"I Want To Cheer For Them," Vanderbilt Basketball, Mark Byington Embracing Nashville Midmajors
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NASHVILLE—Mark Byington has been Lipscomb in this situation, he’s made endless phone calls to power-five head coaches and has been told no on a similar amount of those calls. He’s felt the frustration of putting together a competent schedule as a midmajor program that doesn’t fall within quad one or quad four.
Now that he’s on the other side of the coin these days, he’s received the advice of the SEC’s advisors on scheduling and has had to look out for his program. He’s still not forgotten the level he came from, though.
“I know how good it is for them to get a game like this and to be able to help out their athletic department,” Byington said, “To be able to drive home, they'll be home in 10 minutes.”
Prior to Monday’s matchup with Lipscomb–in which Vanderbilt won 105-61 to move to 1-0 in Byington’s second season at the helm–there had been a disconnect between Vanderbilt’s program and the Nashville midmajor basketball scene. The Commodores hadn’t faced Lipscomb since 2014. They hadn’t played Belmont in a regular-season game since 2017. Tennessee State hasn’t come to Memorial Gymnasium since 2019, either.
The driving distance between the three campuses is an average of 10 minutes each, but it felt as if there was a world between Vanderbilt and the other three schools. Vanderbilt guard Tyler Tanner says some of the program’s players know each other through a Nashville basketball Bible study hosted by former Belmont guard Taylor Barnette, but there’s always appeared to be a world of difference between the schools on the floor.
If the scheduling minds that be had their way, there would be forever. Byington says that the typical advice given is to avoid “good” midmajors and to avoid local ones that can compete like the plague. Monday’s game admittedly wasn’t Byington’s first choice in terms of scheduling, but taking it on was enough to give those programs a level of support from the town’s SEC school that they’ve long been missing.
“I want us to be Nashville's team, I want Vanderbilt to be Nashville's team, but that's not going to be disrespectful to the other teams, 'cause I want to support them as well,” Byington said, “And I want to cheer for them as well. But without having professional basketball here and playing in the SEC Conference in probably the second-highest level of basketball in the world besides the NBA, I want to be really good. I want this to be a draw, I want to be Nashville's team, and still be able to support the other teams along the way, anything we can do for them.”
As Byington entered the media room in the basement of Memorial Gymnasium on Monday night, he was greeted by Lipscomb head coach Kevin Carroll–who subsequently repeated his on the record comments about how Vanderbilt made his team pay for every mistake. It was an interaction and an embrace that’s so long been missing from this community and program.
Former Lipscomb coach Lennie Acuff and former Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse didn’t have much of a relationship, but Carroll and Byington have started a relationship as a result of former Vanderbilt Graduate Assistant Jack McMahon making the move to the Lipscomb staff as its Director of Basketball Operations.
Carroll wasn’t happy with Monday’s result–in which Vanderbilt shot 55% from 3-point range and made the same amount of shots from beyond the arc as the Bisons did from the field–and didn’t open his press conference in the way he had envisioned, but eventually corrected himself and addressed the magnitude of his program and Vanderbilt’s being on the same floor.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t say how grateful we are to coach Byington for playing this game,” Carroll said from the podium on Monday night. “This is not typically something you see because it’s a lose-lose situation for them. If you don’t blow them out then people are questioning. In the small situation that you lose, then you really question. The way that the seeding works for the NCAA Tournament, there’s really not a benefit to playing a true midmajor like us. We’re just really grateful.”
Lipscomb had a contingent of over 160 students behind the Bisons’ bench as well as a strong alumni contingent surrounding them. For once, the generally non-approachable Vanderbilt program was back to earth ready to acknowledge its neighbor down the street.
Carroll’s program is in the midst of a hearty rebuild after Acuff’s departure late into the transfer portal cycle and is one that’s generally more equipped to compete than it was on Monday night. That’s not what mattered on Monday, though. This was more about the generally unapproachable Vanderbilt opening its arms to its neighbor from down the street.
“I thought it was a great way to build interest in Nashville for the start of the basketball season,” Carroll said. “Despite the score, I think it was a good thing for Nashville.”
_(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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