SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Derrick Byars finally has a national
stage for his late-blooming talent, yet the Vanderbilt star has
never been the type to hog a spotlight.
Byars was wandering through the unfamiliar hallways of Arco
Arena on Wednesday with teammates Dan Cage and Shan Foster when a
couple of camera crews ambushed the group for interviews.
Byars, the SEC's player of the year and the sixth-seeded
Commodores' leading scorer, deftly sidestepped the media attention
with the same grace he uses to pop open for a 3-pointer, putting
his grinning teammates in front of the lenses.
"There's not a selfish bone in his body," Cage said of his
fellow senior. "He can hurt another team in a variety of ways, but
he's not the type of guy who would ever put himself ahead of a
team. Numerous times, we've had to yell at him to shoot the ball
more."
The Commodores (20-11) suspect they will need Byars' best to
outlast 11th-seeded George Washington (23-8) in the first round of
the East Regional on Thursday.
Byars was voted the SEC's top player by the league's coaches --
no small honor in a league featuring Florida's future NBA draft
picks, Tennessee's Chris Lofton and LSU's Glen Davis. With game
after game of poised play, Byars ascended to a stature few would
have predicted before this season for the quiet swingman whose
first passion was drawing comic strips for his friends.
The former Memphis high-school star spent his first two seasons
at Virginia before falling out with coach Pete Gillen and
transferring to Vanderbilt, which twice recruited him heavily.
After an unspectacular junior year, Byars clicked under coach Kevin
Stallings' tutelage, turning into an outstanding 3-point shooter
and a canny defender.
"I'm content with where I'm at right now," Byars said. "We've
got a big challenge in front of us, but I'm proud of the things we
accomplished this year, and I'm proud of the way I played."
Byars is the perfect frontman for this Vanderbilt squad:
Understated and relatively unspectacular, yet more talented and
together than most observers realize. Foster was nearly as
effective as Byars, averaging 15.4 points per game to Byars' 16.8.
"He's a guy that gives us major concerns," George Washington
coach Karl Hobbs said of Byars. "When you get down to tournament
play, Vanderbilt has something very unique. They have two players
that can make plays, win basketball games and do things on their
own. I think that poses a problem for us."
Vanderbilt easily earned a trip back to the NCAA tournament
after a three-year absence. Only Florida managed more SEC victories
than Vanderbilt's 10, but the Commodores lost their final two games
-- both against Arkansas -- before heading to Sacramento.
Meanwhile, the Colonials stormed into the NCAA field by winning
eight straight games and the Atlantic 10 tournament with their
signature smothering defense.
Hobbs has built George Washington into an annual contender that
won its first tournament game in 12 years last season. But this
season's performance -- capped by a school-record third straight
trip to the tournament -- probably is even more impressive than last
season's run considering the departure of stars Mike Hall and Pops
Mensah-Bonsu, both currently warming benches in the NBA.
"We like being the underdog," senior forward Dokun Akingbade
said. "Nobody is really talking about us right now. I know
Vanderbilt hasn't been here in recent years, and a lot of people
were counting us out this year not to make it, but we made a late
run."
The up-tempo, intense Colonials still thrive on being a minor
attraction in the D.C. metro area behind Georgetown, Maryland and
even George Mason, which reached last season's Final Four. Even
Vanderbilt's Cage confused his Georges for a split-second on the
podium before correcting himself.
George Washington will apply its usual intense defense to
Vanderbilt's offensive talent in just the schools' second meeting,
after a regular-season tournament game at Stanford in 1990.
"I think we'll see a lot of different things," Stallings said.
"They play zone. They play man. They trap. ... They do things in a
very aggressive, active nature. You just have to be prepared.
Although their pressure might be a little different, I think our
guys have seen pressure before."