Vanderbilt basketball’s Mark Byington rips ’embarrassing’ performance in blowout loss to Arkansas

The No. 15 Vanderbilt Commodores are floundering. After starting the season with 16 consecutive wins, including a 3-0 start in SEC play, the Commodores are now on a three-game losing skid following a 93-68 beatdown at the hands of John Calipari’s No. 20 Arkansas Razorbacks on Tuesday night at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

Vanderbilt basketball head coach Mark Byington did not hold back on his assessment of the way his team played.

“That’s the first time this year I felt like we didn’t compete,” the 49-year-old Byington said (via Joey Dwyer of Sports Illustrated).

Byington also called the Commodores’ performance “embarrassing” (h/t Alaina Morris of 247 Sports).

Vanderbilt was dominated by the Razorbacks on both ends of the floor. The Commodores were outshot from the field (64-58) and made only 38 percent of their attempts from the floor, while Arkansas knocked down 58 percent of its shots. Arkansas decisively won the rebounding battle (39-27) and produced 21 fastbreak points to just eight by Byington’s squad.

The Commodores never led the game and trailed Arkansas by as many as 31 points.

The Razorbacks got nearly everything they wanted offensively, and their 138.1 offensive rating is the highest by any Vanderbilt opponent, so far in the 2025-26 college basketball season. It also doesn’t seem to be an issue randomly showing up for the Commodores, as their last three games had teams posting at least a 120.7 offensive rating against them.

Tyler Nickel paced Vanderbilt basketball with 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting from the field and 5-for-11 from behind the arc, but the rest of the starters combined for 9-for-33 shooting.

The Commodores will regroup, as they have a very winnable game up ahead against the Mississippi State Bulldogs (No. 83 on KenPom) at Humphrey Coliseum at Starkville on Saturday.

The post Vanderbilt basketball’s Mark Byington rips ’embarrassing’ performance in blowout loss to Arkansas appeared first on ClutchPoints.