The Fifth Element

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Even as he helps lead Vanderbilt into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017, AJ Hoggard is as old a soul as you’ll find in March Madness.

That may seem like an obvious thing to say about someone making his fifth trip to the tournament, the first four with Michigan State. You don’t know the half of it. For Hoggard, college basketball’s biggest spectacle is a way of life—his entire life. With almost the same regularity as turning the clocks back an hour, spring in the Hoggard household meant his dad’s annual pilgrimage to the Final Four, a regular tradition since 1990. In 2009, AJ even got to tag along to watch North Carolina beat Michigan State at Detroit’s Ford Field.

It might be a little early to start thinking about a potential family reunion in San Antonio in a few weeks. Hoggard and his Vanderbilt teammates won’t be worrying about anything more than playing their best basketball in Friday’s first-round game in Cleveland against seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s (Calif.) (truTV, 2:15 p.m. CT). But as Hoggard knows better than anyone in black and gold, not to mention most other uniforms, a chance is all you need in March.

Thanks in no small part to the graduate transfer guard’s leadership within a group that needed to learn each other’s names before learning the offense when they came together last summer for first-year coach Mark Byington, the Commodores have their chance.

“We fought against all odds this year,” Hoggard said. “Nobody had us in this position. It’s a bunch of fighters over here and people who have a chip on their shoulder. We have a lot to prove. I think we came in with everyone having the expectation of us not doing too much.

“We wanted to be the change around here. So you have a lot of people that are going to work, that are going to fight and that are here for Vanderbilt.”

They will count on his experience to show them the way in March—because it helped show them the way to March.

Making Others Better

If any game sealed Vanderbilt’s NCAA fortunes, it was a 97-93 overtime win against ranked Missouri at the beginning of March. The result, the team’s 20th win of the season, allowed the Commodores to survive a handful of subsequent stumbles. Hoggard played a huge part in the result, scoring 21 points with six assists, the latter his best in an SEC game.

But afterward, Byington wanted to talk about the part Hoggard played in a win at Texas A&M three days earlier, perhaps no less important on Vanderbilt’s resume. With his shots not falling in College Station, Hoggard played a season-low 15 minutes (he leads the team in minutes on the season). Still, even after the guard could do no wrong in the win against Missouri, Byington raved about how the veteran handled adversity against the Aggies.

“I was really proud of his character,” Byington said of the Texas A&M win. “If you go back and watch the film, watch how he’s cheering on his teammates, watch how he’s happy for their success. That karma comes back, so of course he’s going to be successful.”

Hoggard has carved out an impressive career by supporting teammates. He left Michigan State in that program’s all-time top five for assists, no small feat at a school that produced Magic Johnson, Scott Skiles and Mateen Cleaves, among others. He’s carried that over to his new teammates in Nashville. He not only leads Vanderbilt with 144 assists entering the game against Saint Mary’s, but that is more than twice as many assists as anyone else. He’s averaging 4.6 assists per game, bettered by only three Commodores this century.

“I’m big on getting assists,” Hoggard said. “A lot of people need baskets to get them going. A basket will get me going as well, I’m not going to act like it wouldn’t. But a nice pass and assist and seeing somebody else get their moment is something that’s always been big for me my whole life. Growing up, early on in basketball, my dad always told me about hitting the open guy. That was one of my biggest strengths.

“So just seeing those guys reap the benefits of the work that they put in, and me being able to help by finding them in one of their hotspots or whatever, it’s definitely fun to me.”

He’s also making those around him better when the stands are empty, the television cameras are off and no one is counting the assists. With most of the roster either transfers or freshmen in Byington’s first season, the Commodores needed to create chemistry. There wasn’t time, initially, for that to be entirely organic—there were a heck of a lot of slightly awkward team-building exercises last summer. But by fall, Hoggard and others with reservoirs of wisdom worth sharing knew their teammates well enough to step in.

“It’s trying to instill confidence in them,” Hoggard said. “Confidence is a big key that goes into playing any sport—or doing anything. I see these guys put a lot of work in. We’re all in the gym, putting numerous hours in. I’m big on trusting the work you’ve put in. If I see somebody shying away from something that they work on, I’m one of those guys that will tell them ‘Bro, you’ve got to do this. I’ve seen you do it so many times. You’ve got to believe it now.’”

Hoggard, third from right, and his teammates celebrate seeing Vanderbilt in the bracket (Vanderbilt Athletics). 

Making Success a Habit

That isn’t to say Hoggard was immune from doubt when Selection Sunday rolled around.

He and his teammates were frustrated they let games slip away at the end of the regular season and in the SEC Tournament, leaving their fate in the hands of the selection committee. Like everyone else, they sought out what the supposed bracketologists had to say as the bracket release approached. Most were positive about Vanderbilt’s chances.  Few were certain. Hoggard’s teammates picked his brain as the voice of experience. He believed they would get it, but he was nervous it might be in a quick-turn First Four game.

True to his facilitator instincts, his favorite part of seeing Vanderbilt’s name appear on screen during the bracket reveal was seeing the reactions from teammates waiting for their first opportunity to play on college basketball’s biggest stage—the vast majority.

AJ HOGGARD 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/TeAk3zQTPF

— Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball (@VandyMBB) January 4, 2025

Picked to finish last in the SEC, they instead navigated arguably the most competitive conference the sport has ever seen, winning eight SEC games when none came easy.

“This team has grown a lot,” Hoggard said. “We’ve gotten a lot closer. People have gotten a lot better. We know what to expect from one another. We know how to motivate each other when things aren’t going good for one another. We know how to band together through tough times because I think we’ve been through numerous tough times this year and fought some adversity. I think that’s definitely going to help us.”

The SEC was a crucible this season, maybe even more so than the Big Ten that Hoggard knew. Those games give Vanderbilt more experience than their lack of prior postseason games suggests. But make no mistake, Hoggard says, the NCAA Tournament is different. The stakes, audience, routine in an unfamiliar city and arena—everything is different.

Hoggard learned that in his NCAA Tournament debut, a 2021 First Four game against UCLA. The Spartans led with less than 30 seconds to play, only to lose in overtime.

Then they watched the Bruins bust brackets all the way to the Final Four.

“I still use that, talking to the guys and letting them know that anything is really possible when you get to this tournament,” Hoggard said. “We’ve just got to play how we know how to play basketball and we should be fine.”

They couldn’t ask for a better guide for a month unlike any other.

“He’s a high-level player, he cares about his teammates, he’s fallen in love with Vanderbilt,” Byington said on the eve of the season’s signature month. “We’re going to need him in March.”