With Return, Tyler Tanner Has Chance To Form All-Time Great Vanderbilt Basketball Legacy
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NASHVILLE—In the line at the top of the screen, Tyler Tanner’s name popped up as he waited to be granted access to a Zoom call in the hours following his commitment to Vanderbilt basketball. As he did so, he didn’t scream future star.
Tanner was a three-star recruit that was averaging 9.0 points per game as the third option for Brad Beal Elite on the EYBL circuit. Evaluators thought he was undersized and too skinny to make an impact as a power-five player right away. He had just two offers from non midmajors, one of which was from a coach that had been fired since the time of his offer. Vanderbilt’s staff believed there was something there worth pushing all the chips in on, though.
Vanderbilt found Tanner because then-assistant James Strong was a family friend and invited him to a camp; where he impressed the staff and reminded then-Vanderbilt coach Jerry Stackhouse of former NBA star Jason Kidd. All these years later, Stackhouse’s thought seems a lot less crazy than it did at the time.
“He’s gonna be really, really good for years,” former Vanderbilt assistant Adam Mazarei said during Tanner’s freshman year. “He’s going to be one of the next greats, like Darius [Garland], like Scotty [Pippen Jr].”
Mazarei also seemed crazy at the time, but all these years later, Tanner is on track to fulfill those expectations in his third season on West End. In some ways, his body of work is already better than Garland’s and Pippen Jr.’s. Tanner has made the two NCAA Tournaments–one of which as the best player on the team–those two haven’t made one combined. If things go to plan for Tanner, he’ll also be an NBA Draft pick like those two were.
If he hadn’t had the belief of Stackhouse and company, Tanner may have been a Belmont Bruin when it was all said and done. Tanner wasn’t a self promoter. He was—and still is—humble, humble enough to keep his phone number in his Twitter bio in case anyone needed anything from him. Humble enough to plausibly slip through the cracks.
Since then, his number has been removed from his bio. If it hadn’t been, he would be wading through the swamp of texts and calls that would come with it every day. Tanner likely wouldn’t choose to be out of reach if this were a normal life, but this is what stardom requires of him. And best believe Tanner is a star.
By the end of the 2026-27 season, he may be one of the biggest ones that this program has ever had.
The number of Vanderbilt basketball players to be in Tanner’s position–the fringe of the first round of the NBA Draft–and to turn down that option in favor of returning to Vanderbilt is big enough to count on one hand. Tanner had–and still has–NBA ambitions, but he’s got more business to handle in his hometown before heading there. That business could transition him from stardom to Vanderbilt basketball legend status.
That’s what Tanner opens the door to with his return to Vanderbilt basketball for a third season; a legacy on par with the greatest basketball players to ever wear a Vanderbilt basketball uniform. That sentence doesn’t only encompass Pippen Jr. and Garland, it also brings this program’s best winners and four-year guys into play.
Tanner’s first two years in a Vanderbilt uniform have positioned him to become one of the program’s best success stories to date, now he just needs one more standout year to put his jersey in the rafters at Memorial Gymnasium.
If this all goes to plan, Tanner will be one of only two players in program history to play at Vanderbilt for three seasons while making the NCAA Tournament in each one. The only other one is former first-round draft pick John Jenkins. Tanner would also end his career as one of just 11 first round picks in this program’s history.
In an era that would have encouraged Tanner to look elsewhere after averaging less than six points per game as a freshman, he chose to stay, get better and is subsequently building a legacy while doing so. Tanner could’ve quit on chasing stardom at Vanderbilt, but he’s chosen to pursue it.
And Vanderbilt’s fanbase loves him back–as one of its own. No Vanderbilt player in any sport signs more autographs than Tanner. None take more pictures with fans. None know more people in the stands by name than Tanner does. Unless Tanner deems those things too exhausting moving forward, he’s likely to continue to claim all of those titles in his junior season.
“This can all be taken away in an instant, so I’m never going to think ‘oh, I’m that guy,’” Tanner said. “I could never be cocky. I was just never raised that way. My confidence is growing, but I’ll never be cocky. I’ll probably be humble just because I know how fragile it is and I know how quickly it can go away.”
The possibility that Tanner doesn’t have the year he wants to is always in play, but the smart money is on Tanner’s arrow continuing to point upward. If it does, he could eclipse the 20 point per game mark for the first time since Scotty Pippen Jr. did it for this program during the 2021-22 season. He’d also be one of the seven players in program history to lead it to the second weekend as the team’s best player.
Tanner says he’s better than he was the last time he played at Vanderbilt. Time to see if that can put him in this program’s history books.
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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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