We are less than 5 weeks away from the tip-off of a new college basketball season, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington, who talked about making the NCAA tourney last March and his expectations for this season.
As a senior at UNCW you were named 2nd-team all-conference as well as the all-conference defensive team: how good a player were you back in the day? It is tough to remember because I have been through a LOT of basketball since then. My senior year was both challenging/fun. I was coming back from a torn ACL in the final game of my junior year but it was the 1st time our program ever won 20 games. I would say that I was an average/above-average player.
You spent 7 years as Bobby Cremins’ top assistant at Charleston: what made him such a great coach, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? The way he treats people/cares about them. He is known as an elite recruiter: he is 1 of the few coaches I have ever seen who can get someone to play hard without yelling at them. The players felt that they were letting him down if they did not play hard. He gave me more responsibility than most assistants get and leaned on me while guiding me along the way.
In the 2024 NCAA tourney as coach of #12-seed JMU you had a double-digit upset of Wisconsin before losing to Duke: what makes the 12-vs-5 game such an exciting matchup? In those kind of games you just erase the seed number. The funny thing I remember about that week was that every time I turned on the TV everyone was picking us to beat the Badgers: I had many people come up to me after the game to thank me because they picked us in their bracket. The NCAA tourney is the most exciting sports event in the world.
Last year was your 1st season at Vanderbilt: what is the biggest difference between coaching in a power conference vs. coaching in a non-power conference? What sticks out to me is more than the league/budget: it is about how the sport has changed. I walked into this job in the midst of the storm with the timing of everything changing. The game/prep/work is the same, but the main thing is the state of the union in college sports.
You had 5 wins over ranked teams (Kentucky/Mississippi/Missouri/Tennessee/Texas A&M): how important was it to show everyone that you could have success in the greatest conference in college basketball history? It was an important year for us as we tried to get the program going. You must get your players to believe, as well as recruits/students/alumni. We went 12-1 in non-conference play but it was still just wait-and-see as we entered conference play. After we got some of those big wins there was a different energy around campus and everyone began to believe.
In the 2025 NCAA tourney you had a 3-PT loss to St. Mary’s: what did you team learn from that loss (the school’s 1st tourney appearance since 2017) that you think will help them this year? The tough thing now is that you wish you had a bunch of returning guys, but we only have 3. 1 of the 1st things we discussed at a team meeting this summer was about having bigger goals. We outplayed St. Mary’s for most of the game but they made more big plays at the end. We went around the room and talked about winning games in the NCAA tourney: once you get there and know what the environment is like, that experience is extremely valuable.
Last April you were named the Skip Prosser Man of the Year: what did it mean to you to receive such an outstanding honor? I felt very proud: I push off a lot of recognition I get and keep moving but I knew Skip and worked for Pete Gillen. It made me feel like I am doing things the right way: I was caught off-guard by how much it meant to me.
1 of your incoming freshmen is named Chandler Bing: could you BE more excited to have a player who shares the same name as 1 of the main characters on the TV show “Friends”?! It has been amazing to see how many jokes there were in text messages/social media. He is actually named after 1 of his relatives but I was a big “Friends” fan going up. He is a remarkable person who arrived here with 5 AP credits: he is smart and comes from a great family.
Your son Chase plays for his high school team: who is the best athlete in the family? I am scared of getting hurt by moving too fast so I will give it to him, but it is a constant conversation we have during dinner. 2 years ago I played him 1-on-1 and won the game…but have not played him since then because I was sore for a week afterward!
What are your goals for the upcoming season, and what are your expectations for the upcoming season? To get the most out of the team and see how good we can get. When your program has success you want to take steps forward, but in this league we could do better yet finish worse. What we learned along the way is to get ready for the next game, and we have a lot of guys who are motivated.
