Vanderbilt Basketball: Bryce Drew fired after 3 years as head coach

Let’s look at the coaching career of Bryce Drew while also examining what direction Vanderbilt will head for their next coach.

After three unfruitful years in Nashville, Bryce Drew has been fired by Vanderbilt. Drew landed in the SEC after five years at his alma mater (Valparaiso), and while he recruited well, he couldn’t coach this team to enough success during his tenure. He has experience playing in the NBA and he was ranked 49th in our early season head coach rankings, but this past season was the nail in the coffin for his time with Vanderbilt.

Drew is known around the country mostly for hitting The Shot, and guiding Valpo to the Sweet Sixteen back in 1998. After a six-year NBA career and brief stint overseas, Drew returned to his alma mater as an assistant under his father Homer. He took over the program in 2011 and found immediate success in the Horizon League. He took the Crusaders to the NCAA Tournament twice and to the NIT title game in his final year. After a successful five-year stint at Valpo, he was hired by Vanderbilt back in 2016.

The successor to Kevin Stallings, Drew was given the keys to the Commodores program and big things were expected down the line. He led the team to the NCAA Tournament in year one but struggled the following season. Things were bound to turn around, however, as an elite recruiting class arrived in Nashville, headlined by 5-star recruits Darius Garland and Simi Shittu. Unfortunately, the wheels came off for the Commodores, as Garland missed most of the season after an injury and Shittu never developed into an elite player.

The Commodores finished 9-23 this past season, losing all 18 of their SEC games. They were the first SEC team to go winless in conference play in half a century. This team struggled mightily on offense without Garland. If they return, there’s a core of players with potential, though clearly the loss of Garland torpedoed Drew’s offense. Sophomore guard Saben Lee (12.7 ppg, 3.8 apg) and freshman forward Aaron Nesmith (11.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg) will be valuable players either in Vanderbilt or for another team in the future. Unfortunately, this team just didn’t come together and the next coach will have to rebuild out of the SEC basement.

Vanderbilt AD Malcolm Turner is the former president of the NBA G League and he will cast a wide net in his first coaching search. Turner may want to avoid another mid-major coach like Drew, but there are plenty of attractive options out there, like Matt McMahon at Murray State and John Brannen at Northern Kentucky. A likely scenario is that Vanderbilt will hire someone with more experience, perhaps reaching out to a former power conference coach or plucking someone with NBA experience. Whichever direction they go, there will be attractive options for this post, even as two other SEC jobs sit open.

Drew make great strides at Valparaiso, but really struggled at Vanderbilt without his big recruit. Clearly, he had some unfortunate luck, and this team does not go winless in conference play if Garland avoids injury. However, teams less talented than Vanderbilt have lost stars and still managed to win a conference game. Some may say that three years wasn’t long enough for Drew, but the move truly isn’t very surprising. Drew will be back as a head coach before too long, and if he returns to the mid-major level I’m sure he’ll find success again. For Vanderbilt, they can easily rebuild this thing if they can nail this hire; someone who can both bring in great players and get them to play to their potential.