Takeaways From Vanderbilt Basketball's 97-65 Exhibition Win Over UAB

NASHVILLE—Vanderbilt basketball continued to demonstrate that it's not unrealistic to expect a big year out of it Monday night as it overwhelmed UAB en route to a 97-65 win at Memorial Gymnasium. Mark Byington's team is now 2-0 in exhibition games.

Vanderbilt had four double-figure scorers and outdid UAB in nearly every statistical category. But, what does that mean?

Here's our takeaways from Vanderbilt's Monday-night exhibition win.

There’s no reason to think Vanderbilt isn’t what it’s supposed to be coming out of its first two exhibitions

Vanderbilt basketball — Vanderbilt's Bangot Dak Senior (8) dunks the ball during the second half of their exhibition game against UAB at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym Monday, October 19, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Vanderbilt is a preseason Top 25 team and has looked the part through its first two exhibitions, even while playing extended rotations.

It’s going to look different for this Vanderbilt team than it did a year ago for Mark Byington’s group, but that could be a good thing. This group appears to be able to handle a different style than Byington’s team did a year ago.

This Vanderbilt team overwhelmed UAB with its size and length in the frontcourt. It had elite point guard play from Tyler Tanner. It’s demonstrated that it has at least nine guys worthy of playing extended minutes.

Here’s a number that indicates how it looked different

Over 1,000 words of player-by-player takeaways on Vanderbilt’s exhibition win over UAB.

Thought Ant Brown and Bangot Dak were awesome.

More @VandyOnSI:https://t.co/ND265AOprJ
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 20, 2026

Vanderbilt outrebounded UAB 53-35 and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds Monday to drive home the point that it’s improved significantly in the frontcourt as a result of its investment there.

It’s not as if Vanderbilt was tested by an SEC team Monday, but UAB has enough size on its roster to challenge Vanderbilt on the inside. Vanderbilt didn’t appear to be willing to engage with any idea that indicated it was going to be matched by UAB physically.

Berke Buyuktuncel grabbed 10 rebounds. Bangot Dak grabbed five. Jayden Leverett grabbed four. That’s a good recipe for Vanderbilt to assert its dominance.

Ant Brown was the star of the night

Ant Brown with a nice finish in transition to put Vanderbilt up 15-9. pic.twitter.com/EyoTYSHjU1
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 19, 2026

Brown was the story of the night for Vanderbilt. It may not always be this way, but he looked like one of its best players.

He went for 10 points and 10 assists while taking heavy reps at point guard and get Vanderbilt into its offense. Brown was advertised as one of the best scorers in the high school class, but Vanderbilt is getting more than that out of him.

Brown has it in him to be a composed lead guard that changes games by manipulating the defense, generating good shots for others and not turning it over. Byington raved about Brown’s passing ability over the summer and he clearly wasn’t exaggerating. He’s probably Vanderbilt’s second-best facilitator on the roster. He’s got the potential to be an elite table setter.

That may be the biggest pleasant surprise of the preseason.

Vanderbilt’s shooting wasn’t bad enough to be concerning

It looked like it was going to be after it started 1-for-10, but Vanderbilt righted the ship and made enough open shots to fend off the narrative that it’s not a good shooting team. At least, for now.

Vanderbilt finished the night 11-for-29 from 3-point range and made 10 of its last 19. Its final percentage from beyond the arc was 38.0%. Most of those makes from 3-point range didn’t come in garbage time.

That happened with inconsistent shotmaking from a few of Vanderbilt’s best shooters.

Jackson Sheffield has to make free throws to get on the floor

Jackson Sheffield, and one. pic.twitter.com/vnfdEEckxV
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 19, 2026

Byington thinks his top 100 freshman big man will play significant minutes for Vanderbilt right away, but Sheffield has to hold up his end of the bargain by making enough free throws to stay off the line.

Sheffield is 0-for-7 from the line through the first two exhibitions of Vanderbilt’s season, which has clouded his performance. Otherwise, though, Sheffield has demonstrated that he’s ready to give Vanderbilt something. He’s physical. He’s a fluid athlete. He’s got one of the best motors on the team.

Even with the free throw troubles, take note that Byington had Sheffield as his second guy off the bench.

A Byington comment that puts it in perspective

NEW @VandyOnSI: @GrahamBaakko kept stats tonight for Vanderbilt vs. UAB's exhibition and we're 90% sure he's got all the scoring totals correct.

Full stats here: https://t.co/u5I4ohcTMo
— Joey Dwyer (@joey_dwy) October 20, 2026

Byington declared Monday night that he still isn’t close to determining his eventual rotations and the lineups that he knows for sure that he can rely on.

When Vanderbilt players talk about Monday, they still talk about how Byington was toying with things and how this group still hasn’t determined roles. If that’s what this looks like without role allocation or familiarity, though, that’s a positive indicator.

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