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Mark Byington comments on Vanderbilt’s new policy to prevent court-storming penalties
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Mark Byington has worked wonders with Vanderbilt in his first season at the helm of the program. The Commodores, a 9-win team a season ago under Jerry Stackhouse, are 17-6 (and 5-5 in the SEC) after an 86-78 win over Texas on Saturday.
This season included some notable wins: against Kentucky and Tennessee, specifically. And both victories saw Vandy fans at Memorial Gym storm the court afterward. Those storming, along with storming the football field after an upset of Alabama, have cost the university $750,000 in fines under the SEC’s access to competition area regulations.
And in an effort to deter potential safety issues, Vanderbilt has asked fans to wait 1 minute after the final whistle so both officials and the opponent can leave the court before storming it.
“I think we get the best of both worlds,” Byington said when asked about the policy. “If we’re fortunate to win a big game, or win a game that’s worthy of that, we want to celebrate with them. But at the same time, (there’s) safety concerns (and) we don’t want that for the opposing team or for us. It’s a league rule, so it’s a league rule for a reason, and we don’t want the fines, but it is a nice compromise to be able to celebrate with them.”
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It’s always interesting to see a court storming in Memorial Gym because Vandy fans haven’t had much to cheer about in past years. Under Byington, though, it seems to be the new normal for a team looking for a first NCAA appearance since 2017.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
