Inside The Sprinter Van Ride, Retreat And Decision That Led Tyler Tanner Back To Vanderbilt Basketball
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NASHVILLE—As if it were a flashback to fourth grade and Tyler Tanner’s days running the show in the Brentwood Academy Flight League, he hopped in the backseat and readied for his parents to drive him home.
That’s where the parallels between this ride and the ones within Brentwood city limits subsided, though. This was the type of ride that the fourth-grade version of Tanner would have dreamed of. He had just finished a pre-draft workout with the Memphis Grizzlies in the hours prior to the NBA Draft withdrawal deadline and had just a few hours to finalize whether he’d stay at Vanderbilt for one more season or go pro.
While the college basketball world speculated, Tanner and his girlfriend opened the back door of her family’s charcoal gray sprinter van, his dad got in the driver's seat and his mom settled into the passenger’s seat. In three hours, they’d be back in Nashville and Tanner’s month-long grind of workouts and travel would be complete. For now, though, there was business left to conduct.
Between the TVs—which embody a life of luxury, Tanner’s dad jokes—and four walls in the back of the van, Tanner and his family would exhaust every possible perspective and option in regard to the decision he had at hand. By the end of what Tanner’s dad refers to as the journey, they’d have a final verdict that would alter Vanderbilt basketball’s 2026-27 season.
“That was our dedicated time to knock out the decision,” Tanner told Vandy on SI. “We kind of just all sat together and put our heads together. We pointed out the facts, pointed out the pros and cons and we kind of just made that as our three-hour time to make that decision.”
Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington says that he felt good about the chances that he’d get Tanner back for one more season heading into the day of the decision, but he knew that nothing was final until Tanner told him that it was. The potential outcomes of the Grizzlies’ workout still loomed large. So did the potential that Tanner would hear something from a team in the final hours that would allow him to feel comfortable staying in the draft.
Tanner’s immediate circle thought it only had around 60% of the information that it needed in order to make a decision when it got in the car, and that wasn’t going to be enough. As a result, they bunkered up while the outside world speculated.
“We sort of rode it all the way up to the last minute to get all the data that we needed to get in to be able to make an informed decision,” Tanner’s dad Dwayne Tanner said. “What we realized throughout this whole process is that knowledge is so powerful.”
Over Memorial Day weekend, Tanner was home in between workouts for the first time since the NBA Combine and discussed the final decision with his parents at length seriously for the first time. He still had two workouts left to go before the deadline day, though. The discussions were fluid five days before Tanner and his camp got in the car and hashed it all out.
Around an hour into the drive, Tanner and company got a call from his agent Dave Spahn–who filled them in on the Grizzlies’ feedback. Finally having that feedback in hand gave Tanner’s camp the information they felt they were missing in regard to where he stood ahead of the deadline. It also platformed them to make a decision.
After conversation about the risks and rewards at hand and a few prayers, Tanner and everyone around him came to a consensus that he’d return to school for one more season.
The industry consensus was that Tanner could benefit from one more season at Vanderbilt in which he demonstrated that his breakout sophomore season wasn’t a fluke, showed the benefits of adding weight and waited out a historically-strong guard class, but it was never a no-brainer for Tanner. It appears as if coming to a final conclusion was more difficult for Tanner than the public narrative would indicate. In the end, though, he made a choice with conviction.
“It’s the right decision for me right now,” Tanner said. “It was a pretty smooth decision when you step back and look at both options. It was just really good options for me that I felt put me in a good position to be successful either way, so I felt like my mind was in a good spot throughout the whole process. Obviously, making that final decision was a little stressful, just because you obviously can't go back when you make that decision, but--after talking to my agents and my family--it was a good decision.”
“Let’s do it again. I’m coming back.”
The six-word string of words was delivered from Tanner to Byington in the back of the sprinter van while he was still on the road back to Nashville. It’s a sentence that Byington has been hoping to hear since Tanner and his Vanderbilt teammates walked off the floor in Oklahoma City following Vanderbilt’s heartbreaking Round of 32 loss in the NCAA Tournament, but wondered if he ever would.
Tanner had been in communication with Byington nearly daily throughout the draft process, but this was perhaps the only piece of communication from this span of spring weeks that each will remember forever. It was the verdict on a case that had Byington and his team’s season in the balance. Byington would’ve acted to replace Tanner, but he says none of his replacement options would’ve reconciled the loss of his star point guard and the only player on his roster with a realistic chance of becoming an All-American.
Byington was in the midst of socializing with other parents at a high school graduation party when he saw Tanner’s name pop up on his phone screen. While in the crowd of friends and family, Byington picked up the phone. He was the first person Tanner called, and he knew the urgency of the matter at hand.
Because the news hadn’t yet become public, Tanner asked if Byington was around anyone. Byington said he was, but quickly deviated from the crowd and found an isolated space to listen to what Tanner had to say. When Tanner delivered the verdict, Byington may have accidentally shown Tanner’s hand.
“I think people might’ve heard me yelling in excitement,” Byington said. “I just confirmed to him that I thought it was the right decision and then made him the promise that I’m gonna do everything I can to make this even better for him the next year.”
The only way this can get better for Tanner after a season in which he was named First-Team All-SEC, averaged 19.5 points per game and got Vanderbilt to the Round of 32 is for him to take another step forward individually while getting Vanderbilt to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2011-12 season. If that type of season happens for Tanner, there will be no question in regard to whether he should stay or go a year from now.
Tanner can’t confirm that Byington yelled on the phone, but says he could tell Byington was energized by hearing the news. Byington met the moment after Tanner and his camp had just finished yelling and celebrating amongst themselves. If all goes to plan for Tanner and Vanderbilt, this will be a fond memory, but will be remembered as one that started a string of others.
“We were both smiling ear to ear,” Tanner said. “We were both super excited about the next year and being able to spend it together.”
It’s Friday afternoon in Oklahoma City and Vanderbilt has moved its posters and equipment to a new locker room down the back hallway of the PayCom Center. When the media enters the locker room, Tanner is sitting on his phone in the back left corner of the room. For a moment, Tanner sits unapproached. He knew it wouldn’t stay that way, though, and he knew what was coming when his rare moments of silence were over.
When Tanner hears his name from a few feet away, he quickly pulls his head up from his phone. When he hears the subject matter of the interview he’s set to do will relate to the NBA Draft process and is approached with a joke about the potential annoyance of the subject matter at this stage of Vanderbilt’s run, he laughs it off and indicates that he has no problem obliging.
Instead of grinding through the interview with a string of politically-correct jargon, Tanner admits that the process had previously weighed on him heavily and that he’d since found freedom in focusing on the task at hand. Tanner said that he’d also figured that the chance to go through the pre-draft process was to be considered a blessing rather than a burden, as well.
And while Tanner went through it, he treated it as such.
“He was fully committed to the process, he was all about it and I was so proud of him,” Dwayne Tanner said. “Every single movement, every single conversation was geared towards making sure that when he had that opportunity–whether at the Combine or with the teams–that he was fully prepared, fully locked in and fully ready to make a difference. It takes a special dude to be able to do that.”
Tanner’s dad recalls his son going west for a series of workouts that prepared him to perform adequately when he was in front of teams. The workouts were difficult, he says, but they were indicative of what Tanner was willing to put into chasing a first round selection in the draft. The trip to California was almost representative of a retreat for Tanner, who was away from his family and longtime girlfriend for a number of weeks on end.
It appears as if what Tanner did in California while working out alongside lottery picks was worthwhile and resulted in a few workouts in which he felt as if he was “great” as well as a number of others that he felt were merely “good.” Through all the avenues that Tanner received feedback from, he heard that NBA executives loved what he could offer offensively and weren’t writing him off as someone that would be entirely written off from staying in the draft.
“Part of me was thinking midway through that he had a shot at coming out,” Tanner’s longtime trainer Spencer Richardson said. “I think if this class wasn’t extremely guard heavy, he would have been a first-round pick in this draft.”
A number of NBA executives believed all along that Tanner was leaning towards returning to college, but he and his camp worked to shut that down as he often wrote off any assertion that he was anything but “10 toes down” in the draft process. Tanner never ruled out returning to school, but he knew that he would regret it if he didn’t put in all his chips on the draft process.
“We talked about his dream a lot,” Dwayne Tanner said. “Can you imagine being just steps away from being able to be able to satisfy a lifelong dream? And that’s where he was.”
The dream Tanner has had in mind since he was a kid includes being an NBA player and he wasn’t naive enough to believe that he didn’t have a chance to vitalize it. Those around Tanner believe he bet on himself throughout the process, as evidenced by him taking a risk and participating in the NBA Draft Combine scrimmages–something that a number of prospects in his range didn’t do–which those around him acknowledge didn’t help him.
Tanner didn’t show what he wanted to in those scrimmages and didn’t end up with a hat on his head on a late-June night, but he got the full pre-draft experience. He flew all over the country between the Combine and Memorial Day. He met executives. He gathered as much feedback as anyone. As a result, he’s at peace with how this all played out.
“I was really just focused on putting my best foot forward,” Tanner said, “And just upping my draft stock as well as I could and just continuing to get better every day. I really didn't even think about the final decision until those last couple days.”
When a Vanderbilt basketball staffer or player refers to Tanner’s decision, there’s always some sort of clarifier in there. When Tanner’s return is mentioned, the words ‘this year’ are always somewhere in the sentence. ‘One more year’ often follows, as well.
The worst-kept secret around this Vanderbilt basketball program is that if Tanner has anywhere near the year he hopes to have, it will result in a position in the 2027 NBA Draft that will keep him in the pool of players willing to be selected.
Byington says that executives weren’t looking for a big jump from Tanner as much as they’re looking for him to add to his frame and put another good standout season on film to prove that what he did in 2025-26 is repeatable. The idea that Tanner could’ve gone into the Draft and been taken in the first round was one that Byington subscribes to–particularly after checking in with NBA executives nearly daily in the weeks between the Combine and decision day–but he believes Tanner is better off because of his choice to stay.
Had Tanner gone, he would’ve risked falling out of the first round and passing up what his camp describes as a compelling opportunity to return to Vanderbilt. Tanner’s dad says the stars would’ve had to line up for his son to pass up on returning to Vanderbilt because of everything that returning to school could mean for him.
As a result, Tanner wasn’t going to leave without a near guarantee that he’d be selected in the first 30 picks. As he went through the process, he learned that was easier said than done.
“Obviously we were looking for first round,” Tanner said. “It was like a month before the draft so you’re not gonna get a promise. We had some really good feedback from pretty much every team, every team that I met with thought that I would be a first-round pick this year, but no team necessarily made that type of promise to me.”
Richardson was consistently in Tanner’s ear throughout the pre-draft process telling him that if he were slated to go in the second round of the draft, it wouldn’t make sense for him to stay in it. Tanner agreed and operated with criteria in mind that would only allow him to leave if he knew he’d go in the first round.
With a season like Tanner projects to have, logic indicates that he could push for the lottery in a year as a result of a generally-weaker class and the opportunity for him to demonstrate how adding weight could benefit him. If that happens, he won’t be in need of a promise.
NBA executives appear to think that will be the case.
“The feedback we received was that ‘you’re an NBAer,’” Dwayne Tanner said. “That rejuvenated him, it got us excited, too. It made the decision a little bit easier, actually. It’s not a question of if, it became a question–in our conversations–as to when.”
Around 30 minutes will have expired after Vanderbilt basketball’s home opener in November of 2026 when Tanner will emerge from the home tunnel at Memorial Gymnasium in full uniform. When he does so and aims to walk towards his parents and girlfriend, he’ll be swarmed by a number of Vanderbilt fans.
And when that happens, he’ll have no choice but to soak it all in.
The last time Tanner left Memorial Gymnasium after signing autographs and taking pictures with a number of Vanderbilt fans following a Vanderbilt win could’ve been the last time ever. Instead, though, he’s got one more run as the face of its program. It’s a role that Tanner knows well, and wasn’t going to give up for anything other than his NBA dream.
“Vanderbilt is my home for college basketball, for sure,” Tanner said. “The way Vanderbilt has been loyal to me, I would never switch up and not be loyal to them. I remember a ton of people asking me at the end of the season like ‘yo are you gonna hit the portal?’ and I'm like ‘there's no way I'm leaving Vanderbilt.’ Just like the family atmosphere here and the coaches that brought me in and believed in me, I wouldn't trade that for the world. So, yeah, I've never thought about leaving.”
In an era of constant player movement, Tanner returns for a third season at Vanderbilt and has a chance to become one of the program’s all-time greats—and one of just 11 first-round picks in its history. Perhaps he didn’t consider it at the time, but that’s what he chose when he chose to come back to the program for one more season.
Richardson is of the idea that it be a hit to the Nashville community one day when Tanner isn’t playing in front of it one day, but that day isn’t yet. Richardson says Tanner has brought Nashville basketball legends into the gym for Vanderbilt games, and it appears as if they’ll continue to show up.
“NBA is good, but in the back of my mind I’m like ‘you know what, the city of Nashville needs to come out and see what this guy is all about,’” Richardson said. “Selfishly, I’m like, the NBA is cool, but you need another season of ‘I’m the guy, this is my team’ from the preseason game to this Final Four run people will be like ‘this dude is really, really good at basketball.’”
The number of Vanderbilt basketball players to be in Tanner’s position–the fringe of the first round of the NBA Draft–and to turn down that option in favor of returning to Vanderbilt is big enough to count on one hand. If this all goes to plan, Tanner will be one of only two players in program history to play at Vanderbilt for three seasons while making the NCAA Tournament in each one. The only other one is former first-round draft pick John Jenkins.
In a way, this was a matter of legacy for Tanner. He could’ve gone and embarked on a successful NBA career this spring, but the question of what could’ve been always would’ve surrounded his Vanderbilt career. That’s no longer the case, though.
Instead, Vanderbilt and Tanner get to make one more push together. And they believe it will be one of the most special ones in program history.
“This news turned us from a top 25 team,” Vanderbilt guard Ace Glass said, “To a Final Four contender.”
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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, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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