The Vanderbilt basketball team lost a 74-72 heartbreaker in the Round of 32 on Saturday, to Nebraska. Vanderbilt missed a long-range shot as the buzzer sounded. Commodores head coach Mark Byington had a brutal reaction to seeing his team come so close to a Sweet 16 appearance.
“The hardest thing when you're in a tournament like this is there's a side of it with hurt and dejection, and you put everything into it. We were a play away, an inch away, from being in the Sweet 16,” Byington said postgame, per Sports Illustrated.
Commodores star Tyler Tanner threw up a half-court shot as time expired. The ball went half-way into the cylinder, before rattling out and breaking the hearts of Vanderbilt fans.
“You know, it's going to take a while for us to get over, but I think it's going to be a point that we're going to look back and think of the unbelievable journey this season has been, how great these guys were to coach, how great these guys were for Vanderbilt, the memories they made along the way,” Byington added.
Byington has led Vanderbilt to the NCAA Tournament in each of his two seasons as head coach. This was the first year he won a game in the NCAA tournament, while coaching the Commodores.
“But this one hurts. We felt like we were good enough to make a run. You know, there's, whatever you want to say, 20 or 30 plays. If one of them is different, the outcome is different. That's hard for us,” Byington added.
Nebraska is in the Sweet 16 for the first time as a program. Before this March Madness, the Cornhuskers had never won a NCAA tournament game.
Byington also coached at College of Charleston, Georgia Southern and James Madison before coming to Vanderbilt in 2024. He led James Madison to the NCAA tournament in 2024.
