Charleston, SC--Mark Byington has been giving his team the same message since their first day on the practice floor.

The first-year head coach identified what would speed up the progress of his team in year one and emphasized it.

"They probably only hear it 20-30 times a day," Byington said when referencing sharing the ball. "They make fun of me because I say spacing all the time."

Byington's message has gotten across in spurts throughout the course of Vanderbilt's young season, but fell on deaf ears on Sunday night against Drake. As Byington's team had a championship in mind, he felt that it abandoned the principles that can't leave their memory as a result of his repetitious usage of them in the summer.

In simpler terms, Vanderbilt didn't move it enough.

"We gotta do this thing as a team," Byington said Sunday.

Vanderbilt finished Sunday with 15 turnovers and just eight assists while having just one player with three assists or more in its loss to Drake.

Vanderbilt guard Jason Edwards, who was Vanderbilt's only double-figure scorer on Sunday, had zero assists and five turnovers.

The 6-foot-1 guard was the lone Vanderbilt player to make the All-Charleston Classic tournament team, but that's futile to Byington.

Edwards' head coach wants more than numbers out of him.

"He's got a lot to learn to be able to help us out and some of the turnovers with him and the rest of the guys is gonna hurt us," Byington said. "We gotta use his aggressiveness as a playmaker."

Edwards was a playmaker for himself on Sunday, but wasn't often for others.

That was a microcosm of Vanderbilt's team in Byington's mind. Something like that is a teaching moment for him.

"I think in the second half you saw multiple guys just kinda take it on their shoulders," Byington said. "It's because they're competitive."

"We just gotta channel their competitiveness the right way."