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Mikayla Blakes is leading Vanderbilt women's basketball into March Madness.
The SEC Player of the Year helped to lead the Commodores (27-4) to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. Vanderbilt will host No. 15 seed High Point (27-5) for a first-round game at Memorial Gymnasium on March 21 (6 p.m. CT, ESPNews). It's the Commodores' highest seed since 2007.
Blakes enters the tournament as the nation's leading scorer at 27 points per game. She is a leading contender, along with UConn's Sarah Strong, for the five major National Player of the Year awards.
Led by Blakes, Vanderbilt finished second in the SEC and defeated LSU, Texas and Michigan.
Here's what you need to know about the Commodores star:
Blakes averages 27.0 points per game with 3.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists. She has scored 30 or more points 12 times this season, including 10 against SEC opponents. That includes seven of her past nine games. Seven of her 30-point games came against teams in the Women's NCAA Tournament.
Mikayla Blakes is 20. She was born on Dec. 29, 2005.
Mikayla Blakes is 5-foot-8.
As a freshman, Blakes put up two 50-point games. She scored 53 in regulation against Florida, then scored 55 in an overtime win over Auburn. The two games were just over two weeks apart, on Jan. 30 and Feb. 16, 2025.
The first game broke the SEC single-game scoring record, as well as the NCAA's single-game scoring record for a true freshman. But as a redshirt freshman, Elena Delle Donne had scored 54. So Blakes' second 50-point outing was an NCAA record for a true or redshirt freshman.
Mikayla Blakes wears No. 1 for Vanderbilt.
Mikayla Blakes' parents are Monroe and Nikkia Blakes. Her brother, Jaylen Blakes, played three years at Duke and a year at Stanford.
Blakes had several blue blood offers out of high school. Among other teams she considered were Tennessee, Stanford and UCLA.
Instead, she chose to commit to Ralph and the Commodores, who at the time had not made the NCAA tournament in a decade. She originally told the team of her commitment on the bus on their way back from a loss at Tennessee in January 2024.
Blakes believed that she could help make Vanderbilt a winning program, but she wanted to blaze a new path that others before her had not.
"(Blakes) knew where we were going, and so did we," Ralph said after a win over Tennessee on March 1. "She wanted to be part of that, and we knew we couldn't and didn't want to do it without her. ... When she came here to leave a legacy, to do the uncommon thing, to do things that Vanderbilt that has never been done before. She came here to win championships."
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What to know about Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt women's basketball star
Continue reading...
The SEC Player of the Year helped to lead the Commodores (27-4) to a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament. Vanderbilt will host No. 15 seed High Point (27-5) for a first-round game at Memorial Gymnasium on March 21 (6 p.m. CT, ESPNews). It's the Commodores' highest seed since 2007.
Blakes enters the tournament as the nation's leading scorer at 27 points per game. She is a leading contender, along with UConn's Sarah Strong, for the five major National Player of the Year awards.
Led by Blakes, Vanderbilt finished second in the SEC and defeated LSU, Texas and Michigan.
Here's what you need to know about the Commodores star:
Mikayla Blakes stats
Blakes averages 27.0 points per game with 3.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists. She has scored 30 or more points 12 times this season, including 10 against SEC opponents. That includes seven of her past nine games. Seven of her 30-point games came against teams in the Women's NCAA Tournament.
Mikayla Blakes age
Mikayla Blakes is 20. She was born on Dec. 29, 2005.
Mikayla Blakes height
Mikayla Blakes is 5-foot-8.
Mikayla Blakes records: She twice broke an SEC and NCAA record
As a freshman, Blakes put up two 50-point games. She scored 53 in regulation against Florida, then scored 55 in an overtime win over Auburn. The two games were just over two weeks apart, on Jan. 30 and Feb. 16, 2025.
The first game broke the SEC single-game scoring record, as well as the NCAA's single-game scoring record for a true freshman. But as a redshirt freshman, Elena Delle Donne had scored 54. So Blakes' second 50-point outing was an NCAA record for a true or redshirt freshman.
Mikayla Blakes jersey
Mikayla Blakes wears No. 1 for Vanderbilt.
Who are Mikayla Blakes' parents?
Mikayla Blakes' parents are Monroe and Nikkia Blakes. Her brother, Jaylen Blakes, played three years at Duke and a year at Stanford.
Why Mikayla Blakes picked Vanderbilt
Blakes had several blue blood offers out of high school. Among other teams she considered were Tennessee, Stanford and UCLA.
Instead, she chose to commit to Ralph and the Commodores, who at the time had not made the NCAA tournament in a decade. She originally told the team of her commitment on the bus on their way back from a loss at Tennessee in January 2024.
Blakes believed that she could help make Vanderbilt a winning program, but she wanted to blaze a new path that others before her had not.
"(Blakes) knew where we were going, and so did we," Ralph said after a win over Tennessee on March 1. "She wanted to be part of that, and we knew we couldn't and didn't want to do it without her. ... When she came here to leave a legacy, to do the uncommon thing, to do things that Vanderbilt that has never been done before. She came here to win championships."
More Mikayla Blakes coverage
- Inside Mikayla Blakes' transformation from late bloomer to Vanderbilt NCAA record-setting scoring machine
- Mikayla Blakes' journey to Vanderbilt basketball stardom began with a childhood pitch
- Why Vanderbilt vs Michigan game special to Mikayla Blakes, Justine Pissott
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at [email protected] or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What to know about Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt women's basketball star
Continue reading...
