NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt women’s basketball head coach Shea Ralph was selected as National Coach of the Year by ESPN and The Sporting News, while sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes was named a first-team All-American by both publications.
Ralph’s National Coach of the Year honor by ESPN and The Sporting News, and Blakes’ first-team All-America selection mark the third time that the two have received national accolades this postseason. The Athletic also named Ralph its National Coach of the Year, while Blakes was named a first-team All-American by the publication.
The fifth-year head coach took a Vanderbilt team that returned just one starter from a season ago and led the Commodores to their most successful regular season in school history in 2025-26. Ralph guided Vandy to a 27-4 overall record and a 13-3 mark in SEC games. The Dores concluded the SEC regular season tied for second place, equaling the best conference finish in program history.
Ralph is the second Commodore women’s basketball head coach to earn a Coach of the Year honor from a national publication. She joins Jim Foster, who was the USBWA Coach of the Year in 1992-93 after leading the Dores to the Final Four.
Blakes is averaging 27.0 points, 4.4 assists and 2.9 steals per game this season. Her 27.0 points per game led NCAA Division I in scoring, while her 12 games with 30-plus points this season were the most by a player in the country. She is the first Commodore since Chantelle Anderson to earn first-team All-American honors.
The sophomore set the SEC ablaze this season, as the All-American averaged 30.5 points per game, while shooting 46.9 percent from the floor and 39.8 percent from behind the arc in league games. Blakes had 10 of her 12 30-point efforts against SEC teams, which includes a season-high 38 points at Mississippi State on Jan. 15. The guard has scored double-digits in every game this season and is currently riding a 50-game double-digit scoring streak, which is the longest active streak in the SEC and third-longest in NCAA Division I.
No. 6/6-ranked Vanderbilt opens the 2026 NCAA Tournament at Memorial Gym this Saturday, as the No. 2-seeded Commodores take on No. 15-seed High Point. Tipoff against the Panthers is set for 6 p.m. CT and airs live across the country on ESPNEWS.
Fans can click the link here to purchase tickets for the first and second round NCAA Tournament games at Memorial Gym. For more information about Vanderbilt in the NCAA Tournament, click the link here.
The Anchored for Her Campaign
Vanderbilt launched the Anchored for Her campaign to honor its pioneering female student-athletes and cement the university’s place as the premier destination for women’s sports ahead of next year’s 50th anniversary of its varsity women’s teams. Bolstered by lead gifts from Vanderbilt Board of Trust members Nina Kohler and Kathleen Justice-Moore, JD’91, Anchored for Her’s initial $50 million goal will fuel investment in sustainable success for a new era of collegiate athletics through facility enhancements, endowed scholarships, coaching and staff positions, capital support and naming opportunities, team-specific Excellence Funds, the Women’s Athletics General Fund and the Competitive Excellence Fund.
For more information and exclusive content on the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team, follow @VandyWBB on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
