Vanderbilt is done with football, at least for the moment, and that means the spotlight shifts quickly to a basketball team that looks built to matter right away.
Mark Byington has another top 15-ish group coming together, and the roster is taking shape around a familiar point guard in Tyler Tanner. Tanner pulled his name out of the NBA Draft at the last possible minute and is back, which matters in a big way for a team trying to settle in after a busy offseason. The returnees are few, but there’s enough there to give this thing a backbone.
Only three players are back from last season, and that has as much to do with eligibility turnover as anything else. Jalen Washington is still trying to turn heel by suing for a fifth year of eligibility and using it to play at the school to the east. The other departures through the portal were Tyler Harris, who landed at UNLV, and Jaylon Dean-Vines, who moved on to McNeese.
Tanner is joined by two sophomore holdovers from last year’s roster: Chandler “Chanandler Bong” Bing and Jayden Leverett. Bing averaged 3.6 points per game last season, though it felt like he played a larger role than that, and he should be asked to do more this year.
Leverett, meanwhile, brings size at 6’11” and saw his minutes rise late in the season, even if he didn’t appear in the NCAA Tournament games. He’s still a work in progress, but he looks closer to helping now than he did a year ago.
The transfer group is where Byington really filled in the blanks, and it’s not just a collection of short-term fixes.
Bangot Dak arrives after averaging 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds at Colorado. He’s listed at 6’11” and 210 pounds after four years in a college weight room, which is no small thing. Berke Buyuktuncel, a 6’10” forward from Turkey, comes over from Nebraska after putting up 6.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game and scoring 12 points against Vanderbilt in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Byington also brought in 6’4” junior guard T.O. Barrett from Missouri.
He averaged 8.6 points and 3.0 assists last season, and he apparently looks enough like Tanner that confusion is inevitable. The other backcourt addition is 6’3” sophomore Ace Glass, who posted 16.4 points per game as a freshman at Washington State before entering the portal.
Then there’s 6’8” sophomore Sebastian Williams-Adams, a former top-50-ish recruit who averaged 7.0 points and 3.5 rebounds as a freshman at Auburn and profiles more as a ceiling play than an instant answer.
The freshman class is larger, though not all of it will factor into the rotation. Three of the seven freshmen are walk-ons: Mavrick Hawkins, Baylor Allen, and Chase Byington, who is there because he’s Mark Byington’s son. The rest include top-100 forwards Gabe Nesmith and Ethan Mgbako, top-100 guard Ant Brown, and 6’9” forward Jackson Sheffield, who is ranked #136 by 247 Sports.
As for the lineup, the structure isn’t hard to sketch out. Tanner starts at point guard.
Bing looks like the wing starter. Buyuktuncel and Dak figure to man the four and five spots.
The real decision is at the other guard spot, where Glass and Barrett give Byington two very different options. Glass brings more scoring juice; Barrett offers another perimeter defender, with Tanner expected to cover enough of the offense to make that work.
Leverett should be ready to back up the frontcourt, maybe even more ready than Jackson Sheffield is at this point. The other guard, whichever one doesn’t start, will still play a lot.
Ant Brown should get meaningful minutes in the backcourt, and there’s only room on the wing for two of Bing, Nesmith, and Mgbako. Sebastian Williams-Adams will play.
The schedule opens next Monday with Bellarmine in Memorial. There’s no early-season tournament, which is one of those small 2026 realities that somehow feels bigger than it should.
Wake Forest, Memphis, and UCF come to Memorial in November, and Vanderbilt also has a trip to Ohio State the week of Thanksgiving. In early December, the Commodores head to Notre Dame for the SEC/ACC Challenge and then go to Cal.
After that, it’s a long wait until the SEC opener at Tennessee on January 2. The two games against Tennessee bookend the league slate, with the return meeting in Memorial set for March 6.
In Other News...
Vanderbilt Let Another Winnable Game Slip Away At Kentucky
Vanderbilt had every reason to think it could turn Saturdays trip to No. 12 Kentucky into a breakthrough, and for a while it looked that way. The Commodores started fast, played on the front foot and even owned the time of possession, building early momentum before the Wildcats began to claw back and change the feel of the game.
By the end, the scoreboard told the familiar story of a 34-17 loss and a fifth straight defeat, with another winnable opportunity slipping out of reach. Vanderbilt now gets a bye week to regroup before returning to action against Mississippi State, carrying both the frustration of this one and the need to find a cleaner finish when the next chance comes around. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Looked Like It Found Its Identity Until Everything Fell Apart
For a half of football in Lexington, Vanderbilt looked as if it had finally settled into the identity Clark Lea has been trying to build. The Commodores came out with confidence and control, jumped on No. 12 Kentucky early and carried a 10-0 lead before the game started to slip away. It was the kind of start that suggested the progress might finally be real, especially for a team looking to steady itself in a difficult season.
Then the familiar problems surfaced again. Vanderbilts fifth straight loss came with the same ingredients that have haunted it before: turnovers, penalties and a defense that could not hold up once the pressure mounted. Players and coaches pointed to lapses in discipline and focus as the reasons the game got away, a frustrating reminder that the Commodores are still searching for a way to turn promising stretches into a full 60-minute performance. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Just Got A Troubling Evan Hampton Injury Scare
Vanderbilt took a hit in the first half against Kentucky when running back Evan Hampton went down and had to be carted off the field. It was an especially unfortunate scene for a player who has become a useful piece of the Commodores offense and special teams this season, giving them value both as a runner and as a kick returner.
Coach Clark Lea said Hampton was not able to finish the game, and the next step is X-rays to determine just how serious the injury is. Hampton was also back in his home state when the injury happened, adding another layer of sting to a moment that already leaves Vanderbilt waiting for answers. [Read more 🡒]