Mikayla Blakes timed her jump perfectly, grabbed the rebound off the front of the rim and tipped the ball in with 0.8 seconds left on the clock. Moments later she was celebrating Vanderbilt’s first win against rival Tennessee since 2019.
Then something funny happened.
“After the handshake line, I was like, ‘Who is this bald head on the court? I swear I’ve seen this reaction before,’” she said of a passionate Vanderbilt fan who stormed the court. “I was like, ‘Who is this? I know him.’
“Then I got closer and was like, ‘Wow. My dad just made it to the court. Where did he come from?’”
Monroe Blakes, a former player and member of the Hall of Fame at Division II St. Michael’s College in Vermont, is typically more reserved by nature. The Blakes are a humble family and the idea of her dad blowing past security to storm the court had Mikayla cracking up. But Monroe couldn’t help himself Sunday when his daughter, the Commodores’ freshman phenom, hit the game-winner in the biggest moment of her college career.
Just like he couldn’t contain his emotions on Saturday, either, when Mikayla’s older brother, Stanford guard Jaylen Blakes, drove the length of the court at the Dean E. Smith Center and knocked down a game-winning stepback jumper from the left wing…
