Charleston, SC--It's no longer all sunshine and rainbows within Mark Byington's Vanderbilt program.

Vanderbilt now has some adversity coming out of an otherwise excellent weekend after its 81-70 loss to Drake.

With the loss, Vanderbilt's undefeated record is now in the rear-view mirror and its flaws are now brought to the forefront.

Vanderbilt was more talented and athletic than its Sunday opponent, but Ben McCollum's Drake team didn't care.

It put on a clinic.

"They take advantage of your mistakes, they're really good at that," Byington said. "It's an older, wiser team."

Sunday's performance by McCollum's Bulldogs was more fundamentally sound than Vanderbilt's, it was more connected and perhaps most concerningly; it was more physically imposing.

"It's not even a size differential, we're actually the bigger team," Byington said. "We did a great job being physical in the first two games here and we didn't bring it tonight."

Vanderbilt was outrebounded 37-20 on Sunday, gave up 13 offensive rebounds, was blocked by Drake five times and allowed Drake to score 48 of its 81 points in the paint. 6-foot-8 Drake big man Cam Manyawu flexed his muscles with 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting and 11 rebounds.

An effort like that paired with Drake limiting Vanderbilt to 4-for-21 shooting from 3-point range and allowing it just one double-figure scorer made it nearly impossible for the Commodores to come out of Charleston with a championship in the event.

With that, Vanderbilt's potentially special and memorable weekend is confined to a "what-if."

Its weekend wasn't marred by disaster on Sunday, though.

Drake's ranking of 90 in KenPom would make this one a quad two loss for Vanderbilt if the season ended today. This isn't Presbyterian or Grambling State or Western Carolina, it's Vanderbilt losing to a Drake team that was in the championship game for a reason.

That team knocked off Miami earlier in the season and while it's largely comprised of Division-II transfers and underrecruited guys, it's not a group of slouches.

Vanderbilt lost to an MVC team on Sunday, which is worth noting. But the narrative shouldn't be that simple. It's more nuanced than that.

In some ways, Sunday was more about Drake proving its worth after being picked fifth in the MVC's preseason poll than it was Vanderbilt falling short.

It certainly gives Vanderbilt some looking in the mirror to do and reason for concern come SEC play, but it wasn't a season-altering loss or one that detracts from Vanderbilt's ultimate goals.

Sunday night was just Byington's team coming back to earth in some ways.

"It's an instant sting from this one," Byington said. "This is a setback tonight but setbacks can be learning opportunities."