Vanderbilt has terminated the contract of head coach Bryce Drew after only three seasons, the school announced on Friday.
A shocking move given that Drew was only head coach for a limited time, Vanderbilt has a new athletic director, Malcolm Turner, who recently took over the program in February.
Struggling to a 9-23 record and 0-18 mark in the SEC this season, Vanderbilt was one of the youngest teams in the country. The Commodores also lost McDonald’s All-American and starting freshman point guard Darius Garland to a season-ending knee injury in late November as a promising young core never had a chance to play much together.
Although Drew had a bad season in 2018-19, he took the program to the NCAA tournament in his first season. Drew also recruited two McDonald’s All-Americans (forward Simi Shittu being the guy besides Garland) for the 2018 class -- uncommon at a program like Vanderbilt.
According to a report from Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, Turner only had one meeting with Drew and only attended one practice during the season before making his decision. The former president of the NBA G-League, Turner has no experience working in college athletics before taking the AD job at Vanderbilt.
Drew previously spent time coaching his alma mater of Valparaiso as he’s perhaps most famous for his NCAA tournament buzzer-beater against Ole Miss in 1998. The son of legendary Valparaiso head coach Homer Drew, Bryce’s brother, Scott Drew, is head coach at Baylor.
It’s hard to say what direction Vanderbilt it looking to go since this was an unexpected move. But it appears that Turner wants to make his mark as the new AD by bringing in his own guy right away.