Mikayla Blakes savors SEC honor as a step toward taking Vanderbilt deep in March Madness

Wilson won a national title at South Carolina in 2017 and was the AP player of the year as a senior in 2018. Wilson helped set a bar that Blakes certainly hopes to meet, especially if it means getting the Commodores where she wants as a perennial national contender.

Blakes sees being SEC player of the year as an offshoot of helping Vanderbilt win, and the sixth-ranked Commodores (27-4) have done just that in setting a program record for victories before the NCAA Tournament.

“This was my goal,” Blakes said. “Like I want to be able to bring the program back to competing for Final Four, back to people looking at Vanderbilt, be like, 'OK.”

Blakes deals with pressure by simply playing basketball and having fun.

She learned that lesson after setting the NCAA freshman single-game scoring record as the first D-I player to score 53 or more points in multiple games in a season since 1988-89. She followed that up by earning MVP honors in leading the United States to gold at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup last summer.

Blakes has played even better this season. She leads the nation in scoring at 27 points per game. In a league featuring eight ranked teams, Blakes led the SEC in averaging 30.5 points a game in conference games.

She also has the SEC's longest active streak in scoring double figures in 50 straight games, also third longest in Division I. She did it by shooting 46.9% from the floor and 39.8% from 3-point range in SEC games.

The 5-foot-8 guard from Somerset, New Jersey, credits growing up playing basketball against her brother Jaylen, who played at Duke, and last summer's stint with USA Basketball with helping her learn how to handle the physical pounding of playing in the SEC.

“Playing against him, he was like a brick,” Blakes said of her brother. "I couldn’t really move him.”

Blakes has more help this season thanks to freshman point guard Aubrey Galvan, Justine Pissott and graduate forward Sacha Washington all averaging at least 10.4 points a game. Blakes is averaging 4.4 assists when opponents focus on defending her.

The guard averages 2.9 steals a game as well, often starting fast breaks up the court.

“With the teammates I have this year, it's really hard just to focus in on me because other people take advantage of that,” Blakes said. "And by all means, I love when they, my teammates score. I get so excited for them as well.”

Vanderbilt lost its quarterfinal last week at the SEC Tournament when Blakes missed her first 12 shots, and coach Shea Ralph was ejected going onto the court to argue over a foul being called on her star guard. Blakes finished with 24 points in that game in trying to rally the Commodores.

“What I know about her is that she is going to fight to win the game,” Ralph said. “Never count her or us out. And that kid fought until the very end because that is who she is.”

The next step comes when the NCAA tournament bracket and sites are announced for the first and second rounds on Sunday night. The Commodores are expected to host for the first time since 2012, and Blakes has seen the number of fans filling the Memorial Gym stands grow from her freshman year.

She expects more for the upcoming games, which is all part of the plan for Vanderbilt.

“All of us are just even more locked in and motivated to be able to go further," Blakes said.

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