Mark Byington: Vanderbilt Basketball's Five-Star Freshman To Miss Season Opener Against Bellarmine

Vanderbilt basketball coach Mark Byington says his five-star freshman will miss the season opener against Bellarmine.

Gabe Nesmith will miss Vanderbilt's opener against Bellarmine. | Vanderbilt Athletics

NASHVILLE—-Five-star Vanderbilt freshman Gabe Nesmith will miss Vanderbilt’s season opener against Bellarmine, Mark Byington said Friday.

Nesmith warmed up prior to Vanderbilt’s exhibition matchup with Miami and appeared to be on track for the opener, but the indication is that Nesmith isn’t missing time because of the same thing that kept him out of Vanderbilt’s final two exhibition games. Vanderbilt doesn’t appear to be panicked in regard to Nesmith missing time, but Byington isn’t speaking in certainties in regard to his timetable. 

“We’ll know more today,” Byington said. “I was just out of town and I haven’t had a chance to meet with everybody, so we’ll know more this afternoon.” 

In the moments following Byington's presser, Nesmith posted on Instagram with the caption "be right back."

Nesmith committed to Vanderbilt in late June and became the program’s highest-rated commit under Byington as well as the first five-star that the program landed since 2018. Vanderbilt and Nesmith mutually agreed at the time that a reclass made sense for both sides, but they pushed it down the line so that he could participate in Peach Jam and a number of other high school summer events. But, Nesmith–the cousin of former Vanderbilt wing Aaron Nesmith–joined the team in the late summer and is expected to be a rotation piece this season. 

He finished Vanderbilt’s exhibition win over Virginia with nine points on 4-for-5 shooting and made a few highlight plays in the process. 

Byington labels Nesmith as a dynamic all-around scorer and one of the few that can get a bucket at the beginning and end of the shot clock whenever he wants to. He appears to agree with the sentiment that he was among the best scorers in the 2027 class. He’d likely agree that Nesmith was one of the best players in the class, too. 

“Him telling me that and trusting me with saying that I could play a pretty big role in what it takes to win a championship,” Nesmith told Vandy on SI over the summer, “I would say if you're any player that knows yourself, you would you would hear that and be like ‘yeah, maybe maybe this guy should be at the top of my recruiting [list].’”

Now, Nesmith looks to get back on the court soon in order to help Vanderbilt basketball get to where it wants to go. He'll almost assuredly be in the rotation once he's healthy.

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