Exclusive: Inside Mark Byington and Vanderbilt Basketball's Evolved Frontcourt Mindset
In this story:
NASHVILLE—-Mark Byington didn’t often acknowledge it during his first two seasons, but he often watched the battles his frontlines would get into and would come to a conclusion.
“I told my staff,” Byington said. “I was like, ‘We better have some guys on our team that not only look like football players, but can play football.’”
When Byington says football players, he’s not talking slot receivers or punt returners. He means defensive ends, linebackers, tight ends and fullbacks. He wants guys that wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb if they walked over to Vanderbilt’s McGugin Center.
Byington felt like he had two players on his 2025-26 roster who could do that in Chandler Bing and Devin McGlockton—Vanderbilt forward AK Okereke also fit the physical profile that Byington is going for—but he wanted more pieces like that. He wanted more nasty on his roster.
In an era where good bigs are more expensive than anyone else in the transfer portal, Byington and company have often been undersized at the four and five. If that’s too harsh of a description, they’ve at least been less deep than they’d like to be. In an ideal world, Byington would have had waves of athletes in the frontcourt. He didn’t, though, and it made his job significantly more difficult.
As a result, he built what he calls the biggest team he’s had to date. His first transfer portal addition was Nebraska transfer Berke Buyuktuncel, he then added the first 7 footer he’s ever had at Vanderbilt in Colorado transfer Bangot Dak and Auburn transfer Sebastian Williams-Adams. Byington also believes in returning sophomore center Jayden Leverett and top 100 freshman big man Jackson Sheffield.
“I felt like in our roster that we had to make sure that we just didn't look for straight athleticism,” Byington said. “We had to have athleticism and weight. So, I think we did that and I don't know if we sacrificed skill. We're still working on that. We'll see what guys look like in the summer. And maybe we did a little bit of taking away some skill, but I know we do have size and I think we got functional size still.”
Vanderbilt’s 2026-27 frontcourt has only one player—Dak—that’s averaged double figures at the college level. Byington believes that Williams-Adams can take a step forward as a face up scorer, but his frontcourt’s primary purpose likely won’t be scoring.
It’s important to Byington that the pieces of his frontcourt that will step out and shoot it consistently will be more efficient, but it appears to be more important to him that they can hold their own defensively and rebound.
Vanderbilt appears to be more well equipped to do those things with its 2026-27 frontcourt than it’s been at any other point in the Byington tenure. It also appears to be more immune to foul trouble changing games than it’s been at any other point in the Byington era.
Byington may not have as much shooting at the four and the five as he’s had previously, but he made an intentional choice that he needed other elements more than that.
The immediate return on his philosophy makes for a significantly more intimidating team off the bus.
Follow us onTwitter/X,Facebook,YouTube,Instagram,ThreadsandBlue Skyfor the latest news.
Add us as a preferred source on Google_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
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.
Follow joey_dwy