Shea Ralph was on the Vanderbilt team bus, making the short trip home from Knoxville to Nashville after another installment of the Commodores rivalry with the Lady Vols. Her Vanderbilt team had come so close on this January 2024 day, losing by just nine points in the final three minutes after seven ties and five lead changes.
All things considered, Ralph felt good as she reflected on the game during the ride home. She’d left her post as a UConn assistant and taken the Vanderbilt job in April 2021 to see if she could build the program back to its glory days from the ’90s. Nobody thought the Commodores could come that close against the storied Lady Vols on the road.
“I’m like, ‘Damn, we’re right there,’” Ralph said she thought as the bus headed toward a gas station for a quick snack break. “‘But we’re not there.’”
Then Ralph’s phone rang. A FaceTime call that would change everything.
Mikayla Blakes, the five-star guard out of Somerset, N.J., was prepared to issue her college commitment the next day in a ceremony at her Rutgers (N.J.) Prep School, just hours before her senior night game. Ralph and her staff knew they had a chance. They’d been recruiting Blakes for two years, had hosted her and her family on an official visit a few months prior and knew Ralph’s vision for the program had the Commodores squarely in Blakes’ top seven.
But Blakes had ignored text messages from both Ralph and assistant coach Kevin DeMille when they’d reached out a few days earlier, asking if they should reserve Vanderbilt’s private plane to fly them to the occasion. Her silence was unsettling.
Now she was calling.
As Ralph answered, she saw Blakes, flanked by her family, come into view. All of them were decked out in Vanderbilt T-shirts.
“I was like, ‘I want to commit to you guys,’” Blakes recalled, revealing that she’d ignored Ralph’s and DeMille’s text messages only because she wanted to surprise them the day before her announcement. “That was just one of the best feelings, just to see their reaction jumping on the bus.”
In the moment, Ralph could feel how seminal landing a recruit of Blakes’ caliber was. Blakes, the nation’s No. 8 prospect by ESPN, would be the highest-rated signee of her career. The type of player who planned to change the program’s trajectory. Her first five-star.
“I almost passed out,” Ralph said, laughing. “I got off the phone and I immediately called our athletic director (Candice Storey Lee) and then we celebrated while I’m in the gas station, up and down the aisles (yelling), ‘Yes, girl!’”
Fourteen months later, Blakes has kept her promise, making good on her word to help return the Commodores to the national stage as they seek a Final Four berth for the first time since 1993. She hit a game-winner against Tennessee in January, giving Vanderbilt its first win over the Lady Vols since 2019. She also dropped 53 points at Florida in January, only to casually break her own SEC and Division I freshman scoring records by pouring in 55 points at Auburn two weeks later — including 30 points in the final 10 minutes of game time. She’s averaging 23.2 points per game, just won SEC Freshman of the Year honors and will no doubt top the scouting report for every opposing coach tasked with trying to limit her in the NCAA Tournament.
As March Madness opens this week, and the No. 7-seeded Commodores travel to Durham, N.C., to take on No. 10 seed Oregon in the first round, Blakes will take center stage as one of the sport’s most electric stars.
— Vanderbilt WBB (@VandyWBB) February 16, 2025
“It’s not just about her. But what’s in store for Vanderbilt, what’s in store for women’s basketball, what’s in store for the young little girls and young little boys who come up to her,” Blakes’ mother, Nikkia, said.
“She has created history,” her father, Monroe, added. “She makes the extraordinary things look ordinary right now.”
Blakes didn’t start seriously playing basketball until she was about 12.
From ages 3 to 9, she excelled as a dancer. Then she bopped over to the track, where her family said her time in the 800-meter run as an 11-year-old ranked top 15 nationally for her age group.
But something felt missing.
“I remember coming home one evening and the babysitter telling … me to sit down. Mikayla had something to tell me,” Nikkia recalled. “And Mikayla then shared that she no longer wanted to run track. She had a love and passion for basketball. For me as a mom, it’s always about just understanding the passion and what your children want to do.”
Nikkia and Monroe assured Mikayla that evening they’d support their daughter’s desire to switch sports on two conditions. One: Basketball had to be something Mikayla genuinely wanted to choose for herself and not an obligation she felt pressured to pursue because Monroe — a member of the Hall of Fame at Division II St. Michael’s College in Vermont — and older brother, Jaylen — now a guard at Stanford — both played. Two: Blakes would have to personally call her track and field coaches to inform them of her change of heart.
“I just saw my brother playing, just his passion for the game, and I liked running, but I’d rather do something with the running rather than running in a circle on a track,” Blakes said. “I was like, OK. I think I can do basketball.”
Monroe and Nikkia wasted no time finding a grassroots team for their daughter, whose reputation would soon precede her.
Mary Klinger has coached girls basketball for 40-plus years at both the grassroots and high school level as the head coach at Rutgers Prep and has sent 100-plus players to the college ranks. But when Blakes came through Klinger’s seventh-grade grassroots team, it was immediately apparent that this North Jersey up-and-comer was not her typical player.
“(Organizers) were like, ‘Oh God, there’s this kid, Mikayla Blakes. Wait till you see her,’” Klinger recalled. “We had a practice, and yeah, your eyes went right to her because she’s so athletic and she’s just quick.”
As Blakes progressed through middle school, she won three summer national championships on Klinger’s grassroots team and earned her first scholarship offer from nearby Rutgers as an eighth-grader.
By ninth grade, she was a day-one starter for Rutgers Prep’s varsity team. And by 10th grade, she helped deliver the program a state championship.
When critics questioned her ability to knock down 3-pointers, she began going to the gym with Monroe at 6 a.m. to work on shooting before school. When pundits wondered if she’d be able to effectively drive left to keep defenders honest with her off hand, she quietly went to work, becoming one of the greatest rim attackers Klinger had ever seen. It didn’t hurt that competing with Jaylen and the boys in her neighborhood also instilled a level of toughness that is still her brother’s favorite part of little sis’ game.
“The thing that really stood out to us,” Monroe said, “was her competitive nature. Her competitive drive to get better. She had that when she picked up the basketball.”
It wasn’t long before Blakes soon became a five-star prospect, competing at the highest level of high school basketball. She dropped 34 points as a junior in a heartbreaking loss against Paul VI (N.J.) Catholic High — the home of Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo — and went on to average 20.4 points per game with 3.6 steals and 3.2 assists as a senior.
As a McDonald’s All-American, it became obvious that Blakes could play college basketball anywhere in the country. Her phone rang constantly once power-conference coaches were permitted to contact her.
“To be honest,” she said, “I didn’t know anything about Vanderbilt. … I didn’t even know where Vanderbilt was located.”
It would be up to Ralph and her staff to change that.
Coach Shea Ralph knew five-star recruit Mikayla Blakes’ commitment could change the trajectory of the program. (Eakin Howard / Getty Images)
Blakes had an idea of how the recruitment process worked, having had a front-row seat when Jaylen eventually committed to Duke before transferring to Stanford.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of Jaylen’s recruitment took place via Zoom. That taught Mikayla and her parents an invaluable lesson when it was her turn: In-person unofficial visits were crucial.
“We met some amazing coaches and staffs and visited some amazing universities,” Nikkia said. “But the one thing that we kept telling her was, ‘Your heart will tell you.’”
Blakes eventually narrowed her list to seven schools: Vanderbilt, Indiana, Stanford, UCLA, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Rutgers.
When she elected not to sign during the early signing period, Ralph had a hunch why. “They’re waiting to see. They want to see if we’re going to win,’” she said she thought. “And I understood the importance of that.”
Midway through the process, Klinger called Ralph with some advice.
“I said, ‘Look, if you want this kid, you have got to get a personal relationship with her. She wants a relationship with the head coach,’” Klinger said. “‘Your assistants are wonderful. But she wants to get to know you.’”
Ralph took that to heart. By playing for and coaching under UConn’s Geno Auriemma — with whom she won a national title in 2000 as the Big East Player of the Year — she learned first-hand how to win on the recruiting trail.
The first time she and Blakes hopped on the phone together, they chatted at length as the typically reserved Blakes noticed how easy it felt to open up to Ralph. Ralph also did her part by taking frequent visits to New Jersey to nurture a relationship with the entire family.
Together, she pitched Blakes, they could take Vanderbilt to places it hadn’t been in several decades. Before Ralph’s hiring, the Commodores hadn’t earned an NCAA Tournament bid since 2013-14 and hadn’t had a winning season since 2014-15. Ralph improved from 12 wins in Year 2 to 20-plus in Years 3 and 4.
“I feel like I always had a little feeling,” Blakes said. “You know how people say when you step on campus, you’ll know? You’ll get that feeling? I definitely felt that at Vanderbilt.
“I understand it now.”
Blakes took her official visit to Vanderbilt in the fall of 2023.
Ultimately her decision came down to her relationship with the coaching staff, the opportunity to pursue a potential career in medicine at a top university — she finished her first semester at Vanderbilt with a 3.9 GPA — NIL opportunities in and around Nashville and most importantly, the chance to help make some history. Ralph credited assistant coach Kevin DeMille as the difference-maker — he discovered her long before she was a five-star and made frequent trips to New Jersey to watch her play.
“The easier path, the easier choice, is to go to UConn or South Carolina or Notre Dame,” Ralph said.
“I talked to her about legacy. … Together, we can do something really, really cool.”
🚨FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE🚨
5⭐️ recruit Mikayla Blakes (@mikaylablakes) (#10 in the Class of 2024) has announced her commitment to Vanderbilt (@VandyWBB)
Her other finalists included Tennessee, Rutgers, Stanford, Wisconsin, UCLA & Indiana. pic.twitter.com/hX00WIWNPJ
— E J 🏀 (@EJayArrow) January 22, 2024
Earlier this month, after Vanderbilt lost to South Carolina in the SEC tournament, Blakes had a few days off for spring break. She traveled with her parents from Greenville, S.C., to Louisville, Ky., to watch Jaylen’s Stanford team take on the Cardinals. As they left for the airport early in the morning after the game, Blakes and her dad rewatched the game repeatedly, even in their Uber.
”That’s the norm for her,” Nikkia said.
That attention to detail will serve Blakes well this week, as Vanderbilt looks to make some noise in the tournament. Beating Oregon would give the Commodores 23 wins for the second consecutive season and the first time since 2008-09 and 2009-10. Round 2 would likely pit Vanderbilt against No. 2 Duke on the Blue Devils’ home floor as they earned a tournament hosting site.
On the heels of her 53- and 55-point performances, Blakes has just the right amount of swagger to keep opponents on their toes.
Monroe and Nikkia will be there to support her all the way through.
“It’s really amazing, but a testament to all the work she does. A testament to coach Ralph and the team,” Monroe said.
As she goes, so too will the Commodores — who have big plans.
“Championships. Championships. Winning,” Ralph said. “She is going to do things that have never been done before. She already has. And we are going to do things that have never been done before.
“That’s why she and I are both here.”
(Photo of Mikayla Blakes: Johnnie Izquierdo / Getty Images)
