This Vanderbilt Basketball Team Needs its Swagger Back After Third-Straight Loss; Column

How could reality not set in for this Vanderbilt basketball team as Karter Knox swung off the rim and completed a play that just about summed up a lot of its night in Fayetteville.

Knox found his way to the basket by backdooring Vanderbilt wing Tyler Nickel–who has made a point to emphasize the idea that he’s an improved defender, and has backed it up with the best defensive analytics of his career. It’s the type of play that no college basketball team is immune to over the course of the season, but Vanderbilt appeared to be as close as anyone to earning that title. Watching the cut unfold and turn into an easy two points in Vanderbilt’s 93-68 Tuesday-night loss to Arkansas wasn’t all that stunning, though.

“Just kind of speaking from the heart, that was embarrassing,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said in his postgame radio hit. “That's the first time this year that I felt like we didn't compete, and we weren't tough and we got on our heels right away. They’re an athletic team who plays great in this building, we know it, but at the same time,, I got to do a better job with our guys, 'cause that wasn't who we are.”

The evening was the type that made the declarations that Vanderbilt is a true Final Four contender, an SEC regular-season title contender and a potential top-three seed in the NCAA Tournament seem short sighted. Arkansas cut it up, beat it up on the glass, forced it to re-evaluate and made seemingly everyone watching wonder what happened to the Vanderbilt team that got off to a 16-0 start.

Vanderbilt Basketball — Jan 20, 2026; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks wing Billy Richmond III (24) passes during the first half against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Bud Walton Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

It’s been that type of week for Vanderbilt. It’s now lost three in a row and has rapidly fallen from grace–as well as the top of the SEC standings. Tuesday was its most jarring act yet.

Who was that group of guys wearing black jerseys on Tuesday night? Where was the abundance of easy looks that they’ve grown accustomed to having? Where was the defensive intensity? Did the old guy wearing No. 5 just get backdoored? Did Billy Richmond really just get to the basket on a straight-line drive off of a sideline out of bounds play?

Those were all questions that could’ve been asked in the first 10-or-so minutes of Tuesday night’s game. The biggest of which, though, was ‘where did this group’s swagger go?’

“That’s the type of performance where you want to make changes as a coach,” Byington said. “I didn't do a good job prepping them. We came into the game with the wrong mentality.”

The swagger element of this Vanderbilt team that worked its way up the AP Top 25 showed up at times at Bud Walton Arena–particularly while Nickel went on a late-first half heater to finish the first half with 17 points and Vanderbilt pulled a minor miracle to get this thing back within striking distance before the break–but it didn’t appear to have the same edge or invincibility that it’s had.

By the first media timeout, Vanderbilt guard Mike James was on the floor rolling around in pain, Vanderbilt was trailing 9-2–and could’ve been trailing by more had Arkansas made more open looks–and the contingent of Arkansas fans on hand was calling the Hogs. The scene was reminiscent of a superhero in the moments after it lost its powers.

Practicality didn’t favor this Vanderbilt team on Tuesday, either. Star guard Tyler Tanner was thoroughly outdueled by freshman standout Darius Acuff, Arkansas had some fix for Byington’s rolodex of actions, Vanderbilt was outrebounded 39-27 and was outscored 50-22 in the paint. Performances like that don’t usually end favorably.

This one certainly didn’t. This was a nightmare for this program that it likely knew deep down was coming when its frontcourt issues started to bubble up a few weeks ago, but didn’t want to believe.

“The blowout at Bud Walton is on,” ESPN announcer Karl Ravech said on the broadcast.

Now that this has come, Vanderbilt has to practice what Tanner preached after its Saturday loss to Florida. If it thinks about this–or the SEC regular-season title race, which it’s all but out of unless it runs the table the rest of the way–then it’ll drive itself crazy.

“Just a short-term memory,” Tanner said Saturday. “We're gonna lose games, it’s gonna happen in the SEC. So, I mean, we're gonna learn from this, but we're not gonna harp on the negatives or anything.  We're just gonna try to get better and come back.”

Vanderbilt’s leaders will say that, but this has become a demoralizing enough stretch to test how much it can cling to Tanner’s–as well as Nickel, who declared that Vanderbilt’s standard is as high as any program in the country’s–words.

Time to see what this group is really made of and how long it takes to get the old version of itself back.

“That was a poor performance and we got to get back to work,” Byington said, “And put our finger on exactly the things that went wrong.”