Vanderbilt Basketball Falls Significantly in AP Top 25 Poll – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—Buckle up, Vanderbilt basketball. If this group doesn't, it will no longer find its name in the AP Top 25 poll. It’s been all the way up to No. 10, but it no longer has any wiggle room with the voters.
Vanderbilt basketball is ranked No. 25 in the AP Top 25, per the Monday afternoon release of the poll. It did receive over 100 more votes than Wisconsin–the No. 26 team in the country.
The Commodores moved down four spots a few weeks ago to the ranking after a stunning loss in which it trailed by as much as 21 points before mounting a late comeback to lose by just a few points against Oklahoma. It moved down six spots from No. 19 this week after losing to Tennessee and Missouri. 
Vanderbilt was as high as No. 10 this season, which was the program’s highest since its preseason ranking of No. 9 in 2011-2012. Vanderbilt will face Kentucky on Tuesday night as it looks to move to 22-4 and to capitalize on its Saturday win over Texas A&M.
Vanderbilt is ranked above traditional ranked programs like Kentucky, Villanova and is one spot below Louisville. 
“We have a chance to have a good team,” Byington said after the Commodores’ season opener. “When you’re a coach you want hope for the season, you want optimism for the season. Some people lie about it, but I can say the truth and say I’m excited about this group. We’ll get better and better.”
Vanderbilt has put itself among the nation’s elite as a result of its start to the season that includes wins over Alabama, Wake Forest, Mississippi State, LSU, SMU, Saint Mary’s, VCU, UCF and all of its buy game opponents. The Commodores’ rèsumè is among the strongest in all of college basketball as a result of their upper-quad wins as well as their drastic margin of victory in non-power five games.
“We’ve got a long way to go,” Vanderbilt guard Duke Miles said after the Commodores’ Battle 4 Atlantis win over Saint Mary’s . “We’re trying to get to the end goal and March to be out there playing for a national championship, so that’s the main goal.” 
As Vanderbilt has taken a leap in 2025-26–Byington’s second year at the helm–it does so with a roster including just three returning scholarship players in Tyler Tanner, Devin McGlockton and Tyler Nickel. All three of which have significant roles on a team that possesses an eight-man transfer class headlined by TCU point guard Frankie Collins, North Carolina big man Jalen Washington, Washington wing Tyler Harris, Miles and Cornell wing AK Okereke. 
Vanderbilt finished last season with its first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2016-17 season after a 20-win season, but this team has all the signs of being better than that one.
“The priority this recruiting season was to gain some more length, size,” Vanderbilt assistant coach Xavier Joyner told Vandy on SI over the summer. “We knew going into last year we were maybe the smallest team in the SEC regarding length, size so we wanted to upgrade that, which we did.”
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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