Vanderbilt Basketball Ranked 18th in Preseason AP Poll

Damian Jones poses with the seventh-grader he adopted this offeseason. - Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY SportsVanderbilt earned the #18 spot in the Associated Press preseason top 25 rankings on Monday.

The NCAA's top basketball coaches voted Vanderbilt as the 20th best team in the nation heading into 2016. The Associated Press did them two better.

The AP ranked the Commodores 18th in their first poll of the season, placing them second in the Southeastern Conference behind #2 Kentucky. LSU is the only other conference opponent to make the rankings. The Tigers placed 21st in the preseason panel. Texas A&M, the only other SEC program to garner media votes, was slotted in at a de facto 29th. The…