Xavier Joyner joined the Commodores staff in April 2024 after spending the previous four seasons on coach Mark Byington’s James Madison staff.
In his first season at Vanderbilt, Joyner helped the Commodores to a 20-13 overall record and the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017. 2024-25 marked the first 20-win season since 2012 and the Dores also won four games over top-15 ranked opponents, the most in a single season since 1987-88. Vanderbilt also reached the national rankings for the first time since 2015 as the Dores climbed to No. 24 in the AP Poll.
In his four years as an assistant coach at JMU, Joyner helped lead the squad to a program record 32 wins in 2023-24, a Sun Belt Conference championship and the first NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win since 1983. JMU posted an 82-36 record during the four-year tenure.
Prior to joining Byington’s staff at JMU, Joyner accumulated a wealth of coaching experience at the collegiate, high school and AAU levels. He spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Mount St. Mary’s following a three-year stint as an assistant and scouting director at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Va.
He also spent four seasons as an assistant with Nike Team Takeover in Washington, D.C. One of the elite AAU programs in the country, Joyner helped Nike Team Takeover to the Las Vegas FAB 48 title in 2017. He was also part of the coaching staff which led the 16U EYBL club to a No. 1 national ranking to close the season.
Joyner spent a decade as a head coach in the junior college ranks in Maryland, guiding Prince George’s Community College from 2010-15 and Montgomery College Germantown from 2004-10. During his tenures, Joyner racked up 200 victories between the two programs and is the only coach to win regional titles at two different schools in Maryland.
A 1995 graduate of Husson University in Bangor, Maine, Joyner led the Eagles to back-to-back Maine Athletic Conference championships and earned all-conference honors. He also garnered recognition in the form of the Allen Kenyon Leadership and Nelson Degrasse Scholar-Athlete Awards.