Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew has agreed in principle to become the next men’s basketball coach at Vanderbilt, a source confirmed to CBS Sports on Monday.
Advertisement
SI.com reported earlier that a deal should be in place within the next two days.
Drew served as an assistant at Valpo under his father, Homer Drew, for six seasons before being named head coach in 2011.
Drew is considered one of the rising young stars in college coaching and was also a top candidate for Georgia Tech’s head coaching vacancy.
The 41-year-old Drew is 125-49 in five years at Valparaiso, his alma mater. This season, Drew led the Crusaders to a 30-7 record and an appearance in the NIT title game before losing to George Washington.
Longtime Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings left the program abruptly to take the head coaching job at Pittsburgh last month.
Amazingly, Stallings has been with Vandy since the 1999-2000 season and yet has just two Sweet 16 trips and hasn’t made it past the first weekend since the 2006-07 season.
The Commodores vastly underachieved during Stallings’ final season, finishing the 19-14 campaign with an embarrassing loss to Wichita State in the First Four of the NCAA tournament despite having arguably the second-most talented roster in the SEC behind Kentucky. We would like to go further in the NCAA Tournament.
Advertisement
Bryce Drew may be most famous for the buzzer-beating three that upset Ole Miss in the 1998 NCAA tournament.
