The Vanderbilt Commodores men’s basketball team underwent a complete overhaul following the 2023-24 season.

Head coach Jerry Stackhouse was relieved of his duties and replaced by Mark Byington, who had led the James Madison Dukes to the best campaign in program history. He had his work cut out for him jumping to an SEC school, but he made his presence felt immediately.

The roster was completely changed with only two players from last year remaining during the coaching change; Miles Keefe and JaQualon “JQ” Roberts.

So, Byington hit the transfer portal and came away with several impact additions. 

A.J. Hoggard came in as a graduate transfer from the Michigan State Spartans. Devin McGlockton left the Boston College Eagles. The team’s leading scorer this season, averaging 18.9 points per game despite coming off the bench the last five games, is former North Texas Mean Green product, Jason Edwards.

Along with former top 100 recruit Tyler Nickel, who played last campaign with the Virginia Tech Hokies, those players have helped turn things around under Byington.

Entering SEC play, the Commodores are 11-1. That already matches or surpasses the win total that Stackhouse had in three out of his five campaigns as the head coach.

While certainly a stellar start, there is still plenty of work remaining for the team to prove that they have legitimately turned things around.

There are a lot of people who have not yet bought in, as Vanderbilt still isn’t close to being a top 25 team. Despite being at No. 38 in the NET Ranking, they haven’t received a single top 25 vote in the AP Poll or Coaches Poll.

20 different teams, following the top 25, received votes for the AP Poll. 16 different programs had votes in the coaches poll.

That puts the Commodores squarely outside of the top 40 teams in the nation. When taking a look at their schedule, it isn’t too hard to see why.

The average NET Ranking of their opponents has been 296. They have lost their only Quad 1 game to this point, but there will be ample opportunities to bolster their resume during conference play.

Right now, the SEC has 10 teams in the AP Top 25, including the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked Tennessee Volunteers and Auburn Tigers. Two more teams received votes, as even the hot start still has Vanderbilt in the bottom half of the super conference.

The only way for Byington’s crew to earn respect and move up the rankings is to keep winning games. After hosting the New Orleans Privateers on Dec. 30 in their final non-conference game, things will kick up a notch difficulty-wise.