“I think being at the three gives me some more opportunity," Tyler Nickel preparing for position change in 2025-26

Nashville–What Tyler Nickel showed in 2024-25 should leave just about everybody with a favorable opinion of him, but he wants you to know that you haven’t seen all that he’s capable of.

Nickel–who averaged 10.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game last season while shooting 40.5% from 3-point range–characterizes himself as a small forward that was playing out of position at the four last season. Now that Vanderbilt’s roster is constructed with more size, Nickel believes he’ll be able to thrive now that he’s back to his true position.

“It’s huge,” Nickel said of being able to move back to the three. “We’re getting bigger, which gives Devin [McGlockton] the opportunity to play his natural position and me to play mine, which I think in the SEC will be really hard for teams to match up with.”

Perhaps the biggest advantage to Nickel sliding down to the three is the flexibility that it provides him and Vanderbilt defensively. For the most part, the days of Nickel guarding a 6-foot-10 four man that has 20 or 30 pounds on him are over. He could be better offensively in 2025-26 if Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington has his way, too.

“I think he’ll be one of the better players in the SEC,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington told Vandy on SI. “He was almost exclusively at the four, undersized. We’ll move him around this year more. He will be more at the three and at the four, but that might help us hide him a little bit because everybody knows he’s good. We gotta move him around to find him shots, as many shots as he can get.”

Nickel is now more equipped to defend his position and can embrace the parts of his skillset that he didn’t show as often last season while being in more of a catch and shoot role.

Perhaps rather than only seeing him catch it and shoot it, the plays where he puts it on the floor, rises up and knocks down an off-the-dribble shot or gets to the basket. Perhaps in some ways Nickel can fill the void of isolation scoring that Vanderbilt has after Jason Edwards’ departure.

“I think being at the three gives me some more opportunity just as far as maybe pushing the break or getting into an action off of a drive,” Nickel told Vandy on SI. “I think I have more off the dribble game than I showed for the majority of the season. You saw spurts of me ripping closeouts or different things like that, but I think that’s gonna be a lot of my offseason work too.”

Vanderbilt’s offense isn’t designed for straight up off the bounce scoring like Edwards and AJ Hoggard often tried to do last season. It’s designed more for creation off closeouts generated by the initial penetration.

Nickel’s role last season was generally predicated on catch and shoot looks from 3-point range rather than what he could do off of closeouts, but now he’ll have the flexibility to rip and go downhill more. The one or two dribble pull ups that Nickel took at the free throw line once and awhile last season and the straight-line drives could be more common in 2025-26.

“A lot of my stuff was off the ball last year so when I got the ball that was as open as I was gonna get because people were trying to keep it out of my hands,” Nickel said. “So if I caught it with a clean look I had to shoot it and I feel like that was the best fit last year and I think I’m gonna have more responsibility offensively [this season] so more stuff off the dribble is probably what a lot of people will see.”

Nickel knows that he’s capable of a step forward offensively, but doesn’t want to stray away from what made him a contributor on an NCAA Tournament team.

The 6-foot-7 forward took 76.3% of his shots from 3-point range last season and shot just 1.8 twos per game. Nickel was Vanderbilt’s most efficient 3-point shooter and was one of just two players on Vanderbilt’s roster to shoot over 35% from beyond the arc.

Nickel–who briefly considered going through the NBA Draft process in order to generate feedback–would likely benefit his stock by taking more shots off the bounce, but that’s not what he’s focused on to this point.

“I want to show it but it’s not really a huge priority, either,” Nickel said. “I see myself as a very prolific scorer so if I can score simply, that’s honestly better. The less dribbles I have to take to score is much more effective, but being able to do different things off the bounce just to translate that to the game may have to happen more as I have more responsibility to score. It’s not something I’m looking to force into my game, but it’ll probably happen more as a cause and effect to having more offensive responsibility.”

As Nickel takes on his final year of eligibility, he’ll take on his biggest role yet and what could be the best team of his career. Time for him to step up to his increased responsibility. If Byington has it his way, Nickel will be one of the SEC’s top shottakers.

“We gotta find him looks out there,” Byington said. “It’s on me, it’s on him, it’s on the other guys on the team to find him.”