NASHVILLE, Tenn. — If you watched Mikayla Blakes’ reaction Monday night at Memorial Stadium, it was a rough performance from the Vanderbilt sophomore guard. Her relentless focus on every second of the game was punctuated by only the occasional frown when a normal shot missed, or a shake of the head as a ball dribbled at her feet.
Blake’s actual results said something: 25 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists — with teammates missing a few layups on top of a triple-double — in a 75-57 victory over Illinois and a trip to the Sweet 16 for Vanderbilt’s first time since 2009. And the performance exceeded the results. To an outsider, it might have been a good night for her.
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The shot didn’t fall early, but for Blake, it’s better to start asking questions with “when,” not “if.” When will she figure out her opponent’s defensive plan is just to slow her down? When will she take over the game? When will she lead Vanderbilt to heights it hasn’t reached in nearly two decades? When will she win National Team Player of the Year? When will she be recognized as one of the top chess players in the world?
Everything is here or coming soon. Vanderbilt could also clinch a national title, although USBWA National Coach of the Year Shay Ralph may need to give Blake more help to make that happen. The Fort Worth Region 1 second-seeded Commodores (29-4) are looking for obstacles in UConn’s path to this year’s Final Four.
It was hard to imagine Ralph and this team surpassing her college coach and mentor Geno Auriemma, just as it seemed inevitable that UConn senior forward Sarah Strong would beat Black for the National Player of the Year award. But Vanderbilt’s time is coming, asterisk included, because the unpredictability of the roster makes making any firm predictions risky in college basketball.
Blake’s time is coming, too. No asterisk is required. In the best school year in Vanderbilt athletic history, driven by smaller stars — senior quarterback Diego Pavia, men’s basketball sophomore guard Taylor Tanner and 5-foot-8 sophomore Blakes — she’s the one who can take her team to the biggest stage of the three.
She’s the one most likely to appear regularly on the sport’s biggest stage for the next 10 to 15 years. She is the SEC Player of the Year, the nation’s scoring leader (27.1 points per game entering Monday) and the ninth player in the NCAA era (since 1981-82) to score 1,000 points in 42 games or fewer. Now, she’s just 24 points away from breaking the SEC single-season scoring record of 915 points, set by Tennessee great Chamique Holdslaw in 1997-98.
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These numbers illustrate her greatness. Hailing from Somerset, N.J., the daughter of a former Division II basketball star and sister of former Duke and Stanford guard Jalen Blacks, Blacks knows it all. She performed a surgical attack on every aspect of her game—a performance that was noteworthy considering the honors student’s premed program. She has the speed and skill to be a star in this game, but her mentality could make those traits unstoppable.
Ralph, who managed to beat all the usual suspects and change Vanderbilt’s trajectory, called Blake a “generational player” who “absolutely breaks hearts” on the court despite being “the best kid on earth.” Illinois coach Shauna Green compared her to Steph Curry before trying to tackle her.
after?
“She’s one of the best players in the country, she can do anything,” Green said.
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“I say it every day, she’s an MFer,” Green said. “So when we were coming apart, did she miss any shots? No. She took the toughest shots.”
Blakes called the game over in a three-minute span in the third quarter when she hit two 3-pointers and a mid-range jumper and also found 3-pointers from freshman phenom Aubrey Galvan and senior Justin Pisot. It was a 14-4 run to lead 60-41, with all 14 points created by Blake.
Her best moment, however, came in the first half, when she stepped up to Illinois’ Destiny Jackson at the basket, absorbed a clutch shot, then knocked Jackson to the floor with a lunge and step-back for a 3-pointer. On a 10-for-22 night, she made up for it in other ways. All other areas.
“She’s not just someone who can put the ball in the basket,” said Pisot, who scored 18 points.
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Blake’s 10th assist came after the game when he reached up to wipe tears from Pisot’s eyes. Questions posed to both players about Ralph’s effectiveness as a coach turned into lengthy and heartfelt responses. The emotion was also palpable among Blakes, Ralph and athletic director Candace Lee, who were sitting in the audience.
“She changed my life,” Pisot said of Ralph.
“I definitely struggled a little bit last year and just felt like I wasn’t resting,” Blacks said of Ralph. “She was the first person to reach out to me. She knew. She said, ‘I know you’re not going to tell me, but I see you’re struggling. What can I do to help you? We’re going to find joy in your life.’ She found joy in my life.
“I feel like she brought a joy to basketball to me this year. That’s something I’ve been working on, but I couldn’t ask for a better head coach, a better mentor, a better role model. It’s someone you want in your life and she’s like a second mother to me, and that’s why my mom is 100 percent committed. Like, let’s go to Vanderbilt.”
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Black didn’t have much to say about the Sweet 16, other than that she hopes to “continue to do this and not just stop here, but be able to compete for championships in the next few years.”
Watch her play. Watch the people on this show being with each other. Ask Vanderbilt when these things happened, not if.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Vanderbilt Commodores, Illinois Fighting Illinois, Women’s College Basketball, Women’s NCAA Tournament
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