There’s a palpable buzz in Nashville about Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington and what he can carry to the faculty basketball program. The 48-year-old is already making sweeping modifications to the tradition.
Each single participant on the Commodores’ roster is listed as some extent guard and it’s not an accident.
Byington was employed in March because the successor to Jerry Stackhouse. He most not too long ago spent 4 years at James Madison and shortly constructed a Mid-Main powerhouse. The Dukes went 32-4 final season, with an early earth-shattering win over Michigan State, to earn a No. 12 seed in March Insanity. They stomped Wisconsin within the first spherical however couldn’t advance past the Spherical of 32.
All over the place Byington goes, he wins. That was true at Georgia Southern. That was true at JMU.
He’s anticipated to win at Vanderbilt.
The Dores had some good groups lately however they haven’t made the NCAA Match since Bryce Drew’s first 12 months in 2017. Byington constructed a crew that may lastly get again to the dance via the switch portal and principally began from scratch.
The roster will look completely completely different— in additional methods than one!
Vanderbilt basketball has 18 level guards… type of.
Before everything, Vandy added 10 fairly high-profile transfers:
Jaylen Cary, energy ahead, James Madison
M.J. Collins, combo guard, Virginia Teech
Jason Edwards, combo guard, North Texas
Alex Hemenway, ahead, Clemson
A.J. Hoggard, level guard, Michigan State
Grant Huffman, level guard, Davidson
Chris Manon, ahead, Cornell
Devin McGlockton, ahead, Boston Faculty
Tyler Nickel, ahead, North Carolina
Kijani Wright, heart, USC
Though these are their precise positions, that’s not how they’re outlined on the crew’s official roster. Each single participant on the crew is listed as a “level guard,” together with the holdovers. Each single one!
As bizarre because it seems, the roster positioning is on function.
Mark Byington has stated on a number of events all through the preseason that he needs a number of gamers on his crew to assume and act like level guards. The choice to record each participant on the identical place is a strategic transfer centered on mentality. All 18 guys, no matter the place they play on the ground, ought to assume like some extent guard. Thus, they’re all level guards!
