Vanderbilt opens its 2026-27 season Monday night with a ranked team, a young roster and plenty of attention already circling around Tyler Tanner.
The No. 24 Commodores host Bellarmine at 6 p.m.
CT at Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, with the game set to stream on SEC Network+. Andrew Allegretta and Shan Foster will have the call, while fans in Nashville can also listen on 102.5 The Game and through the Vanderbilt Athletics app with Kevin Ingram and Tim Thompson.
This is the first regular-season test for a Vanderbilt team that spent last year piling up results. The Commodores went 27- wins last season, finishing just one shy of the program record from 1992-93, and they earned their first NCAA Tournament win since 2012. Mark Byington’s group also reached the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two seasons, giving Vanderbilt back-to-back appearances for the first time since 2015-16.
Tanner is the headline name entering the year, and the preseason honors have come fast. He picked up first-team All-America recognition from the Associated Press, CBS Sports and ESPN, landed on the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year watch list and the NABC Player of the Year watch list, and was a unanimous first-team All-SEC selection. Andy Katz also named Tanner the best junior in college basketball heading into the season.
Last season, Tanner averaged 19.5 points, 5.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game while earning First Team All-SEC honors and additional All-America recognition.
Vanderbilt enters the year ranked No. 24 in the AP Poll and No. 21 in the Coaches Poll, marking the first time since 2015-16 that the Commodores have started a season in the rankings. They’ve also appeared in 18 straight AP polls dating back to last season, matching the school record for consecutive appearances. The only other stretch like that came across the 1964-65 and 1965-66 seasons.
The roster looks different, too. Vanderbilt’s 2026-27 group is the seventh youngest in college basketball and the second youngest among high-major teams behind Arkansas. The Commodores list seven freshmen and four sophomores, and all 15 players on the roster are eligible to return next season.
Bellarmine provides the first look at this new season, and it also brings a first-time matchup. Monday’s opener is the first meeting between the Commodores and Knights, and it features two of the youngest rosters in college basketball, with a combined 13 freshmen and nine sophomores.
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Clark Lea Faces Growing Pressure Over Vanderbilts Next Tough Decisions
Vanderbilts latest loss to Kentucky left Clark Lea sounding less interested in excuses than in accountability. The Commodores are 3-5 and stuck in a five-game skid, and the problems have piled up in familiar places: an offense that has struggled to establish the run, too many penalties, and a defense that has not held up consistently enough to keep games manageable.
Lea said the team has more talent than it has shown, which is the kind of admission that tends to sharpen the pressure around a program already searching for an identity. When a coach starts talking openly about needing to re-evaluate coaching staff and personnel, it usually means the next stretch is about more than just fixing one bad performance. For Vanderbilt, the bigger question is how much change comes after a season that has already made patience harder to find. [Read more 🡒]