Sources: Five-Star Vanderbilt Basketball Commit Gabe Nesmith To Reclassify And Join Vanderbilt For 2026-27 Season

Vanderbilt basketball will add Nesmith a year early for what could be Mark Byington's best team yet.

Gabe Nesmith will join Vanderbilt basketball a year early, multiple sources told Vandy on SI. | Gabe Nesmith

NASHVILLE—Five-star Vanderbilt basketball commit Gabe Nesmith is reclassifying to the 2026 class and will join Vanderbilt for the 2026-27 season, multiple sources told Vandy on SI. 

Nesmith committed to Vanderbilt in late June and became the program’s highest-rated commit under head coach Mark 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. 

Now, though, Nesmith–who is the cousin of former Vanderbilt star Aaron Nesmith–is joining Vanderbilt as it looks to put together the best season of Byington’s tenure. 

“I just want to accomplish winning the SEC, winning the national championship,” Nesmith said. “I’m just looking to be a great teammate, have a great attitude and just impact winning.” 

247 Sports has Nesmith as the No. 22 player in the 2027 class. Rivals has him as the No. 29 player. ESPN has him as the No. 19 player. Rivals and ESPN have him ranked as one of the top four-star recruits in the class while 247’s composite ranking has him as a five star. The two most recent five-star recruits that Vanderbilt landed prior to Nesmith were Darius Garland and Simi Shittu. 

Nesmith was averaging 18.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game this summer on the EYBL circuit prior to his Vanderbilt commitment. 

Vanderbilt adds Nesmith to a team built around star guard Tyler Tanner–who opted to return to Vanderbilt after testing out the NBA Draft process–Washington State transfer Ace Glass, Colorado transfer Bangot Dak, Auburn transfer Sebastian Williams-Adams, Missouri transfer TO Barrett and Nebraska transfer Berke Buyuktuncel. Nesmith is one of six freshmen on Vanderbilt’s roster. He believes this Vanderbilt team can be one of the country’s best. 

“We have a team with a lot of depth,” Nesmith said. “I just think we have a pretty well-rounded team. The bigs are great. The guards are
 great. Wings are great. We just gotta play team ball, share the ball
and just stay connected and just trust what coach Byington is saying. Any team that’s going to win a championship is the most bought in team to the system.” 

It appears as if Nesmith is bought in, he’s at least bought in enough to join Vanderbilt a year early.

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