Rick Barnes previews Tennessee basketball vs. Vanderbilt
Tennessee basketball plays at Vanderbilt on Saturday in the first meeting with coach Mark Byington’s Commodores.
It’s wacky how quickly circumstances can change in college sports these days, huh?
Just look at Jaylen Carey.
When the James Madison forward entered the transfer portal in 2024, after his freshman season, Carey “knew where I was going right away,” he’d later say. Carey followed coach Mark Byington to Vanderbilt, helping the Commodores return to the NCAA tournament after an eight-year absence.
During that NCAA appearance in March, Carey said of his experience at Vanderbilt, “It’s been a blessing.”
“Coming here with Coach Byington and his staff,” he said at the time, “the goal was to win right away, and we’ve done that.”
Soon after, though, Carey was back in the portal. Again, not for long. He committed to Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes on Zoom, Carey said, preempting conversations he’d scheduled with other schools. He signed with the Commodores’ archrival in April.
Now with Carey in Knoxville, he isn’t speaking affectionately of his old program in Nashville or of the coach from his first two college seasons.
In an interview July 14 with reporters at Tennessee, Carey complemented Barnes and his staff for “that hard coaching, my first year really ever getting it.”
Carey also referred to Vanderbilt as “that other school.” During a subsequent answer, he tripped up and said the word “Vanderbilt,” only to correct himself: “Excuse me. That place.”
Recently, I got a chance to ask Byington about it.
Vandy’s coach, predictably, took the high road.
I didn’t have to spell out exactly what Carey had said, though. Pretty sure he’d already heard.
“With Jaylen, I know I’m going to get asked about him multiple times this year,” Byington said. “We did a lot here to care for him. We did a lot as coaches and my staff and everything else to really look out for his best interests and care about him as a person. Now he’s somewhere different, and I hope he’s happy and it works out for him.”
The 6-foot-8 Carey, a junior and a son of former NFL player Vernon Carey, was a valuable role player in Vanderbilt’s frontcourt last season, though he only started one of the 33 games in which he appeared.
Carey averaged 8 points and 5.7 rebounds, and not coincidentally, two of his best games were against Tennessee. He had a double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds in Nashville in those teams’ first meeting, and Carey’s 18 points in Knoxville matched a season-high.
Clearly, Barnes came away impressed, signing Carey in April and lauding him as “a proven SEC competitor with excellent hands, superb offensive instincts, quality passing ability and a strong feel for the game.”
While Barnes’ Vols have dominated this rivalry for years, winning 14 of the last 16 meetings, Byington closed the gap during his first Commodores season. Both games were close. Vanderbilt held on for a 76-75 victory in Nashville before Tennessee had to overcome a 13-point halftime deficit about a month later to win 81-76 in Knoxville.
Now with Carey switching jerseys and moving east in the state, a new subplot figures to add a little juice to a rivalry that was already starting to wake up.
“I love this place,” Carey told reporters in Knoxville, “and can’t wait to do big things (for) the Big Orange.”
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social