Nashville, TENN--Vanderbilt assistant Xavier Joyner sits in his office at the top of Memorial Gymnasium and doesn't take it for granted. His working space hasn't often looked like this.

More often, it's looked like high school classrooms, small junior college gyms and the hotel rooms that surround nearby AAU tournaments.

Joyner's story of elevation from an assistant at the junior college and high school level to the SEC is noteworthy in itself. Perhaps it's even more so upon the realization that it isn't all about him.

It hasn't been for a long, long time.

Joyner certainly wasn't the hot name on the coaching carousel, the now-Vanderbilt assistant coach sometimes even doubted if he'd end up with a division one program.

That was ok with Joyner, who now works with Vanderbilt's wings, though. This was never about living a glamorous lifestyle. It was about much more than that.

"When I started seeing guys lives change for the better it just drove me and I became addicted to it, to changing lives," Joyner said. "The transformation of so many guys that I've helped transform and still seeing the benefits and the joy of it now, it drives me every day. It drives me to give my 110% to the guys every day.”

Joyner had that realization as he grinded it out at the junior college level. A place where he spent 15 seasons, seven of them as the head coach at Montgomery College Germantown, three as an assistant there and five as the head man at Prince George's Community College.

Over those 12 years as a head coach, Joyner accumulated over 200 wins. That's not what he seems to remember from those seasons, though.

The now Vanderbilt assistant remembers the people.

Joyner doesn't just remember what they did for him and his rèsumè, he remembers where they were when he met them.

He remembers how they changed.

"The way I kinda term that part of my career was I was actually sent by God to help the underdog from the DMV area," Joyner said of his time as a JUCO coach. "I was able to help so many kids who were underrecruited, not recruited at all, didn't have a chance, who were not on the radar at all of division one, division twos that I was able to get those guys, first their associate degrees and then them being able to go accept mostly division two offers, but some division ones also.

"I felt like I was providing a huge service to that portion of the young men who didn't have a chance coming out of high school, most of them had bad grades. I was able to resurrect their careers and get them to being scholarship level guys. So I am super proud of that part of my career."

Perhaps more impactful than that is when Joyner looks across the country at those players now.

That includes Dotun Akinwale, who is now the Charlotte Hornets' assistant general manager as well as his former players that left the game. Some are electrical engineers, some are successful buisnessmen, some have family lives that Joyner is proud to look upon.

"It's just to tons of stories that I have. I have guys that are married with families and kids now that still talk about the lessons they learned from me," Joyner said. "I have guys that are coaches, guys in all aspects of life in different jobs.

"It drives me to continue on."

It wasn't always easy for Joyner, who continued on in a lifestyle that was far from glamorous in order to do what he loved.

That lifestyle at the junior college level aids him as he moves up the ladder.

"In my time being in junior college I was able to learn every facet of the business," Joyner said. "In those jobs you don't have the support staff that you have at this level so you have to do everything. You have to be the academic advisor, you have to be the van driver. You have to be the janitor. You have to be the equipment manager. You're pretty much doing everything...that made me a servant leader."

Joyner's 15 seasons at the JUCO level are apparent to his current head coach, too.

The Vanderbilt assistant wouldn't be who he is without that time.

"I think his experiences that he’s had makes him an even better assistant coach in the SEC," Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington said. "What I mean by that is when you’re a JUCO head coach you’ve gotta re-recruit your entire team and your roster and there’s a lot of moving parts and you’re not just bringing in one or two players. You have to learn to teach quick, build relationships quick.

"He’s such an adapt and evolve and a forward thinker that he’s an eager learner and that’s kinda how he approaches things and he really communicates great with the players and the staff."

Despite its importance, the journey for Joyner isn't confined to the junior college level. That isn't the only part of his story prior to landing a divison-one gig.

The journey took another turn in 2015 with some influence from former Villanova coach Jay Wright, who Joyner has considered a mentor since meeting the Hall of Fame level coach around the turn of the century at a basketball camp through a high school teammate.

"Jay said something very key to me in 2015," Joyner noted. "He said 'there are times sometimes in your coaching career where you will need to re-invent yourself.'"

So Joyner did.

The JUCO head coach reinvented himself... at the high school and AAU levels.

"I took a leap of faith in leaving, in which what most people thought was a demotion. I decided to go to Paul VI, to team Takeover AAU as well as an assistant coach after being a head coach for 12 years."

On the surface it appeared to be a demotion, but for Joyner it was a calculated jump towards where he wanted to be.

"I knew the visibility would be there as far as my goals of becoming a division one coach," Joyner said. "I knew that that would enhance it more because I was gonna be around those guys, the division one guys the guys who could hire you at that level."

Joyner's evaluation of the players at that level paid off, too. The former high school assistant coached Luka Garza, Jaylen Smith, Jeremy Roach, Trevor Keels and a few other high major players in his time at that level.

Perhaps no player had more of an impact on Joyner than his son, Xavier, who was on those Paul VI teams for three seasons and ended up at Clayton State as well as Concordia College

"I was very fortunate to be able to be his assistant," Joyner said. "So I was able to see his, maturation from ninth grade to 11th grade and so that was good...it made me proud, it made me realize all the lessons that he had learned watching the hard work of my junior college guys."

As Joyners son's high school career ended and Joyner took his next step, those JUCO players got to see the fruits of his labor.

The longtime assistant finally got his break.

Joyner accepted an assistant job at Mount St. Marys, which marked his first division one opportunity.

"When I was able to get offered the job at Mount St. Mary's and I accepted that job my players that played for me in the past at the junior college level were like 'wow, you told us you were gonna get there one day and to be able to see your perseverance and persistence pay off is a testament to your hard work.’ They said it was a life lesson for them, to see it."

Joyner spent two seasons there before catching the eye of Byington, who eventually hired him at James Madison.

"Everybody spoke so highly of him whether they went to a rival school or whether they went against him or lost a recruit or whatever else," Byington said. "The reason that I hired him at James Madison was his character and his connections."

"We've had a lot of success together," Joyner said of Byington.

That climb up the ladder brought some validation to a claim that Joyner had communicated to his players all along: dedication + discipline = success.

"Every player that played me will always say that they, they've heard that," Joyner said. "How true is it now? I stayed dedicated, I stayed disciplined and I've been successful to obviously get to this level."

Joyner acknowledges that he couldn't have made it to this point alone, though.

"I'm a faith based guy. So I said the Lord will always bless you when you put work in," Joyner said. "I've always relied on God to guide me through these challenges and also got me through with my family and my career obviously I prayed to be at this level and you know, I want it, I want it to be here. So, prayers do come true, as well as dreams."

That dream wasn't just Joyner's, it was also his family’s.

"My wife was my college sweetheart and so she knew my love and passion for the game and she was very hands on through my, my career as a junior college head coach. We were having teambuilding activities at the house dinners. She was very hands on all the way through."

As Byington moved up the ladder himself to take the Vanderbilt job, he felt as if it was a given to bring the Joyners with him.

"When I got the job at Vanderbilt it was an easy decision to bring him on board," Byington said. "It wasn’t something I even doubted or had any kind of fear that he wasn’t gonna be a really good assistant coach in the SEC. I knew he’d be a good assistant in the SEC two years ago.

“When I got confirmation that I was gonna be offered a job and I accepted the job, right away in my mind I was thinking of the staff and quickly in my mind was making sure he came along with me.”

Byington doesn't view Joyner as a lifetime staff member, though. He views him as much more than that.

A future head coach.

"I always like to hire assistant coaches who want to be head coaches and are future head coaches," Byington said. "I think he’s a future head coach."

Joyner isn't shy about his future desires. His thoughts are aligned with Byington's.

"I wanna get back to being a head coach, at some point again," Joyner said. "Coach [Byington], he delegates a lot of things and he wants us to be head coaches. He wants us to think like head coaches, he, gives us responsibility within the organization to be able to act like a head coach...when it comes, I wanna be ready."

If the call comes Joyner doesn't want to change, though. He wants to stand on the same things he has through JUCO, through high school and throughout his entire career.

No matter what happens, this still isn't all about him.

"I want guys to know, guys that have played for me. I want them to know that first of all I genuinely care about them as people."

As Joyner enters his first season in a power five role, he provides a reminder that even at the power five level it’s about more than just basketball and the portal.

It's about the people.