Vanderbilt Basketball's Defense Has Shades of Leonard Hamilton; Column
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NASHVILLE—If you squint hard enough, you can see it.
The bread and butter that former Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton built his 23-year career at Florida State around was the way his teams so distinctly made things uncomfortable for everyone else. Perhaps they weren’t the most talented team on the floor at all times, but they were a pain.
Who knows if this Vanderbilt team ever takes on that reputation, but it’s at least got a starting point to being like the groups that Hamilton built on the defensive end. Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington has two strong point of attack defenders in Tyler Tanner and Frankie Collins, he’s got length on the wings with Tyler Harris, Tyler Nickel and Mike James, he appears to have a real backline shotblocker in Jalen Washington and he appears to have the depth to force his players to exert themselves on the defensive end.
Those Florida State teams lived off of the turnover and their ability to force them at times. That’s where Byington and Hamilton differ psychologically, but they appear to have some of the same principles otherwise.
“We don't want to be taking ourselves out of position,” Byington said. “Those guys were really high and deny, and really spread out. And we don't want to do that, but at the same time, we're going to be a better defensive team than we were last year because of guys like that.”
The 2024-25 defense that Byington refers to finished last in the SEC in KenPom’s defensive efficiency metric, was 16th in opponent effective field goal percentage, 15th in opponent two-point percentage and 231st nationally in non steal turnover percentage. The silver lining within that group defense is their ability to demonstrate that they had a clear identity.
Perhaps they didn’t have the personnel to play to that identity correctly in SEC play, but that group was clear about their intention to get out and pressure the ball. If this Vanderbilt team has learned anything about itself through three regular season games and two exhibitions, it’s that it’s got a chance to play the way Byington wants to defensively and do it at a higher level than it did last season.
The strength of opponent to this point hasn’t been all that difficult, but the signs appear to be there for this Vanderbilt team on the defensive end.
“Their guards are so physical," Eastern Kentucky coach AW Hamilton said. “It’s hard to get by them. I always talk to my guys about–it’s like offensive linemen. You can call holding in football every single time, you know they’re going to grab and then they’ve got to let go and they do a really good job with that.”
Vanderbilt held Hamilton’s team to 33.3% shooting from the field, 24.2% shooting from 3-point range and forced the Colonels into 14 turnovers on Wednesday night. It was the first time this Vanderbilt team didn’t break 100, but it didn’t matter because of what it did on the defensive end against a generally proficient offensive team.
In Vanderbilt’s other buy game–its opener against Lipscomb–it forced the Bisons to shoot just 30.4% from the field and 23.1% from 3-point range while turning it over 18 times. That Bisons team–which has made a name off of a difficult to defend Princeton offense–often couldn’t get into their stuff because of what Vanderbilt threw at it.
“We can’t really simulate what they’re doing in practice,” Lipscomb coach Kevin Carroll said. “They’re pressing you on every made basket and that doesn’t allow us to get into our offense as seamlessly and as quickly as we normally do. When you do get an advantage there’s just a lot of length around the rim, they’re not helping on shooters, they’re just gonna play one-on-one and use their length and athleticism to make you finish over them.”
Vanderbilt did a nice job of that on that Monday night as it forced the Bisons into being blocked six times and backed up that performance by blocking three shots and recording seven steals against UCF in its second game. Vanderbilt recorded six blocks again on Wednesday while recording 13 steals.
Perhaps what’s led to that more than anything is the attitude of this Vanderbilt team. Byington intentionally recruited players with a chip on their shoulder and a desire to win, it appears as if he had another thing that he wanted to hear.
"I take some pride in defense," Collins told Vandy on SI over the summer. "I love to pick up 94 feet or even if I'm picking up in the half court, I just love to put pressure on the ball and make ballhandlers uncomfortable. I feel like I can move my feet really well. I feel like I have really good hands. I just really love defense."
It appears as if Collins’ teammates do, too.
_(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, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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