Vanderbilt did something on Wednesday that it didn't do all of last season.

Mark Byington and his team picked up their 10th win while simultaneously passing Vanderbilt's 2023-24 win total of nine.

Wednesday night's 105-53 win over The Citadel wasn't groundbreaking, but it was yet another sign of progress.

A mark like Vanderbilt hit on Wednesday was a reminder of the dreary, dark state that its program was in a year ago when progress of any sort seemed to be a distant thought. This time last year was more about spiraling, hot seat discussions and dread of what was to come the rest of the way.

Now finding negatives requires a squint.

Vanderbilt is 10-1, is ranked 63rd in KenPom and has seen all of its wins outside of one come by double digits. It is also 55th in the NET rankings, which is its best ranking in program history.

Perhaps more encouraging; Byington's team is showing all the peripheral signs that a good team does. It takes care of the ball, it knows how to win and it does something that it didn't for the past five seasons.

It takes care of business against teams that it should.

Heading into Wednesday, Vanderbilt had won its four bye games by an average of 23.5 points. Wednesday night's 52-point win wasn't an outlier. It was the norm in a game like this.

This one felt different than those, though. This one felt like domination.

After a 10-day layoff, Vanderbilt left little doubt as to whether it was ready to play. The Commodores got out to a 30-point lead before halftime and kept pouring it on for the remainder of the night.

That wasn't just a statement in the NET rankings.

Wednesday was yet another example that it's well coached and that it is continuing to buck trends that previously plagued this program.