Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball (16-4, 4-3) was ranked at No. 24 in the AP Top 25 Poll this afternoon, per AP News.
This is the first time the Black and Gold have cracked the AP Poll since December 2015, when Kevin Stallings was the program’s head coach. The Commodores earned that ranking after starting the 2015-16 season 6-1, but a 2-3 end to their nonconference schedule saw them drop out of the poll.
Now, after nearly 10 years of unranked basketball, Vanderbilt is back. The ranking comes on the back of three wins across four games for head coach Mark Byington’s squad. The Commodores earned 35 votes in last week’s poll, the third-most of all teams in the ‘others receiving votes’ category, after wins over South Carolina and then-No. 6 Tennessee.
The ‘Dores officially broke through in this afternoon’s poll thanks to another upset win, this one coming against then-No. 9 Kentucky on Jan. 25. The win marked the first time Vanderbilt has defeated two top-10 opponents in the same season since 2006-07.
Vanderbilt will have another opportunity to pick up a quality win — and thus improve its ranking — when it hits the road to take on Oklahoma on Feb. 1 at 2:30 p.m. CST.