Vanderbilt Commodores Men’s Basketball Team Starting To Get National Attention
The Vanderbilt Commodores men’s college basketball team has been better than anticipated during the 2024-25 season.
After a tumultuous five campaigns with Jerry Stackhouse as head coach, the team has hit the ground running under Mark Byington, the former head coach of the James Madison Dukes who architected the historic performance of that program last year.
The Commodores went 12-1 in their nonconference schedule with their only loss coming against the Drake Bulldogs. While they didn’t face off against a murderer’s row of opponents, winning at that clip was an achievement for the program.
In three out of five seasons under Stackhouse, the team finished under the .500 mark and won 11 or fewer games. Surpassing that win total before even getting into conference play, regardless of the level of difficulty, is an impressive feat given where the team has been.
Naturally, some people were left wondering just how good Vanderbilt was.
It is one thing to beat up on teams who have an average NET Ranking of 314; it will be totally different facing off against the gauntlet that is the SEC, easily the most dominant conference currently in the sport.
Every team won at least 10 games during their nonconference schedule, combining for an 88.9 winning percentage, the highest in men’s college basketball history for an entire league.
It wasn’t all cupcakes either, as the SEC was the only power conference with a winning record against the top 25, 50 and 100 teams from some of the predictive ranking outlets.
The Commodores' first chance to gain some respect came over the weekend when they opened conference play on the road against the LSU Tigers.
They handled business, winning 82-73 to improve to 13-1 on the season.
While LSU has been predicted to finish near the bottom of the SEC, heading on the road and picking up a Quad 1 victory is no small feat.
As a result, some of the top 25 voters are beginning to take notice of Byington’s squad.
While they still didn’t crack the AP Top 25 Poll, Vanderbilt did land on some ballots for the first time this year.
They received votes on one AP voter’s ballot and three on the Coaches Poll ballots. That is a major step in the right direction and there will be ample opportunities to continue garnering more respect and proving their legitimacy.
Their next chance will be on Tuesday night when they host the No. 14-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs at Memorial Gymnasium.
Any doubters would have to start taking notice if they could win their second SEC game against a ranked opponent.
However, it won’t be their last chance to pick up a statement victory.
There are currently nine teams ranked in the top 25 and 13, including the Commodores, who have received votes.
Resume-defining victories will be available on an almost nightly basis in this conference.
