Mark Byington's Work In Progress Warning Looms Large in Western Kentucky Win; Column

Vanderbilt basketball looked like a work in progress on Wednesday afternoon despite a win in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Mark Byington has the pulse of his team, it seems. | Battle 4 Atlantis

The proverbial “Work in Progress” that Mark Byington says his team is this time of year could easily be spelled out in ad-like fashion on the Battle 4 Atlantis’ blue and tan wood floor after what it just showed. Perhaps that disclaimer would’ve been a fair warning as this Vanderbilt team took the floor in its 83-78 Wednesday win over Western Kentucky. 

Byington’s unofficial marketing campaign surrounding his team has often been more of a reflection on his constantly unsettled temperament, but his words appear to hold more weight after its Wednesday performance. He’ll likely repeat them to his team multiple times before they take the floor again on Thursday afternoon. 

“It definitely is accurate,” Byington said via the postgame Zoom in regard to the idea that Vanderbilt’s Wednesday performance demonstrated that it’s a work in progress. “We were a play or two away from really separating the game and we just didn't do that. The turnovers were too much. 
We're better than that. Anything we did wrong today, I know we can fix.” 

Vanderbilt’s win and subsequent advance in the Battle 4 Atlantis winners’ bracket is enough for its shortcomings to be overshadowed by Duke Miles’ and Devin McGlockton’s standout performance, Tyler Tanner’s flashy pass that went between the defender’s legs, the Vanderbilt point guard’s improved shooting as well as the trust that Chandler Bing has appeared to earn with the Vanderbilt staff. The idea that Vanderbilt has to be better in order to board the plane as champions on Saturday can’t be swept under the rug if it’s going to do it, though. 

It appeared to come together seamlessly as Byington’s team got out to a 5-0 start to the season prior to its trip to Atlantis, but on Wednesday–for the first time this season–it appeared as if this group was one made up largely of transfer portal additions looking to find the role that they were best suited in. It didn’t look like Vanderbilt was the only AP Top 25 team in the field. Had this been a buy game–which it has been for this program in its past–it would’ve been perceived as a more jarring struggle for Vanderbilt than it was as a result of the circumstances of Wednesday’s game. 

That was a struggle that took nearly all the blue-collarness that this Vanderbilt team has in order to escape with a win as 17.5-point favorites. The beginning of the afternoon included Western Kentucky taking a lead. The end saw the hardly-demonstrative McGlockton showing his displeasure with an eventually reversed goaltending call and Miles hauling in a crucial, nearly-intercepted inbound pass when this thing should’ve already been sealed. 

Mark Byington and Vanderbilt basketball have plenty to refine after Wednesday's win. | Battle 4 Atlantis

“We got some stuff out of our system,” Byington said. “We didn't settle quite right, and early on, not understanding personnel with them I think really kind of put us on our heels and what those guys do and what they do best and then we're a little bit of recovery mode.”

Wednesday didn’t appear to be as much about the nearly entirely new roster that Byington brought to Atlantis as it was about this group falling below the exceptionally high standard that it had set for itself. The Commodores were ranked No. 15 in KenPom and had a consensus top-five offense into the country heading into Wednesday, now it will have to do some work to get those metrics back to where they were heading into the day. 

Byington’s offense finished with a season-low 83 points on 45.3% shooting, it cashed in for just six points on Western Kentucky’s 17 turnovers, it put Western Kentucky on the free throw line 33 times–which resulted in 24 points–and it struggled to run away from the Hilltoppers for the majority of Wednesday’s Battle 4 Atlantis opener. When it had an opportunity to run away late in the afternoon, Miles threw it to a Western Kentucky defender who subsequently led a fastbreak for an easy fastbreak. In the following moments, it nearly let Western Kentucky back into the game after a few missed free throws. 

It was as human as this group has looked to this point. If it plays that way against an SEC opponent, it won’t have much of a chance. 

With all that being said, the silver lining here isn’t all that difficult to find. Vanderbilt played its worst game of the season and took down an undefeated Western Kentucky team. Perhaps that’s the best indicator of the improved talent level this group has in year two under Byington, that it's got more margin for error than it had previously. 

Miles finished with a team-high 28 points on Wednesday. | Battle 4 Atlantis

“It is exciting because when you're not playing your best, and you still have a little margin for error it's kind of like ‘what if we play a little better?’” Miles said. “So it just makes you think like ‘how much better we can be?’ As a team, the sky’s the very limit.”

Vanderbilt will test Miles’ theory on Thursday and Friday afternoon as it looks to leave Atlantis as winners with Byington’s “one bite at a time” proverb in mind. If it gets back to itself, it’s possible for it to have that outcome when this is all said and done. 

It’s just got to avoid another outing like it had on Wednesday, at all costs.

“It definitely excites us a little bit,” McGlockton said of the prospect of what winning with a performance like Wednesday’s could indicate. “But, we just take it with a grain of salt. We still have a long way to go in the tournament.”