Inside Mark Byington's Decision to Avoid Timeout in Vanderbilt's Late-Game Situation Against Florida

Vanderbilt basketball lost on Saturday, but wouldn't change how it approached the final sequence of the game.

Jan 17, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Mark Byington paces the sideline against the Florida Gators during the first half at Memorial Gymnasium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

NASHVILLE—There Vanderbilt was down two with time winding down and an opportunity to win it. As Tyler Tanner brought it down the floor, all eyes swung to Mark Byington. 

The Vanderbilt coach had a decision on his hands. 

Would he call a timeout? Or would he let it play out? 

As Tanner crossed halfcourt and the thought of a timeout seemingly dissipated, the Vanderbilt guard played out of a ballscreen and turned the corner. In the moment, the question of whether Byington should’ve called a timeout loomed. He didn’t appear to have all that much doubt in his decision to let the situation play out rather than taking his team back to the huddle and drawing something. 

“Coach told me ‘try to get downhill,’” Tanner said. “The refs were calling some fouls throughout the game when people got in the paint so he said ‘try to get down there, try to draw a foul.’ I ended up missing it.” 

The look of Tanner playing out of a pick and roll appears to be among Vanderbilt’s most efficient, but the end result as he went up and worked to lay it in–or draw a foul–appeared to be one that warranted second guessing Byington’s decision. 

Vanderbilt’s analytically-minded head coach appears to be among the best in the country at generating half-court offense, but as a result of not getting a call he wanted on a potential hook-and-hold call against Florida guard Xaivien Lee, Byington was left with one timeout and wanted to play it out. 

The play itself aligned with Vanderbilt’s philosophy on playing out of a natural situation rather than drawing up a scripted play. 

“I only had one timeout in that situation and I knew it was a couple more possessions in the game,” Byington said. “We had a challenge there on what we thought was a hook and hold and I'm not sure why that didn't go our way. So, we lost the time out there. So we had one. 
And I mean, I got plenty of evidence trusting Tyler Tanner, and he drove the ball and some contact there and it was close, and I'll put the ball in his hands again next time.”

Tanner finished the game with 20 points, but walked into the postgame press conference room looking as if his enthusiasm had just been drained as a result of the situation that had just resulted in Vanderbilt falling 98-94 to Florida on Saturday. 

In the moments following Tanner’s layup, Florida big man Alex Condon made two free throws that all but sealed the game. Tanner drove Vanderbilt back down the floor in the final possession of the game and swung it to Vanderbilt wing Tyler Nickel, but Nickel missed a relatively open shot–which wouldn’t have changed things anyway–as time expired. 

That was all this one wrote for Vanderbilt basketball. 

“To an extent,” Nickel said in regard to the idea that there’s positives to take from Saturday. “Our standard is to be the best team in the country, be better than every team in the country is with whatever points you want to point to. We weren't tonight, so we got we get it right.”