Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I think you have to hand it to the Buccaneers for refusing to play ball with the Jaguars’ coaching search after the Liam Coen debacle.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 Another gambling scandal
😡 All-Star snubs
🔮 Men’s bracket watch
This isn’t an outlier, either
Vanderbilt Commodores freshman Mikayla Blakes is rewriting the record books this season.
Blakes went off for 53 points in Vanderbilt’s 99–86 win over the Florida Gators on Thursday, breaking the Division I women’s true freshman single-game scoring record of 51 points set by JuJu Watkins of the USC Trojans. Blakes made 16 of her 24 field goal attempts (including five of nine from three) and went 16-for-18 from the free-throw line. She also had three rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Blakes’s outburst was the most prolific scoring night of any true freshman in NCAA Division I women’s history and fell one point shy of the overall women’s freshman record of 54 points, set by Elena Della Donne of the Delaware Blue Hens when she was a redshirt freshman.
But Blakes has had plenty of other achievements this season that do not require asterisks. She now holds Vanderbilt’s single-game scoring record and the SEC single-game record. She also tied the record for points in a game at Florida’s O’Connell Center, set by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf of the LSU Tigers in 1988. Her 53-point blitz came four days after she dropped 33 in a win over the Alabama Crimson Tide, making her the first Vanderbilt freshman to have at least 30 points in back-to-back games and the first Commodore of any year to do so in 25 years.
“I told the team in the locker room that Mikayla had one of the most incredible performances that I’ve ever seen as a coach, and I’ve coached a lot of really good players for a long time,” Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph said. “And that’s not taking anything away from them, when you see a player like her do what she did tonight sometimes she makes things that are really, really hard to do look really easy. That’s the sign of someone who is just gifted.
“And the cool thing is that she has those gifts physically, but she’s built different internally which is why you see her do this day in and day out. The things that she does that aren’t in the spotlight, that aren’t in buildings with scoring records, are just as impressive. I’m glad she’s on our team, I’ll say that.”
Blakes, the No. 8 prospect in the class of 2024, is the highest-ranked recruit Ralph has ever signed in her four years at Vanderbilt and is living up to the hype. She’s Vanderbilt’s leading scorer with 22.4 points per game, second in the SEC behind Arkansas Razorbacks senior Izzy Higginbottom and seventh in the nation, and ranks second on the team in both steals and assists per game. Blakes has now scored at least 25 points in five games this season and is averaging 28 points per game over Vanderbilt’s eight conference games.
With Blakes leading the way, the Commodores are having their best season in more than a decade. The team qualified for the NCAA tournament last season for the first time in 11 years and finished with a 23–10 record but has taken another step forward this season. Vanderbilt is 18–4 and ranked in the AP top 25 for the first time since 2014.
The biggest reason for the team’s improvement is the Commodores’ explosive offense. They’re averaging 86.4 points per game, which not only ranks seventh in the nation this season but is the highest in school history. It’s also 17.9 more than Vanderbilt averaged last season. Blakes is obviously responsible for a portion of that, but she isn’t the only Vandy player who’s stepped up offensively. Sophomore forward Khamil Pierre has had a breakout season after a middling freshman campaign. Pierre is averaging 20.8 points per game (compared to 8.9 a year ago), which ranks fourth in the SEC, and 10.3 rebounds per game, which ranks second in the conference. She is the only women’s player this season averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. The only other SEC players—men’s or women’s—in the last 30 years to average 20 and 10 are Angel Reese and A’ja Wilson.
The SEC is loaded this season, with eight teams currently ranked in the AP poll. Vanderbilt is firmly in a rung below the conference’s powerhouse teams like the South Carolina Gamecocks, Tennessee Volunteers and Texas Longhorns, but with Blakes and Pierre leading the way, the Commodores are building something special in Nashville.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- NBA veteran Terry Rozier is the latest player being investigated by the FBI for point-shaving. Pat Forde has more on the investigation that also involves several college players and programs.
- Kevin Sweeney’s new men’s bracket watch has plenty of SEC teams fighting to secure a spot in the field of 68.
- Liam McKeone thinks these five players were the biggest NBA All-Star snubs.
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- Albert Breer’s latest mailbag leads with a question about the Chiefs’ ability to keep their defensive core together.
- Shaun Tolson attended the new TGL indoor golf league and detailed what the viewing experience is like for fans in the studio.
- Ravens kicker Justin Tucker was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by six massage therapists.
- The Utah Hockey Club made a last-minute change to the list of team names it’s asking fans to vote on.
- The NFL says there were fewer concussions this season than there had been in a decade.
- Max Scherzer has found his next team, signing a one-year deal with the Blue Jays.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Alexander Ovechkin’s 876th career goal. He’s now 19 away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record.
4. Wizards fans sarcastically chanting “MVP” at Bronny James in garbage time.
3. Bronny’s legitimately impressive and-one layup.
2. The LSU women’s quick five points in the closing seconds to seal their win over Oklahoma. The Tigers won 107–100, the first time in SEC history that both teams broke the 100-point barrier.
1. The standing ovation Canadiens fans gave Wild goalie Marc-André Fleury after his shutout win in what was likely his final game in his home province. The Canadiens players all lined up to shake hands with Fleury, too.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes Sets True Freshman Scoring Record.