ATLANTA – On Thursday, it was announced that Vanderbilt women’s basketball standout sophomore Mikayla Blakes is one of 50 players selected to the 2025-26 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Watch List Presented by AXIA Time.
It is the first time that Blakes has been named to the 2025-26 Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Watch List. The guard was selected to the Naismith Trophy Midseason Team last season.
It is the latest preseason honor for Blakes heading into the 2025-26 season. The Somerset, New Jersey, native has been named to The Athletic Preseason All-America first team, is on the Ann Meyers-Drysdale Shooting Guard of the Year watch list and was named preseason first-team All-SEC by the league’s coaches and media.
Blakes is coming off the most successful freshman campaign in program history. She averaged 23.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.4 steals per game a season ago. Her 23.3 points per game average ranked first among all NCAA Division I freshmen, while she led first-year players nationally in seven different categories. She also posted the second-highest scoring average (23.3 ppg) in a season in school history and scored the second-most points (769).
The guard was named the USBWA Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Year last season, making her the first Commodore to win a National Freshman of the Year honor from any publication. She was also named an All-American by six different publications during her rookie campaign.
Along with her national honors, Blakes was selected as the SEC Freshman of the Year by the league’s coaches and was named the SEC Newcomer of the Year by USA Today in 2024-25. The guard set the NCAA Division I single-game scoring record for a freshman by scoring 55 points in an overtime win at Auburn on Feb. 16, 2025. Blakes twice set the SEC and Vanderbilt single-game scoring records, as she first had 53 points at Florida on Jan. 30, then topped that performance with a 55-point effort at Auburn. She is the second NCAA Division I player in NCAA history to score 53-plus points in multiple games in a season and the first since the 1988-89 campaign.
The No. 19/21-ranked Vanderbilt women’s basketball team opens the 2025-26 season on Nov. 3, as the Commodores travel to Paris, France, to face California at Oui-Play Paris. Tipoff against the Golden Bears is set for 1:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
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