Wednesday night's 85-69 win over California showed what Vanderbilt’s defense can be.

It showed a defense that was disruptive, connected, and played with a level of energy that completely changed the narrative of the game.

It was a completely different look from what we saw from the Commodores in its first two games, where the Commodores looked disjointed and at times came out flat in terms of energy level. Mark Byington knew this, and he made sure that his team did too after the team's close win against Southeast Missouri State on Sunday.

"It was a tough film session on Monday," Byington said. "I wasn't happy and if you were in our film session on Monday, you would've thought we lost on Sunday."

That work from Vanderbilt translated into Tuesday, as Vanderbilt not only was able to put up 85 points, but they were also able to hold California to just 69.

Byington said that the Commodores had two great practices and were able to carry that over for the game, and Vanderbilt graduate guard Grant Huffman shared that same sentiment.

"I thought I could tell from playing the game that our defense looked completely different from how it did on Sunday," Huffman said. "We were playing team defense, we had great on-ball pressure and we have some talented defenders so that was what enables us to do that."

Not only was this all clear in watching, but it was apparent in the box score as well. Vanderbilt scored 32 points off of 20 Cal turnovers. To take things even a step further, 18 of those turnovers came directly from Vanderbilt steals, showing how disruptive Vanderbilt was to Cal’s offense.

Not only was Vanderbilt's defense great collectively, but it also was able to succeed in its one-on-one matchups as well, especially when it came to Cal's leading scorer coming into the game, Jevon Blacksher Jr.Huffman took on much of the primary responsibility of guarding Blacksher Jr. and did so in impressive fashion, as Blacksher Jr. came into Wednesday night averaging 17.5 points per game, but was held to just 11 points while going 4/8 from the field and committing 5 turnovers against the Commodores.

Keeping Blacksher Jr. in check was a clear vocal point for the Commodores, with Byington admitting that he was someone that the team was concerned about heading into the game.

"Blacksher's a good guard. I was fearful of him and it was gonna be a tough matchup." Byington said.

Byington was especially complimentary of Huffman's performance and his abilities on that end of the floor.

"Grant is a really good defensive player. I think you all are seeing that now and it's hard to take him off the court sometimes because he can make plays for others and guard."

So what worked? According to Huffman, it was a collective effort to slow down the experienced sixth-year guard.

"Just listening to the scouting reports, staying solid, staying to our defensive principles," Huffman said. "We had a great defensive practice the past few days that put all of us in a position to do well on him and to guard him well. I think it wasn't just me, it was a team effort."

Despite an encouraging performance against a comparable power-conference team, Vanderbilt still has plenty to learn and figure out. Something that even Mark Byington himself knows and accepts.

"I hate to keep saying this, but I don't know who we are right now. We're still figuring out, our identity and what guys can do. I do think we're deep, I do think we've got a lot of guards."

The Commodores may still be learning about themselves and it may not always look pretty, but it looks like they took a positive step in that process on Wednesday. Now the question is can they do it again?

Their next chance will be on Saturday against Jackson State (0-3) in Memorial Gym at 2:00 PM CT.