Meet Spencer Richardson, The Man Behind Tyler Tanner's Remarkable Development
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OKLAHOMA CITY—The small mob that once surrounded Tyler Tanner at his locker on the front wall in PayCom Arena subsides for a moment and he looks ahead at the text displayed on the phone in front of him.
Tanner’s world is spinning after a 26-point NCAA Tournament performance against McNeese that put him firmly on the map nationally and elevated his stardom, but when he looks at the phone the reminder of what it all took to get here sinks in.
The text is from Tanner’s independent trainer Spencer Richardson, who is as much to credit for this rise as anyone other than Tanner himself.
“Be BOLD, CONFIDENT and FEARLESS,” the text reads.
The text is reminiscent of the ones that Richardson sent Tanner before each game this season. As Tanner has gone from a freshman averaging 5.6 points per game in a 3-and-D role to one of America’s biggest stars, the text been a grounding reminder to walk in the confidence he’s needed to get to this point.
“It's just the focus I need for myself in order to help my team in a way that I know I can,” Tanner told Vandy on SI. “First, bold, you got to be willing to take chances and make big plays. You’ve got to want those opportunities. Fearless, obviously, you can't be scared of anything and confident, that's the biggest thing this year for me was confidence.”
When Tanner is reminded of the text and who it’s from, he lights up despite all that’s been put on his plate already in this moment. Without Richardson, Tanner’s star may not be shining this intensely these days. He may well still be a star at this level, but Richardson’s tutelage has added the necessary polish to Tanner’s game that’s allowed him to do what he’s done all season on the way to a First-Team All-SEC selection and All-American honorable mention.
Richardson says that what Tanner did on college basketball’s biggest stage Thursday, though, reminds him of Tanner’s Brentwood Academy days. Tanner’s trainer says he was getting everyone involved and being the closer when necessary.
“That’s the TT I know,” Richardson said via text message.
The league is now proudly named after Brentwood Academy legend and current NBA star Darius Garland, but when Richardson met Tanner for the first time it was still called the Brentwood Academy Flight League. Tanner was in fourth grade at the time and Richardson was coaching the other team, but he wished he was coaching the Vanderbilt guard.
“He was a gamer,” Richardson told Vandy on SI. “Even back then.”
The league–which operated in Brentwood Academy’s gym every Saturday–gave Tanner and his parents the opportunity to be on the campus for the first time. Tanner was still at Crockett Elementary School at the time, but his parents found out about Richardson and his basketball training background. Their conversations first centered around Richardson potentially training Tanner and evolved at some point into a conversation about Tanner potentially coming to Brentwood Academy.
Richardson is one of Nashville’s original basketball trainers. He says when he and his cousin Jamal started their business around 15 years ago, there were only two other guys doing what he’s doing these days. The Richardsons have worked out a number of pros over the years, but they’ve built their business on impacting young lives by investing in players like Tanner from a young age on.
“The reason we gravitated towards Spencer for Tyler’s development is so much about the person that he is. He truly believes in pouring into kids here in Nashville and making them the best version of themselves they can possibly be,” Tanner’s dad Dwayne Tanner told Vandy on SI. “He pours into this whole community and we’re so proud of him for all that he does. The dude does so much for basketball in this city.”
From Tanner’s sixth-grade year until his sophomore year of high school, the two would work out inconsistently. When Tanner became a sophomore, though, they got in the gym together consistently and “threw away the key.” At that point, Richardson knew that Tanner was worth investing his time into consistently. He saw something like what’s happening these days as a possibility.
“He said ‘yo, you can be a really good player,’” Tanner said. “‘Like, let’s lock in together.’”
Even in the calendar year or so after making the declaration, Richardson got plenty of evidence to support his claim to Tanner. The then-Brentwood Academy guard emerged as the best high school basketball player in Nashville as a junior, won a state championship and was the Tennessee Gatorade Player of the Year.
By the time it was all over, Tanner repeated as Gatorade Player of The Year, got back to the state championship game, was named Tennessee’s Mr. Basketball and had committed to Vanderbilt.
Richardson knew that what Tanner is doing these days as one of America’s best guards was possible ever since Tanner participated in an open run with professionals the summer prior to his freshman season at Vanderbilt.
Tanner's trainer says there were multiple players on the floor with multi-million dollar contracts to their names. When Jamal called him to give him the rundown, though, it was Tanner who he said was the best player on the floor. That made Richardson--who says a lot of players Tanner’s age would’ve just blended in with NBA players in an effort to avoid overstepping--feel special.
In a way, Tanner's achievements have become Richardson’s achievements. That’s not because Richardson is using Tanner solely for resume purposes, either. As evidenced by Richardson’s consideration of pausing business at home and flying to Oklahoma City for Vanderbilt’s NCAA Tournament games, he’s along for every step of this ride with Tanner. And Tanner is happy to have him.
“That’s my guy,” Tanner said. “That’s my dog. He’s been there with me every step of the way and I’m super grateful that God has blessed me with a person like that to have around me.”
McNeese big man DJ Richards thought he was in a fine position guarding Tanner from a step in front of the 3-point line on the left wing, but he was wrong.
While he sat in a stance trying to make sure Tanner didn’t get by him late in Vanderbilt’s Round of 64 matchup, the Vanderbilt guard figuratively told him that he needed to step out and guard him. Tanner’s left foot dropped down parallel to the Vanderbilt bench, the right foot was down too, hands were set and his undershirt scrunched up on his shoulder as if he was Allen Iverson. Richards was still off balance from the combo of dribble moves that he’d just hit him with upon getting a switch.
Bang.
Vanderbilt wing Tyler Nickel jokes that Tanner took a bad shot. Tanner says that “maybe” it was, but he makes clear that he workshopped that dribble combo and shot many a time before attempting it on college basketball’s biggest stage. When Tanner says something along those lines, he’s almost always referring to something that he did while under Richardson’s tutelage.
“I give a lot of credit for my improvements that have shown this year to him,” Tanner said. “I’ve definitely never had a trainer that’s worked me out harder than him.”
Tanner says a workout with Richardson generally starts with form shooting and a warmup that gets his legs going–which may include some finishing drills, he says. The workouts include “a lot” of floaters, touch shots and a heavy dosage of ballscreen work. Each workout ends with a number of catch-and-shoot makes from 3-point range.
The workouts are intentionally less difficult these days in an effort to save Tanner’s legs, but they’re an offseason fixture around Vanderbilt’s Huber Center. Richardson has built enough of a brand around Vanderbilt’s program that he’s started to work out a number of Vanderbilt’s other players in the offseason.
It isn’t hard to see why they’d trust him, either.
In a years’ span, Tanner has gone from Vanderbilt’s third guard and a pseudo on-ball defensive specialist to one of America’s most dynamic offensive guards. The Vanderbilt sophomore attributes his improvement to an increased role and level of confidence, but his tangible development offensively is easy to pick up on film.
It’s easy to pick up in the numbers, too. Tanner’s sophomore-year leap has been torrential and has included him averaging 19.3 points, 5.1 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game while shooting 48.8% from the field and 37.3% from 3-point range. Tanner’s efficiency numbers last year were 46.5% from the field and 26.6% from 3-point range–and he was taking easier shots a season ago.
“We all knew he was super talented,” Vanderbilt wing Nickel told Vandy on SI in the offseason. “This year, the ball being in his hands more, a lot more making decisions, his athleticism has always been apparent, but now it’s just going to be on display even more.”
Turns out Nickel was right. Tanner is No. 9 in KenPom’s player of the year rankings, is nationally ranked in 13 of his 18 efficiency metrics and is top 200 in six of them. He’s become a true college basketball superstar right in front of Richardson’s eyes.
While Richardson watched from home and Tanner’s parents sat halfway up the stands behind the Vanderbilt bench, Tanner just put everything Richardson taught him to use on national television to give Vanderbilt another day.
“Spencer has been truly critical to Tyler’s development,” Tanner’s dad said. “He makes you love this wonderful, life changing game that we play. He takes this approach on and off the court, too, and doesn’t worry about the glitz and glamor that comes with playing well, but really focuses on the daily grind, daily improvement, daily focus and daily small victories.”
Richardson has a roster of professional basketball players that he works out, but Tanner is plastered all over his company All Around Game Basketball’s Instagram account and is more prominently displayed than just about anyone. In some ways that’s about business, but it’s also an indicator of how Richardson feels about the Vanderbilt point guard.
The Nashville-based trainer and Tanner have spent countless hours together, have stepped on the floor in what feels like just about every gym in Nashville together and have formed a bond that has followed Tanner for most of his teenage and young adult life. The Tanner family is decidedly loyal and warm to those that it loves and there may not be a person that’s captured their hearts in the way that Richardson has over the years.
Richardson knew that day in fourth grade that Tanner could play, but he likely didn’t know that he’d be in nearly daily contact with Tanner all these years later. Now, he’s got a future NBA player on his hands.
“It’s amazing,” Richardson said. “It brings me joy and I know ultimately what he wants to get to, but I'm overly excited for him simply because I’ve only had one conversation where I challenged him as far as his consistency in the gym and that's the only time I've ever had to say something to him about that. Ever since, he's been consistent with his grind.”
As Tanner has risen to stardom, Richardson has embraced the impact he can have on Tanner off the floor. The All Around Game Basketball founder knows that Tanner is being pulled in plenty of different directions and says that he often makes an effort to lighten things up. Richardson says sending messages that make Tanner send “1000 laughing emojis” and send back texts saying “man, you crazy” are just as important as what he does with him in on-floor workouts because of what they can do for Tanner while everyone else wants something from him.
Tanner’s world has changed significantly since he started working out with Richardson often as a high school underclassman, but Richardson has been a beacon of consistency in his life. Richardson was in the stands at Brentwood Academy watching Tanner’s rise to stardom. He was there declaring that there was more out there for Tanner when he broke out against Cal as a freshman. During Vanderbilt’s SEC Championship loss to Arkansas, Richardson was sitting in section 108 trying to will Vanderbilt to a win.
The Tanner family and Tanner’s longtime girlfriend are perhaps the most consistent figures at Memorial Gymnasium and will be wherever Tanner ends up, but Richardson will always be a fixture of Tanner’s career. Tanner is more than a sales pitch to him at this point, he’s nearly an extended family member.
“He cares about me so much,” Tanner said. “He’ll leave his family to come work out. He’s always thinking about me. Always texting me. If it was a good game, ‘keep going.’ If it was a bad game, keep your head up, you’re still really good.’ He’s just been there for me as a person.”
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
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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