Mark Byington has earned the right to take a victory lap and dunk on everyone who doubted him and picked Vanderbilt to finish last in the SEC. After all, he's done this before. His first team at James Madison four years ago was picked to finish ninth of 10 teams in the CAA before surging past expectations to share the conference crown.

The Tigers connected on over half of their shots from the field including nine three-point attempts, scored 19 points on 12 Vanderbilt turnovers, and received 29 points from their bench players. Their recipe for success also included 20-point efforts from Denver Jones and Chaney Johnson.

Mark Byington will now be the Mark H. Carter and Family Men's Basketball Head Coach at Vanderbilt, after Carter endowed the head coaching position for the Commodores, the program announced in a release Tuesday.

Vanderbilt basketball lost to Auburn as expected, but it must play better going forward against elite teams if it hopes to make the NCAA tournament.

Here's what Mark Byington said about Chaney Johnson's performance for Auburn against Vanderbilt basketball. From my seat at Super Bowl LIX, the crowd’s disparate reactions to Swift and Trump felt like a chilling microcosm of our culture.

The Vanderbilt Commodores (17-7, 5-6) couldn't find an extra gear on Tuesday as they lost to No. 1 Auburn 80-68 in Memorial Gymnasium. The Commodores battled hard, but were buried in the game's last 14 minutes to fall to below .