Inside Will Perdue, Nashville Basketball Initiative's Efforts to Make Vanderbilt a Consistent Winner

NASHVILLE—Almost as if he was a coach after a failed season, Will Perdue went back to the drawing board after what he calls the Jerry “Stackhouse disaster” and asked himself if he “really put forth a true effort” to try to help Stackhouse in his build of Vanderbilt’s program.

The former Vanderbilt star came to the conclusion that he “made an effort,” but “didn’t get anything in return” and “kind of gave up” on making an effort to help Stackhouse’s program at the end of his tenure and “went on his own” way. Perdue couldn’t help himself from watching Vanderbilt basketball, texting former teammates about the team and making occasional podcast appearances to discuss them.

The lean years–including a seven-year NCAA Tournament drought and an 0-18 SEC campaign–-wore on him, though.

“It was heartbreaking and quite honestly, it was embarrassing,” Perdue told Vandy on SI. “There were games where I was turning the channel or just turning the TV off in frustration because of what was going on. I honestly just did not understand how we got to this point.”

Perdue was as discouraged as anyone by Vanderbilt’s 9-23 finish to the 2023-24 season and the apathy that he believed had overtaken the fanbase and former player base—many of which had privately expressed displeasure with what they believed was their exclusion from the program.

As a result, the former Vanderbilt center has partnered with Nashville-based business consultant Robert Sampson in an effort to properly resource Vanderbilt men’s basketball and reconnect it to its alumni.

“I would love to see people like myself, the sidewalk fans, those that are alumni, former players, get involved and really put forth a true effort,” Perdue said. “I figured there’s no better way to do that than for me to try to lead the charge. As they say, put your money where your mouth is.”

Will Perdue and Vanderbilt assistant Xavier Joyner chat after a Vanderbilt practice. | Robert Sampson

Perdue wants to be crystal clear that the Nashville Basketball Initiative isn’t just about money, though. This is about “rallying the troops” and getting Vanderbilt basketball fans that have been one-foot in and one-foot out because of the lean years the program has gone through back in the door. It’s about strengthening the alumni base of the program.

The former Vanderbilt star recalls a former Vanderbilt basketball organization called The Rebounders that involved paying a fee for a handful of merchandise, a few tickets and access to a Memorial Gymnasium room at halftime and wants to advance on that idea while making it grander and more sustainable.

“We’ve heard people talking about that gym being their sanctuary,” Sampson said. “It’s really cool to be able to help them celebrate that and help them celebrate them supporting the program in that way.”

Perdue says that he and Sampson have been at this for over a year and that they “haven’t asked anybody for a dime,” instead they’ve asked about people’s willingness to participate and their feedback in an effort to form a database of information to move forward with.

Among those who have told Perdue and Sampson ‘yes’ are former Vanderbilt standouts Drew Maddux, Barry Booker, Scott Draud, Brian Allsmiller and Tim Thompson. Each of the Initiative’s allies played before the NIL era, but know how important it is to support Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington and Vanderbilt’s program by giving it something to work with financially.

As the structure currently dictates, the primary source of player income will come from revenue sharing rather than anything that Perdue and Sampson’s organization can provide. They still believe that there’s a place for them to help Byington’s program, though.

“You may have to prop up NIL on the backend because rev share only provides 2.7 million,” Perdue said. “There’s gotta be a third-party entity, which we are, that will help on top of revenue sharing.”

Perdue compares the model of the Nashville Basketball Initiative to Aflac in that the insurance company will pay for the first 80% and that the person being insured will pay the last 20%. If the person can’t pay the 20%, they have to call a secondary insurer like Aflac. “That’s kind of what we are,” Perdue said while referring to Vanderbilt’s program as the company that picks up the initial 80%.

The Initiative says they’re not compromising on doing everything above board and that they don’t envision a future structure in which revenue sharing is the only source of player payment. Perdue says that if something like that were to pass, it would cause millions of lawyers to call players at all levels “screaming antitrust.” Until that day comes, Perdue and Sampson hope to become the “bridge” to ensuring that Vanderbilt basketball has what it needs to “thrive in this current environment.”

Perdue considers more than revenue sharing as he considers what his former program may need to win or generally succeed as a program. He believes the initiative can help to potentially endow a coaching position, set up Byington’s staff to add more managers or help the program entertain alumni at road games.

“As I get older, I continue to bang my head on the wall that basketball should be a sport that has no boundaries,” Perdue said. “In the college game if you can get three really good guys and build a team around them, you can be a competitor, not just for the postseason, but to actually compete for a championship. We haven’t been able to do that, then NIL came along and I feel like anybody that went to Vanderbilt or is just a Vanderbilt fan realizes that NIL is the great equalizer for us.”

When Byington took the Vanderbilt job, he got Perdue’s phone number through a mutual contact and gave him a call that ultimately lasted over an hour. When Perdue picked up the phone and got through the initial greetings, he cut to the chase.

“Do you want me to be honest and transparent with you,” Perdue said, “Or, do you want me to tell you what you want to hear?”

“No,” Perdue says Byington told him, “I need to know. I need to have somebody be honest with me and tell me what I’m facing and what I’m up against, what’s gotta happen.”

Perdue–who had to publicly pull punches at times for the program’s benefit–opened up to Byington about the apathy surrounding the program as a result of what happened throughout its lean years, the distrust that surrounded it at that time and the ability for winning to cure all in this situation.

In the months following that phone call, Byington built a roster that Perdue eventually said played at a level was “must see TV” and connected him with a sect of former players that was more substantial than it’d been previously. Rather than reaching out to Perdue to comment on their apathy or disappointment in the program, they reached out to comment on the intensity of Byington’s team and how much they enjoyed watching them.

Just like Byington–who has had an open line of communication with Perdue–planned.

“I’ve got to get these former players back,” Byington said at his introductory press conference. “I got to get them to know that they’re appreciated and it’s time to come home. They picked Vanderbilt to play basketball for a reason and I know the place is special to them, now I’ve got to make them a part of this.”

Perdue compares Vanderbilt’s current former player situation to an onion, where a layer or two is peeled back and plenty of others remain left to tap into. He believes that the more Vanderbilt wins, the more of its former players will come back and represent it.

It’s up to Byington to keep that going, but Perdue and Sampson–who Perdue calls his “boots on the ground” since the former Vanderbilt star lives in Illinois and Sampson is based out of Nashville–-have made countless phone calls and have gone out of their way to run the initiative and support him.

“What we’re trying to do here is be an asset to the program,” Sampson said. “Will is as passionate of a former player as I’ve come across in the many years I’ve been around college athletics. I’ve just heard him talk so fondly of the coaches and the players that he was involved in and the continuation of these relationships brings such pride to him and he wants to do whatever he can to see this thing succeed.”

Perdue wouldn’t partner with Sampson and do what he does in addition to his Chicago Bulls-related media obligations if he didn’t believe that this Vanderbilt program could do all the things it sets out to.

The NBA Champion remembers his playing days and how Vanderbilt was able to endear its fanbase by retaining familiar faces year over year. That hasn’t happened for this program yet in the NIL era, but Perdue believes it’s on the precipice of that as well as results that it hasn’t often had.

“If we can do this thing correctly, we can have a team of eight, nine or 10 Tyler Tanners, people that stayed more than one year,” Perdue said. “I think some of these kids are finally starting to realize that your brand flourishes at Vanderbilt and one of the reasons it can is because of the city of Nashville and that’s where we have to align all these things together and if we can do that, then in my opinion that makes Vanderbilt just as strong as Kentucky. I’m not talking about history, I’m not talking about what happened in the past. I’m talking about what can happen in the present, in the future.”

A sect will say Perdue is crazy for his declarations considering Vanderbilt’s first-round NCAA Tournament exit in 2024-25 and its place among the program’s recent history. The former Vanderbilt big man says that this program doesn’t have to be defined by its history or its old expectations anymore, though.

Byington came to Vanderbilt with the idea to win big, not just field a middle of the pack team like some of Vanderbilt’s most successful coaches have done in some of their best seasons. Perdue–who has been skeptical of his former program at times over the years–believes Byington can do it consistently if he’s supported properly.

That’s why he flies to Nashville. That’s why he takes the phone calls. That’s why he does the interviews. He wants the expectations to change. He doesn’t want to think of Final Fours as a pipe dream anymore.

“An appearance in the NCAA Tournament is low-hanging fruit,” Perdue said of his hope for the eventual expectations surrounding Vanderbilt basketball. “If you have a good enough team and everybody stays healthy, you should have an honest chance to get to the final four, you should be tapping the Elite Eight periodically, you should be getting to the Sweet 16 often.”