It really feels like Vanderbilt is having its moment in the sun right now.

The Commodores just finished its winningest football season in program history, earning 10 wins and doing it with a Heisman Trophy finalist at quarterback. In men's basketball, Vanderbilt started the season 16-0, tied for the best start in the team's 124-year history. The program is looking to get to its second-ever Elite Eight, and first in more than 60 years.

Both those teams are working in unprecedented times. What makes Vanderbilt women's basketball different is that the program was used to success. Now, it's getting used to it again.

The Commodores are 17-0 and, like the men's team, are currently matched for the best start in program history. The team its even with is the 1992-93 unit, which won 30 games, ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll and, most importantly, is the only Vanderbilt basketball team to ever reach the Final Four.

From 1986 to 2014, Vanderbilt was in the NCAA Tournament 27 of 29 seasons. That stretch included the aforementioned Final Four, five Elite Eights and 14 trips to the Sweet 16.

Then, it stopped. The Commodores were held out of the Big Dance entirely for nearly a decade before a pair of first round exits the past two seasons. That nine-year stretch without a tournament appearance included seven losing seasons and zero weeks ranked in the AP Top 25.

Head coach Shea Ralph has steered Vanderbilt back into the program it once was, and is now looking to reach new horizons. She's found the superstar that can make it happen.

Mikayla Blakes's freshman season immediately proved why she was a five-star prospect. She led the Commodores and ranked Top 10 in the country in scoring with 23.3 PPG. She was an offensive weapon, specifically at getting to the rim where she was both efficient and great at drawing contact.

But Blakes was more than a high-volume scorer. She added 2.4 steals per game and, considering her activity, was solid at avoiding significant foul trouble. Despite this, Vanderbilt was better with her off the floor: The Commodores had a +28.3 net rating compared to +16.7 with Blakes on the court. This did not fully translate to SEC play (+2.0 with Blakes on, +1.7 off), but what remained true was that the team was a better defensive unit without its superstar freshman.

Fast forward to now, 17-0 start in the picture, and all that can be thrown well out the window.

Thus far, Vanderbilt has a +44.8 net rating with Blakes on the floor and a +37.1 rating with her off. If that's not dramatic enough, through four SEC games, the Commodores are only +2.7 when Blakes sits. When she's on the floor, they are a +37.2.

Blakes is shooting very similarly to how she did as a freshman, just a tad more: She's up to 24.9 PPG with a marginal efficiency increase (45.6 to 46.3 FG%; 52.6 to 52.7 eFG%) and is still getting to the line for over six free throw attempts per game.

The big improvements for her have been with facilitating and cutting down mistakes. Blakes is averaging over an assist more per game than last season while still cutting her turnovers down. It's led to an assist-to-turnover ratio near 2, well above the 1.09 rate from her freshman season. Defensively, she's up to 3.6 steals per game and with even less fouling than before, down from 2.5 to 1.6 per game.

Blakes is a special, special talent, and her game is expanding rapidly in ways that go past her highlight scoring. But it's more than her that's leading this historic start.

Ralph needed to replace two key faces from Vanderbilt's 24-25 season: Khamil Pierre and Iyana Moore, two players with multiple years in the program who transferred to NC State and Notre Dame, respectively. They, along with Blakes, were the only players on the Vandy roster to average more than 7 PPG last season.

The "replacements" of sorts come in different shapes and sizes. Freshman guard Aubrey Galvan leads the Commodores in minutes played this season and has been a tremendous asset, averaging 11.2 PPG, 6.5 APG and 3.2 SPG. She's been an extremely successful pairing with Blakes, as the duo have a +48.o net rating and turn opponents over on nearly 28% of their possessions.

Sacha Washington sat out last season as she recovered from blood clots, and her return has made a massive impact. She's a great complementary scorer, but has really contributed on the glass (7.9 RPG, 4.2 oRPG) and as a shot blocker (0.9 BPG). Vanderbilt's rebound rate has improved from ranking 182nd to 76th, and their block rate is up from 88th to 23rd in the national rankings, and Washington's presence is a major reason why.

The rise of Justine Pissott is also absolutely worth noting. This is her third year with the Commodores, but she went from a consistent starter in 23-24 to seeing less than 10 minutes per contest a year ago. She's started every game this year and is blowing her career highs out of the water in scoring (11.6 PPG), efficiency from deep (44.3 3PT%) and as an all-around player (4.2 RPG, 2.6 APG).

Ralph has concocted her most complete roster yet, an elite offense with a National Player of the Year-level engine and a defense that is among the nation's most disruptive. This year's team is also much more efficient across the board: Less turnovers and higher shooting percentages with more ball movement. This could be because of a pretty dramatic slowing of the pace from 75.0 possessions per 40 minutes last year (30th-most in NCAA) down to 72.6 (151st) this season.

The Commodores have not yet faced an abundance of tests, but they did pass a massive one already, taking down LSU 65-61. Blakes had 32 points in the win, Galvan added 14 and Washington brought in seven boards and three blocks. That trio each finished with three steals apiece.

The key difference for Vanderbilt that day were stats that showed this group's maturity: avoiding turnovers and foul trouble. LSU committed 22 turnovers and 23 personal fouls compared to 12 and 13 by the Commodores. Vanderbilt doubled LSU's free throw attempts 26 to 13, made seven more shots at the line and won by four.

As is life in the SEC, Vanderbilt's journey is only beginning. The conference schedule currently possesses 10 upcoming Quad 1 games, including seven straight to end the season according to Bart Torvik. And for good measure, add an 11th Quad 1 game to the list when Vandy plays No. 8 Michigan on Jan. 19.

The Commodores are unlikely to run the table — Torvik projects their final record at 24-6 — but they certainly feel like a team with the pieces to get out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. It also feels possible that Vanderbilt could host games or get to the Sweet 16, two things it hasn't accomplished in over 15 years.

Vanderbilt's moment as an out-of-nowhere athletic force — at least outside of baseball — is one that had been familiar to the women's basketball program already, though it never ended in the ultimate hardware. The Commodores are going to have ample opportunities to prove themselves as a contender in the weeks ahead, and they've already shown a litany of reasons why they are worth that level of attention.