For the past two years, Mikayla Blakes has been the high-scoring engine of Vanderbilt women's basketball.
Coach Shea Ralph's goal for 2026-27 is that the Commodores will have enough pieces around Blakes to free her up to do everything else − to be a leader and to do more without the ball.
"How can she get better?" Ralph said. "It's in leadership, continuing to use her voice, it's in finding other ways to impact the game now that we're continuing to put pieces around her. The bulk of the scoring has had to lean on her shoulders. That doesn't mean she's not going to score the ball. She can still do that very well. But now there's other ways that we can open up her game to impact winning because we're able to put players around her."
Blakes was the
2026 SEC Player of the Year and led the nation in scoring with 27 points per game. She also added on 4.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. Alongside her, Aubrey Galvan emerged as SEC Freshman of the Year after averaging 13.5 points and 5.7 assists per game and the team made the Sweet 16.
Blakes and Galvan are back, but Vanderbilt's top role players are not after the departures of Justine Pissott, Ndjakalenga Mwnentanda and Sacha Washington, the other three members of its 2025-26 starting lineup. In their place, Ralph brought in transfers Vernell Atamah and Mia Woolfolk and freshmen Olivia Jones, Jhai Johnson and Sther Ubaka.
Ralph said that the Commodores got what they needed in the transfer portal. She described Atamah as an elite shooter, while Woolfolk is a versatile big with SEC experience after transferring from Georgia who has played well against Vanderbilt in the past.
Woolfolk, in particular, could expand her game in new ways. With the Bulldogs, she averaged 13.9 points per game in 2025-26 and shot 60.2% from the field, but she has attempted only one three in the past two years. While it may not come right away, Vanderbilt is working on expanding her range and playing more on the perimeter, which could allow her to play with returning bigs Aiyana Mitchell and Aalyah Del Rosario.
"Giving Mia the opportunity to develop outside the lane has been really fun to this point. It's going to take some time. ... What's unique about Mia is that she can also, once we get her to that point, when she continues to develop, dominate on the perimeter. She can do both."
The freshman class is led by Jones, a 5-star guard, whose intensity and consistency reminds Ralph of Blakes. There's also 4-star forward Johnson, who is an excellent rebounder, and Ubaka, who brings some physicality as a combo-forward.
"Olivia Jones has been incredible," Ralph said. "One of our most consistent players in practice, which says a lot about a freshman, reminds me a ton of Mikayla. I don't think it's fair to say that, because you don't want to compare the two, but in terms of her impact on our program, on our team, the intensity that she practices with, the determination, the attitude she brings every day, her personality, it reminds me a lot of some of the greatest players I've coached."
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How Shea Ralph built Vanderbilt women's basketball roster around Mikayla Blakes
