How Mark Byington, Vanderbilt basketball has built a historically proficient offense
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NASHVILLE—Four 100-point games, 13 wins and a Battle 4 Atlantis championship into the 2025-26 season and Vanderbilt basketball is in the midst of a push in which it’s put its name among college basketball’s elite.
Mark Byington’s Vanderbilt team is the consensus No. 1 team in the SEC entering league play and has built its profile on the back of an offense that appears to be as good as any in the country at this stage. The Commodores are No. 8 in the nation in KenPom’s offensive efficiency ranking, are 10th in effective field goal percentage, sixth in two-point field goal percentage and are 31st in turnover percentage. Bart Torvik has Vanderbilt’s offense as the fourth-best in the country.
By any measurement, this group appears to be as complete an offensive attack as any in the country.
"This is, I think, the best offensive team we've played," New Haven coach Ted Hotaling--whose team has faced UConn and Seton Hall this season--said after playing Vanderbilt. "The shooting on this team is really just exceptional. I think one thing that you're always aware of is if you give strong-side help, if you're too heavy in the gap, if you dig up in the post a little bit too much they're really good at making really good, quick decisions and seeing the open man. They always make you pay."
The ball has often found the right guy throughout Vanderbilt’s 13-0 start to the season and if its body of work to this point has proven to be worth any stock, it appears as if that will continue into league play along with Vanderbilt’s outlier analytics.
Here’s how Byington and his team built one of the nation’s best offenses.
Margin-buying shotmaking
All the actions had passed unsuccessfully and every Vanderbilt player reset as eight seconds remained on the shotclock, then Duke Miles squared up from the corner of the F of the Wake Forest logo with a defender in his face and knocked down a 3 to extend Vanderbilt’s lead over the Demon Deacons to 20-8.
Plays like the one Miles executed in the first half of Vanderbilt’s win over Wake Forest, as well as the opening play of that game–in which Tyler Nickel deviated from the set Byington wanted to test out as he slipped a ballscreen to catch a Wake Forest defender behind the action, took a 3 from a few feet behind the line and made it–are emblematic of the idea that Byington’s scheme is significantly more effective because of the dynamic shotmaking ability of his players.
“They have a solid combination of weapons at every position who can all score in a variety of ways,” an opposing coach told Vandy on SI. “They can hurt you with multiple guys from multiple spots so it’s really hard to key in and just take away certain guys or spots.”
Even if the shotmaking isn’t necessarily dynamic at all times like it was in that Wake Forest game–in which it easily scored over 15 points off of contested 3s–it’s good enough to allow Vanderbilt to score even if the set isn’t run to perfection or if it doesn’t generate a wide open look.
Along those lines, Vanderbilt’s shotmaking also makes it difficult to defend out of its ballscreen oriented offense. Miles, Nickel–who often has to be faceguarded–Vanderbilt point guard Tyler Tanner are all no-brainer play through the screen players and open up the floor that way. Vanderbilt’s spacing is also excellent because of the idea that teams have to guard Devin McGlockton and Jalen Washington on the perimeter.
The discussion here has to center around the roster that Byington has built.
A healthy control
Here’s a stat that seems insignificant in most circumstances but tells the story of this Vanderbilt offense and why it’s been so dynamic; Vanderbilt is No. 1 in the country in offensive block rate–meaning it gets its shots blocked less than any team in the country.
Pair that with the 31st-best offensive turnover rate in the country, the fact that Vanderbilt is allowing the 11th-least amount of steals in the country and the idea that this is in sure hands doesn’t appear to be all that difficult to see. All anyone has to do in order to see that is watch Vanderbilt’s matchup with Wake Forest–in which the Demon Deacons hedged ballscreens often and Vanderbilt’s guards never appeared to be overwhelmed by it. The most glaring example of the flair that Vanderbilt’s ballhandlers have these days is Tanner and his ability to shred hedges.
“Coach wants me to be more aggressive,” Tanner said prior to the season as if to foreshadow what he’s done thus far. “That allows me to have more stuff in my game that I can show. My confidence in myself, I know what I can do.”
The numbers surrounding Vanderbilt’s possessions could indicate that its ballhandlers are too passive, but Tanner and Miles seemingly always get their feet in the paint and create something of substance because of that. Vanderbilt is one of just 26 teams in college basketball history to have three players average four assists per game. All three of those players average at least two more assists per game than turnovers per game, though.
Vanderbilt’s guards are under control, yet explosive at the same time. You can’t have the assist numbers they do and two primary ballhandlers averaging over 15 points a game without that rare mix.
“We have guys who can score, but more so I think we have guys who can make decisions and figure out where the ball is supposed to be,” Byington said at the Battle 4 Atlantis. “We emphasize certain things, our spacing has been good, that helps with shooting and some of these things really help along the way, but these guys have been coachable and they do care about each other.”
Not just transition
Byington’s idea of being transition-oriented can often give off the perception that his teams merely live off of that. Vanderbilt can often pluck an obscene amount of transition points if a team is a single-ballhandler team that turns it over often or isn’t intentional about getting back, but it doesn’t have to rely on that. Perhaps at times it did last season, but no longer.
Vanderbilt hasn’t lost its mindset of pushing the pace and getting out and running, but the perception that Byington just throws the ball over the fence and lets his team play in the halfcourt is unfair. Once Vanderbilt gets into the half court, it attacks with an array of off-ball screening, curls and other off-ball movement. Byington has a roster full of players that have bought into his scheme, as well.
“[Byington] is the best in the country in my opinion in spreading defenses out by removing helpside tags through good actions and having serious threats that defenses get caught chasing while the primary action is going on,” a coaching industry source told Vandy on SI. The gravity of different players combined with the actions he puts them in is high level.”
It’s not as much Byington using Vanderbilt’s players as chess pieces as it is him designing actions to put them in positions to make plays with numbers downhill, a step on a defender or with an open look off of a screen. To be successful in Vanderbilt’s offense, an understanding as to how to become a piece in a read-and-react scheme is also essential.
Vanderbilt appears to be firing in transition, in free-flowing offense and in halfcourt sets. It’s a rare mixture that’s allowed this program to elevate to a place it hasn’t often been.
“Mark and his staff do a great job of mixing in really good actions,” an opposing coach said, “To highlight the strengths of everyone.”
Leaps
Seeing this roster a season ago and projecting it as a 13-0 SEC team that leads the league in seemingly every metric entering conference play would’ve been borderline insane.
Tanner finished last season averaging 5.7 points per game while Miles was a journeyman role player at Oklahoma, Washington was an out of position back-to-the basket big at North Carolina, Vanderbilt wing Tyler Harris was a catch-and-shoot piece more than anything and Okereke was in the Ivy League. Two of Vanderbilt’s three returners–Nickel and McGlockton were out of position. None of that scared Byington and company, though.
“A lot of times people want to box somebody in and say ‘this is what they are,’” Byington told Vandy on SI over the summer. “I think that’s a mistake. So we’re using the summer to kind of see what they can do and what they do well and letting them play different areas, make different mistakes and figure out what’s right.”
Turns out Byington’s team’s summer mistakes have turned into in-season success as a result of his belief in his players’ ability to do more than they had in the past when given more responsibility. Byington always believed Miles was in the shadow of eventual lottery pick Jeremiah Fears, that Washington could step out and shoot it more than he had in the past and that Harris could put it on the floor more often than he had. He also believed that McGlockton and Nickel would benefit from moving back to their natural positions rather than forcing them to play the majority of their minutes at a more physical position than they played a chunk of their minutes at last season–although both have seen time at their previous positions.
Byington has taken a bet on each individual player doing something that they haven’t done in the past and it’s paid off. He also appears to be pushing the right buttons with them heading into SEC play.
“[Byington] is the best at keeping his guys fresh during the year mentally, physically, emotionally,” an industry source told Vandy on SI. “He’s elite of the elite.”
_(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, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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