The Vanderbilt Commodores women’s basketball team is having their best season in years and are nearing a Top 25 ranking for the first time in a decade.
As the AP Top 25 women’s college basketball poll was updated on Monday, the Commodores were still absent, but are getting closer.
They received 19 votes, putting them at No. 27 overall.
Last week, they got 14 votes to come in at No. 30.
The last time Vanderbilt was ranked was the 2013-14 season where they peaked at No. 16.
The team haven’t finished the year in the Top 25 since the 2008-09 campaign.
For years, the Commodores at least had a solid program, but it had fallen on hard times in recent memory.
Between 1988 and 2014, they only missed one tournament.
Vanderbilt then went on to miss nine straight tournaments, but finally made it back last year. Losing in the first round is rough, but it was a solid finish after seasons of disappointment.
Now, Shea Ralph has the team humming in her fourth year leading the program.
They are off to a 12-1 start, which is more wins than in nine of their last 10 seasons.
What will be a real proving point is how the Commodores do in SEC play.
They finished with a 23-10 overall record last year, but went just 9-7 in conference play. As of right now, they are on a similar pace out of conference and will need to do well against SEC foes to prove things really have changed.
Vanderbilt’s first conference test will be on Jan. 2 against the 7-6 Georgia Bulldogs.
That’s about as good of an entrance as they could hope for since eight of their conference games are against currently ranked teams.
Some upsets will need to happen in order to improve upon last year’s record.
Sophomore forward Khamil Pierre has made a massive jump from her freshman campaign to now, and is a large reason as to why this season has gotten off to a hot start.
Pierre is currently averaging 22.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game on 58.6% shooting. She also leads the SEC with 3.9 steals per game, getting the job done on both ends.
In the backcourt, freshman phenom Mikayla Blakes is on fire to start her career. She is averaging 20.3 points, 3.7 assists and 2.8 steals per game at guard.
The Commodores will need both players to keep playing this well once conference play begins if they hope to keep this start rolling and finally crack the Top 25 once again.
