When Vanderbilt’s new basketball practice facility was nearing completion in December of last year, the Commodores’ first-year coach Mark Byington had one request: “We need a four-point line.” There were already two three-point lines on the floor — one for college, one for the pros — but Byington wanted another so he could drill into his players the importance of spacing.
“I’m anal about certain things, and probably the biggest thing I’m anal about is spacing,” Byington told Hoops HQ. “I think it makes decisions easier for our guards, which makes things easier for everybody else. I tell the guys all the time, we’re a good shooting team when we’re a good passing team.”
Right now, Vanderbilt is pretty much a good everything team, and the surprise early story of the 2025-26 college basketball season. The Commodores, who were picked in the preseason to finish 10th in the SEC, are 9-0 heading into Saturday’s home game against Central Arkansas. They are ranked No. 4 in the NET and No. 17 in the AP Top 25. That’s their highest ranking in 10 years.
Their defense is solid (No. 25 on KenPom in adjusted effiency), but Vandy’s calling card is a flowing, lethal offense that is both efficient and aesthetic. The Commodores rank No. 2 on KenPom in adjusted offensive efficiency and are third in the country in scoring at 96.8 points per game. They’re also eighth in assists (20.1) and fifth in turnover percentage.
Vanderbilt has been at their best against their top competition. Their wins against the top four opponents per KenPom came by an average of 17.8 points. Their best win of the season was a 96-71 win over Saint Mary’s, the most points the Gaels had given up in regulation during Randy Bennett’s 25-year tenure.
If Byington’s offense relies on decision making, it’s imperative he have good decision makers. That’s why at any given time the Commodores always have two point guards on the floor, sometimes three or four. All of them can create offense for themselves as well as their teammates. It starts with what is arguably the best backcourt in the SEC, 6-foot-2 senior guard Duke Miles and 6-foot sophomore Tyler Tanner, who are combining for 34.2 points and 8.7 assists per game. Eight players are averaging 17 or more minutes.
All of this is remarkable for a program that brought in 11 new players, including eight transfers. When it came time to recruit the portal last spring, Byington and his staff focused on three things. The first, of course, was talent, for which they used an analytics company to narrow the pool. The second was fit, which required certain skill sets and decision making that would fuel Byington’s high-octane offense. The third was the most important, and the most difficult to discern. “We wanted guys who care about winning,” Byington said. “In this NIL era, guys think, more points, more money. But even the worst team in the country has a leading scorer. We wanted to find guys that were willing to sacrifice, and that’s a hard process.”
Byington first got a sense of how well things would work when the players all got to Nashville over the summer. “It wasn’t because of their talent, it was because you could see chemistry coming right away, and it seemed genuine,” he said. That carried over to summer workouts, during which it became evidnet this team was not only talented, but deep. “They looked at each other and thought, man, there’s eight or nine guys that could start,” Byington said. “That competitiveness drove the summer.”
It is fitting that college baksetball’s hottest program is located in America’s hottest city. Nashville has been growing like crazy the last 10 or 15 years, and with no pro sports in town, the citizens are flocking to see a football team that could be on the verge of making the College Football Playoff, and a basketball team that could make the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. Byington told me that the school is looking to capitalize on this energy by creating a “celebrity row” where familiar names (such as Jelly Roll, who came to a game last year) can sit courtside and give off a cool-to-be-here vibe. “We’re in one of the best cities in the world, and we want to be Nashville’s team,” Byington said.
Of all the anticipated plots in college basketball, the idea that Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gym is becoming a place to see and be seen might be the most unlikely. But this team has been making plenty of points, and these Commodores have every intention to keep firing.
Other Hoop Thoughts
• We knew Florida would have a hard time replacing the vaunted guard trio that spurred the Gators to the national championship. But it was supposed to be a little easier due to the arrival of Xaivian Lee, the 6-foot-3 junior guard who averaged 16.9 points last season at Princeton. Besides being one of the highest-ranked players in the transfer portal, Lee signed a reported multi-year $6 million NIL deal with the sneaker company Serious Player Only.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with mid-major stars, Lee has struggled with the move to the high-major level. His lone promising performance was a 20-point outing during a Nov. 28 win over Providence, but Lee looked lost during the Gators’ 67-66 loss at Duke on Tuesday. He shot 1 for 10 (1 for 6 from three) and finished with 4 points and 1 assist. He was even worse on the defensive end, as he has had trouble all season at stopping dribble penetration. Lee sat on the bench for the final 6:24 while Gators coach Todd Golden preferred to go with Slovian native Urban Klavzar, a 6-foot-1 sophomore.
There’s plenty of time for Lee to find his groove, of course, but being a highly-ranked (and highly-paid) transfer can be a heavy mental load on both a player and a team. The good news is that even with Lee struggling, the Gators were one possession from beating a top-five team on the road. But for this team to reach its potential, Lee is going to need to play much better.
• I’m always on the lookout for breakout performances, wondering they will turn out to be aberrational or the start of something new. So keep your eye on North Carolina freshman point guard Derek Dixon, who played a season-high 24 minutes, including the last 5:50, and scored two huge buckets in the final minute to seal the Tar Heels’ 67-64 win at Kentucky Tuesday night. Dixon is no diamond in the rough (he was ranked No. 43 in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index), but this was the first time Hubert Davis trusted him during winning time of a big game. With senior forward Seth Trimble still sidelined by a broken arm for another month or so, the Tar Heels need all hands on deck, and Dixon proved that his hands are very capable.
The other breakout performance of note came from Arkansas forward Malique Ewin, a 6-foot-10 junior transfer from Florida State. Ewin was a non-factor in the Razorbacks’ losses to Michigan State and Duke, but his 12-point, 9-rebound performance in 18 minutes gave the Hogs a critical push in their 89-80 home win over Louisville on Wednesday. We all know Arkansas has dynamic guards, but if Ewin keeps producing, he could be a tipping point addition to an already formidable froncourt tandem of 6-foot-10 senior forwards Trevon Brazile and Nick Pringle.
• Auburn scored a nice win over N.C. State on Wednesday night, but I honestly cannot ever remember seeing a player struggle so much at home as Tahaad Pettiord. The 6-foot-1 sophomore guard was coming off a brilliant stint in Las Vegas where he averaged 22.3 points on 42.1 percent three-point shooting in three games. Against the Wolfpack he had 6 points on 1 of 7 shooting (0 for 3 on three). In five home games Pettiford averaged 8.5 points on 35.8 percent shooting (25.9 percent form three). Perhaps it’s a good thing that Auburn’s big game against Arizona is taking place in Tucson instead of Neville Arena, but at some point Pettiford needs to fix this problem. As Yogi Berra said, “Ninety percent of this game is half-mental.”
• Meanwhile, to paraphase another Yogi-ism, it’s getting late early for N.C. State, which has now lost three of its last four and was fortunate to squeak by VCU at home 85-79 on Nov. 17. We knew Will Wade signed some potent offensive players in the transfer portal, but this team is soft and sloppy on defense. N.C. State ranks No. 90 on KenPom in adjusted defensive efficiency and is No. 339 in defensive free throw rate. Much of that is due to the lack of interior size, so there’s no other way to stop dribble penetrators other than to foul them. Wade has a couple of easy games coming up before his team hosts Kansas next Saturday. He needs to clean up the defensive miscues, especially if Jayhawks freshman guard Darryn Peterson is back by then.
• What in the world has gotten into Mike White? During his seven seasons as the head coach at Florida, the Gators never ranked in the top 100 in tempo on KenPom, and twice they were ranked below 300. His first three teams at Georgia were Nos. 159, 96 and 219. This season, however, his Dawgs are playing at the sixth-fastest pace and leading the nation in scoring at 99.9 points per game. Georgia is 8-1 and ranked No. 14 in the NET, with the lone loss coming in overtime to Clemson in Charleston.
We won’t know how good this team really is until it opens SEC against Auburn and Florida in early January, but this drastic change in styles is just the latest example of how the analytics-driven, pace-and-space craze has totally overtaken college basketball — for the better.
• I know a lot of people are jumping on the Arkansas-is-the-best-team-in-the SEC bandwagon, but I still think that when Alabama is healthy, it has the highest ceiling in the league. The Tide took an important step in that regard on Wednesday when 6-foot-5 sophomore guard Jalil Bethea made his season debut. The Miami transfer and former five-star recruit broke his left pinky toe during practice in September and had surgery. He played only six minutes against the Tigers and had 2 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, but he has the potential to be an impact player off the bench.
The Tide was also down two starters (guards Aden Holloway and Latrell Wrightsell) and rebounding forward Keitenn Bristow for the Clemson game. Holloway and Wrightsell are close to returning and could be in action on Sunday against UTSA. Bristow will take a little longer, but it doesn’t sound like it’s a long-term thing. So it’s possible Alabama will be at full strength for its game against Arizona on Dec. 13.
• USC is back in the AP Top 25 in year two under Eric Musselman, and the Trojans are looking to add two critical pieces in the coming weeks. The first is their second-leading scorer, 6-foot-4 junior guard Rodney Rice, who has missed the last two games due to a shoulder injury. He will likely be out another 1-2 weeks. The second piece is the top recruit, Alijah Arenas, a 6-foot-6 guard and the son of longtime NBA veteran Gilbert Arenas. Alijah was in a frightening car accident over the summer and then suffered a knee injury during a team workout. The first published reports indicated he might be out for the season, but Arenas is now on track to rejoin the team in mid-January. It will be a while before we know just how effective Arenas will be after such a long layoff, but he was tracking to be the Trojans’ best offensive player before he got hurt, and he is widely considered to be the team’s best pro prospect. If Arenas can round into form and the Trojans can stay healthy otherwise, this could be a team no one will want to face come February.
• He hasn’t gotten as much attention as many other transfers, but Miami senior Malik Reneau has been on an absolute tear. The 6-foot-9 forward, who transferred from Indiana, is averaging 20.1 points, 7.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 blocks while shooting 56.3 percent from the floor and 35.0 percent from three. All of those are career highs. Reneau was a really good player at Indiana, but his jump this season isn’t due to just drastic improvement. It’s an indication of just how poorly former IU coach Mike Woodson deployed him in the Hoosiers’ analog offense compared to how Miami’s first-year coach Jai Lucas is using him. The Hurricanes are 7-2 and ranked No. 38 on KenPom, and the way Reneau is playing this team has a real chance to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
• I don’t know if Villanova will make the NCAA Tournament, but it has been impressive to see how quickly Kevin Willard has instilled his blue-collar culture on the Main Line. The Wildcats rank No. 1 on KenPom in offensive rebound percentage. Much of that is due to 6-foot-10 senior center Duke Brennan, who leads the country in that category at 28.8 percent. According to Matthew Winnick of Basket Under Review, that is the highest mark in that category in the 22-year history of KenPom.
Speaking of KenPom, college basketball’s analytics GOAT recently launched yet another new category: Jump balls. He explained his reasoning as only he can. Pomeroy has three years’ worth of data which reveals that Oklahoma forward Mohamed Wague is the jump ball king of college hoops with a 19-2 record.
Meet your guide
