Vanderbilt basketball may have hit a home run with its hire of coach Mark Byington .

Byington, in his first season after being hired from James Madison, has already re-energized the Commodores fanbase with wins over Tennessee and Kentucky , a near-perfect non-conference record and a chance to get a bid to the NCAA tournament.

Though Byington, 48, was an under-the-radar hire compared to high-profile moves elsewhere in the SEC, in particular John Calipari moving to Arkansas and being replaced by Mark Pope at Kentucky, observers have begun to take notice of what he's done with the Commodores.

Mark Byington has ties to Virginia and the Carolinas

Byington is from Salem, Virginia, and he played at UNC-Wilmington where he scored over 1,000 points in his career and was named to the CAA All-Defensive Team. He received a master's degree from Virginia and worked as a graduate assistant and then later the director of operations for the Cavaliers.

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He also had assistant coaching stints at Virginia Tech and Charleston before landing his first head coaching job at Georgia Southern in 2013.

Mark Byington family

Mark Byington has a son, Chase Byington, who is a junior at Ensworth High School in Nashville and plays on the basketball team.

According to the Daily News Record , Byington's mother was an elementary school teacher and he is the youngest of three brothers.

Mark Byington led James Madison to notable upsets, NCAA tournament

Byington had a record of 131-97 in seven seasons at Georgia Southern. He got hired at James Madison in 2020 and had an 82-36 record in four seasons there.

Most notably, Byington led the Dukes to a season-opening upset of Michigan State in 2023 that led to several weeks of being ranked in the polls. James Madison finished with a regular-season record of 28-3 and won the Sun Belt tournament, earning a No. 12 seed in March Madness.

In March, Byington's Dukes pulled another Big Ten upset, beating No. 5 seed Wisconsin. James Madison lost to Duke in the second round.

How does Mark Byington compare to Jerry Stackhouse, Bryce Drew?

Before Byington, the Commodores had seen little success since the Kevin Stallings era. Vanderbilt last made the NCAA tournament in 2017, Bryce Drew's first year. It had not been ranked since 2015.

Byington got the Commodores back in the AP poll on Jan. 27. It remains to be seen whether Vanderbilt will make the NCAA tournament, but the Commodores are in a good spot.

Byington did this despite returning only one scholarship player from last year's roster. Vanderbilt instead brought in 10 transfers, led by Jason Edwards from North Texas, AJ Hoggard from Michigan State and Devin McGlockton from Boston College. Those 10 transfers have gelled quickly.

Vanderbilt this season pulled upsets over Tennessee and Kentucky, both of which resulted in court storms. The Commodores last beat two top-10 (at the time) teams in 2007 and the program had never before beaten both Tennessee and Kentucky while ranked in the top 10 during the same year.

What is Mark Byington's salary?

Byington's salary has not been made public. Because Vanderbilt is a private school, it is not subject to open records requests. Vanderbilt must report the salaries of its five highest-paid employees on a yearly Form 990 tax document, however, the numbers for 2024 will not be available until the spring of 2026.

In 2022, Stackhouse received over $4 million in compensation.