Exclusive: Mark Byington Makes First Public Comments on Vanderbilt Basketball Freshman Gabe Nesmith

NASHVILLE—-While Gabe Nesmith was laying in bed with his broken foot propped up and a few months ahead until he was able to step on the floor again, Vanderbilt’s coaching staff was entirely unfazed.

Mark Byington and company had already seen Nesmith enough in person to feel like they had a good evaluation on him. Whatever they saw prior to the injury was all they needed to see to know that he was a top of the board target.

As a result, Vanderbilt pushed for Nesmith’s commitment and ultimately his decision to reclassify into the 2026 class.

“Gabe is a dynamic scorer,” Byington told Vandy on SI.  He has great positional size. He’s a combo guard, and he's 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6 and I really like the fact that he can create his own shot, and he can stay on ball. He has a good rhythm to him.”

Gabe Nesmith joins Vanderbilt basketball a year early. | Gabe Nesmith

Nesmith is Vanderbilt’s highest-rated commit since it landed Darius Garland and Simi Shittu in the 2018 class and is Byington’s breakthrough recruit. He visited Tennessee, Louisville, Kansas, UCLA, USC and had offers from numerous other power-five programs.

247 Sports has Nesmith as the No. 22 player in the 2027 class. Rivals has him as the No. 29 player. ESPN has him as the No. 19 player. Rivals and ESPN have him ranked as one of the top four-star recruits in the class while 247’s composite ranking has him as a five star.

Nesmith was averaging 18.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game this summer on the EYBL circuit prior to his Vanderbilt commitment. He got there by showcasing a unique off-the-dribble skillset.

Perhaps Nesmith won’t be Vanderbilt’s go-to guy right away, but Byington doesn’t plan to stick him in the corner.

“He’s not,” Byington said in regard to the assertion that Nesmith could be merely a catch and shoot guy in 2026-27. “He’s the guy who can score at the beginning of the shot clock and end of the shot clock.  There’s so few guys that can create their own shot and get a good attempts, and he can do that.”

Nesmith says he’s been honing in on becoming a more consistent shooter off the catch so that he can play off of Vanderbilt’s veteran guards, though. Part of his thinking is that if he’s effective off the catch, he won’t have to work as hard by generating his own offense every time he scores.

Surely Nesmith will get his own at times, but improving off the catch appears to be his quickest path to impacting winning—which he says above all else, is his goal—at Vanderbilt.

“I can see him making a big impact for us this year with his outside shooting, which is a little bit of a concern for our team,” Byington said. “I think we’re getting better at [outside shooting], but adding somebody with his scoring ability and just his talent level, I think there's a lot there for us.”

Vanderbilt adds Nesmith to a team built around star guard Tyler Tanner–who opted to return to Vanderbilt after testing out the NBA Draft process–Washington State transfer Ace Glass, Colorado transfer Bangot Dak, Auburn transfer Sebastian Williams-Adams, Missouri transfer TO Barrett and Nebraska transfer Berke Buyuktuncel. Nesmith is one of six freshmen on Vanderbilt’s roster.

Byington and company have national championship aspirations, as he articulated to Nesmith in the recruiting process, and he told Nesmith that he believes he can help them get there.

“He’ll come in and he's gonna be an impact player,” Byington said. “He’s not a wait and see guy.  I mean, he's gonna be impactful this year as a freshman.”

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