“I don’t need any more than that”: Mark Byington gets real on SEC struggles after losing 75-66 against Missouri

Mark Byington tasted his first defeat of SEC basketball as Vanderbilt coach in Saturday's matchup against Missouri. The Commodores lost 75-66 to the Tigers in Columbia.

Byington, who has led Vanderbilt in two conference road games, with one win and a loss in his first season with the team, said that winning on the road was difficult.

“I’m two SEC road games in, but I don’t need any more than that,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s really tough. Your team’s gotta be — you can’t make mistakes. You’ve gotta make the right plays. … It’s the best league in the country. Best league ever from what the stats are saying." (3:57)

"So, winning on the road against teams is gonna be tough, and home court advantage is gonna be big. We need ours. I thought Missouri had a great home court advantage today. Their crowd was into it and loud.”

The loss means Vanderbilt is now 13-3 to start the season, having lost back-to-back games following a victorious SEC opener against LSU last week. However, the Commodores have another chance to bounce back in Wednesday's matchup against South Carolina.

Mark Byington describes his ideal coaching debut

Mark Byington is in his first year as Vanderbilt head coach, coming in at a time when confidence in the Commodores is low. However, Byington expressed his confidence in the team to win games.

“I think you wanna see how we’re going to build it,” he said ahead of the Nov. 4 season opener against the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks. "I think you’ll see the framework of our team. I think you’re going to see guys flying around, playing really hard, hopefully playing unselfish, playing basketball the right way. And you do those things, the score takes care of itself."

Before coming to Vanderbilt, Byington was the head coach of James Madison for four years. During this period, he led the team to a Sun Belt Conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023-24 where they advanced to the second round.

Now, he is in charge of the Commodores following the departure of Jerry Stackhouse after five years. Under Stackhouse, Vanderbilt failed to make an NCAA Tournament appearance and finished the 2023-24 season with a 9-23 overall record and a 4-14 mark in conference play.

Byington, on the other hand, led James Madison to 13-7 in his debut season as the head coach and ended his time with the program with an 82-36 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2023-24 season.