Vanderbilt women's basketball spent the past decade at the bottom of the SEC. After a free fall down the conference standings throughout the 2010s, the school’s storied women’s program notched last-place finishes in 2019 and 2021, around when then-new athletic director Candace Storey Lee made a call to UConn’s star assistant coach Shea Ralph.
Ralph, now in her fifth season, has brought the Commodores to the top. Well, near the top — Vanderbilt will enter this week’s end-of-season SEC tournament as the two-seed behind perennial powerhouse South Carolina. After finishing the regular season undefeated in Memorial Gymnasium, Vanderbilt got some off-court momentum early Tuesday morning.
The three top SEC honors — Coach of the Year, Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year — now belong to Ralph, sophomore superstar Mikayla Blakes and rookie guard Aubrey Galvan after a spectacular season that has made the ’Dores a national contender. Conference head coaches, who struggled to game plan for Blakes and Galvan all season, voted on the awards. Blakes, a first-team selection as well as coaches’ unanimous pick for Player of the Year, was the only pick on the SEC first or second team from Vanderbilt. Blakes’ 27.1 average points per game lead all scorers in D1 college basketball — men’s and women’s.
