As the season continues to progress, the Vanderbilt Commodores men’s basketball team inches closer to cracking the NCAA Tournament bracket.

ESPN is constantly updating their projected field and the Christmas Eve version saw the Commodores as one of the first four teams out.

While they would rather be in the tournament, being this close is still a major upgrade over the past few years.

The program has not made it into March Madness since 2017, and they haven’t won a game in The Dance since 2012.

New head coach Mark Byington could be just the second Vanderbilt coach ever to make it in his first season in school history. Bryce Drew was the first back 2017.

Byington led the James Madison Dukes to the second round of the tourney last year, which is a large reason why he was tabbed by the Commodores to replace Jerry Stackhouse this past offseason.

The KenPom ratings has this squad as the No. 53 team in the country. While that doesn’t make them elite by any means, it does put them squarely in the conversation to make the tournament.

Vanderbilt’s offense is the clear strong point of the team, ranked No. 34 in the country per KenPom. They average 85.4 points per game, up from just 67.9 last year.

Junior guard and North Texas Mean Green transfer Jason Edwards is one of the main reasons why they are such an improved group on offense. He averages 18.9 points per game on 49.6% shooting from the field.

Junior forward Devin McGlockton has also been a massive boon on both sides of the court. He is second on the team in scoring with 11.8 points per outing, and first with 8.1 rebounds.

Their defense is still a weakness, coming in as the No. 97-ranked squad, but even that is much improved from a season ago.

The best thing they can do to help themselves at this point is start picking up quality wins.

SEC play starts on Jan. 5 against the LSU Tigers, so winning that game would be a great way to start.

During their last tournament berth, they had just a 10-8 conference record. That should be doable for them if they are truly as good as they look right now.

There are 14 SEC schools ahead of them, so some upsets have to happen.

The Commodores are in the midst of their best season in a while and will hope to keep things rolling into the toughest part of the year.