Tyrin Lawrence announces return to Vanderbilt

It’s been a whirlwind of an offseason for Vanderbilt basketball and probably most of that has revolved around Tyrin Lawrence.

Lawrence first entered the NBA Draft, but kept the option open to return to school. Then he entered the transfer portal. He was linked to Georgia (boo), Auburn (boo), and Texas Tech (huh?), but never committed anywhere else. He withdrew his name from the NBA Draft the other day, and then this:

And suddenly, Vanderbilt’s 2023-24 season outlook is much better. I said early on in the offseason that so long as Vanderbilt got Lawrence, Colin Smith, and Ezra Manjon back, the offseason would be decent. Now, Vanderbilt has all three of those back, and also kept Paul Lewis and Lee Dort around, added a couple of promising freshman wings, a couple of transfers who can shoot the ball, and a former four-star who’s now a rising sophomore.

A shorter way of saying that is that Jerry Stackhouse did pretty much what he needed to do in the offseason to compete for a NCAA Tournament bid. This, now, should be fun.