game close?

"Yeah, there was a couple different things. So one, we got sloppy with the ball. Some turnovers and at the end of the first half we had some double-teams and we were trying to drive gaps that weren't there and we weren't passing the ball on time. So that hurt us in segments, at the end of the game we had a couple unfortunate turnovers too. But a lot of times in those situations you want to take the blame and everything else, but I actually give a lot of credit to Ole Miss. Some of the shots they made in the second half were really good shots, contested and good defense. Give credit where credit is due. When we lost to Kentucky and played poorly in the second half that was our mistakes, Kentucky was making threes and we were not playing good defense. This was a lot of good defense and Ole Miss was making tough shots."

How big for confidence was it to overcome the second half troubles for a win?

"I think sometimes too it's road and home and the crowd was great today. They've been supportive all year, the student section was tremendous. They lift us up in a down time and we need that. Theres' a lot of adversity on the road. Kentucky got us, we played well enough to win at Tennessee. I don't care if you want to say first-half, second-half, we had a lot of bad breaks go against us that were unfortunate that we played good enough basketball to win that game. But there's some other times where you can do your best and the other team makes a run. Everybody's going to have urgency in the second half. My staff and I we - about a week and a half ago we had a long meeting and we were writing down all these ideas for second half and adjustments and different things we might need and listed all our problems, ended up being a long meeting. I think we're addressing some of them, got some more to fix. I do think we're still learning along the way. We're situational. Got to do better situational and also stopping runs. Our second half defense probably been the biggest hole."

How is Jason Edwards after being knocked down?

"Yeah, I don't know. He wanted to go back in and the first play he went back in he limped and we turned the ball over. He told me he could run and go catch the ball and he didn't. Having him in the game where he can make tough shots, we needed him, but the other guys stepped up when he wasn't there. He's got a couple days for treatment. I hope he's ok. I don't know for sure."

What kind of morale did you see during the three game losing streak?

"We had great practices the last two days. As a coach we're going to be upbeat. Players are going to do the same thing. If you get down, you're going to stay down. And this league is unforgiving. You lose a game, go win the next one. Pick out the positives that you want to talk about and try to fix some things and keep on moving. We're not going to get down. I don't care what the streak is a win streak, a losing streak, we're going to stay in the right direction."