re: Vanderbilt MBB hiring James Madison’s Mark Byington as head coach

quote:

---

Great hire!

---

quote:

---

Byington is coming off a historic season at James Madison, leading the Dukes to a program-record 32 wins and the program's first NCAA tournament win since 1983. James Madison opened the season with a road win over No. 4 Michigan State and started 14-0 before suffering its first loss in early January. James Madison beat Arkansas State by 20 points in the Sun Belt Conference tournament title game and earned a 12-seed in the NCAA tournament.

Against 5-seed Wisconsin in the first round, James Madison never trailed and came away with a comprehensive 72-61 win over the Badgers. The Dukes' 32-4 season came to an end with a 93-55 loss to Duke on Sunday.

Byington has been the coach at James Madison for four seasons, winning a share of the CAA regular-season title in 2021 and leading the Dukes from the CAA to the Sun Belt in 2023. In his four seasons with the Dukes, he went 82-36 overall.

Prior to James Madison, Byington was the head coach at Georgia Southern for seven seasons, winning 20 or more games in each of his final three seasons with the Eagles.

He has assistant coach experience at Virginia Tech, Charleston and Virginia.

At Vanderbilt, Byington will replace Jerry Stackhouse, who was fired earlier this season after five seasons with the Commodores. Stackhouse led them to 22 wins in the 2022-23 season, but failed to reach the NCAA tournament.

---