SPRINGFIELD, Mass. –The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced Tuesday that Vanderbilt women’s basketball freshman Mikayla Blakes has been named to the 2025 Ann Meyers Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year Award top five finalists list.
Blakes is the first Commodore to be considered for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, which goes to the nation’s top shooting guard since 2018 as part of the Naismith Starting Five awards. The Somerset, New Jersey, native’s 23.3 points per game average is the sixth-best scoring average in NCAA Division I this season, while it leads all freshmen nationally. The guard ranks in the top 20 nationally in six categories and is the only freshman placed inside the top 35 nationally in scoring (6th; 23.3), free throws made (8th; 167), steals (21st; 75) and 3-pointers made (32nd; 72).
Joining Blakes as a finalist for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award are Ta’Niya Latson (Florida State), Flau’Jae Johnson (LSU), Hannah Hidalgo (Notre Dame) and JuJu Watkins (Southern Cal). She is the only freshman listed as a finalist this season.
Her 26.9 points per game average in SEC play led the league, as she scored 30 or more points in five SEC contests. Overall, Blakes has registered 20-plus points in 18 games this season and has collected five-plus assists in eight contests.
Blakes rewrote the NCAA, SEC and Vanderbilt record books multiple times this season. Her 55-point performance at Auburn on Feb. 16 set the NCAA freshman single-game and SEC single-game scoring records. She previously set the SEC single-game and NCAA true freshman scoring records on Jan. 30 with a 53-point effort at Florida. Blakes also set the Vanderbilt single-game scoring record on three occasions this season.
Fans can support Blakes by participating in Fan Voting, presented by Dell Technologies, starting Friday, March 7, at HoopHallAwards.com. The Fan Vote will count as one committee vote during the finalist selection process.
Later this month, the finalists will be presented to the Meyers Drysdale and the Hall of Fame’s selection committees. The Selection Committees for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Awards are composed of top women’s college basketball personnel, including media members, head coaches, sports information directors, and Hall of Famers.
The winners of the 2025 Meyers Drysdale Awards will be presented on a to-be-determined date, along with the other four members of the Women’s Starting Five. Additional awards being presented include the Nancy Lieberman Award (Point Guard), Cheryl Miller Award (Small Forward), Katrina McClain Award (Power Forward) and Lisa Leslie Award (Center).
Blakes is the second Vanderbilt women’s basketball player to be featured on a Naismith Starting Five awards watch list. Senior Sacha Washington, who is medically redshirting this season, was selected to the Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year preseason watch list.
Earlier on Tuesday, Blakes was named the 2024-25 SEC Freshman of the Year by the league’s coaches and was named to the All-SEC first team and All-SEC freshman team. On Monday, she was selected as a second-team All-American by The Athletic. She was also selected as the SEC Newcomer of the Year and named to the All-SEC first team by USA Today.
Vanderbilt heads to Greenville, South Carolina, for the 2025 SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament as the No. 8 seed. The Commodores earned a bye into the second round and will play on Thursday at 10 a.m. CT against the winner of Wednesday’s first round game against No. 9-seed Tennessee and No. 16-seed Texas A&M.
For more information and exclusive content on the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team, follow @VandyWBB on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X.
