Shea Ralph was on the Vanderbilt team bus, making the short trip home from Knoxville to Nashville after another installment of the Commodores rivalry with the Lady Vols. Her Vanderbilt team had come so close on this January 2024 day, losing by just nine points in the final three minutes after seven ties and five lead changes.
All things considered, Ralph felt good as she reflected on the game during the ride home. She’d left her post as a UConn assistant and taken the Vanderbilt job in April 2021 to see if she could build the program back to its glory days from the ’90s. Nobody thought the Commodores could come that close against the storied Lady Vols on the road.
“I’m like, ‘Damn, we’re right there,’” Ralph said she thought as the bus headed toward a gas station for a quick snack break. “‘But we’re not there.’”
Then Ralph’s phone rang. A FaceTime call that would change everything.
Mikayla Blakes, the five-star guard out of Somerset, N.J., was prepared to issue her college commitment the next day in a ceremony at her Rutgers (N.J.) Prep School, just hours before her senior night game. Ralph and her staff knew they had a chance. They’d been recruiting Blakes for two years, had hosted her and her family on an official visit a few months prior and knew…
