Star rookies in Vanderbilt’s Blakes, Duke’s Fournier headline Durham site
Star rookies in Vanderbilt’s Blakes, Duke’s Fournier headline Durham site
Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes (1) drives oni South Carolina guard Raven Johnson (25) during an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/David Yeazell)
Duke head coach Kara Lawson celebrates after cutting the net after the team defeated North Carolina State in an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Greensboro, N.C., Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes (1) drives oni South Carolina guard Raven Johnson (25) during an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/David Yeazell)
Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes (1) drives oni South Carolina guard Raven Johnson (25) during an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 7, 2025, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/David Yeazell)
Duke head coach Kara Lawson celebrates after cutting the net after the team defeated North Carolina State in an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Greensboro, N.C., Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Duke head coach Kara Lawson celebrates after cutting the net after the team defeated North Carolina State in an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament Greensboro, N.C., Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — After the first day of summer workouts for Vanderbilt, Jordyn Oliver had to call her dad and tell him about her new teammate, Mikayla Blakes. There was just something about her that was different.
“She came in Day One, cooking,” Oliver says. “She’s a hooper, a dawg.”
Blakes has proven to be anything but an ordinary rookie for the Commodores, who are the No. 7 seed in the Birmingham 2 regional and open the NCAA Tournament against No. 10 Oregon on Friday at Duke. Blakes is eighth in the nation in scoring with 23.2 points per game.
But she isn’t the only stellar youngster at this site for the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend. While Blakes won the SEC Freshman of the Year award, Duke forward Toby Fournier was voted ACC Rookie of the Year. The Blue Devils are seeded second and will face No. 15 Lehigh.
Fournier, a 6-foot-2 forward from Toronto, Canada, gained attention before stepping on Duke’s campus for dunking videos that went viral. She has yet to throw down a slam this season for the Blue Devils but leads the ACC champs in scoring with 13.4 points per game, doing so in just 19.9 minutes per game. A better assessment of her impact is that she averages 27.0 points per 40 minutes, which ranks 14th nationally.
Blakes grabbed the spotlight this season with awesome offensive performances. The 5-foot-8 guard from New Jersey piled up 53 points in a Jan. 30 win at Florida, then poured in 55 points in a Feb. 16 victory at Auburn.
Not only did Blakes set the NCAA single-game points record for a freshman – surpassing Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne – but she joined Mississippi Valley State’s Patricia Hoskins as the only players to score 53 points or more twice in a season.
“I think she’s a great player and a great competitor,” Fournier said of Blakes, adding that the two played against each other in youth basketball at different camps and AAU tournaments.
Vanderbilt coach Shea Ralph knew that Blakes had the potential to be special when she was recruiting her.
“We recognized her level of play, her confidence and competitiveness, her will to win,” Ralph said. “She has elevated our standard.”
Carolina Connections
While a potential Sweet 16 matchup with their rival looms, the Blue Devils can easily see connections to the North Carolina Tar Heels all throughout this site.
The coach of Lehigh, Addie Micir, played for UNC’s Courtney Banghart at Princeton.
Ralph’s mother, Marsha Lake (Mann) starred for UNC in the early 1970s and was the program’s first All-American.
And Oregon’s point guard is Deja Kelly, who played for UNC for four seasons before joining the Ducks. Kelly is 2-1 in Cameron Indoor Stadium and is all too familiar with the jeers from the Cameron Crazies.
“This is, of course, a historic building, a historic gym,” Kelly said. “I’m excited to be back here with a different squad.”
Duke cautious of Lehigh
In the 2012 men’s NCAA Tournament, No. 15 Lehigh upset Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils 75-70. Now, 13 years later, Duke coach Kara Lawson reminded her team of the shared history between these two squads on Thursday morning.
“You have to have the appropriate fear every time you go into a game. Like, you have to know that you can be beaten,” Lawson said. “If you don’t think it’s possible at all, you’ll slip in your preparation.”
Lehigh is the best free throw shooting team in the nation, knocking down 81.1% of their charity stripe attempts this season.
Clash of styles
Oregon and Vanderbilt have found success in different ways. The Commodores like to play up-tempo and get up a lot of shots. They’re seventh in the nation in scoring with 83.6 points per game.
The Ducks like to muck up contests and lean on defense. They’re outside of the top 250 teams in 3-pointers attempted this season but are 33rd nationally in defensive rating.
“It’s a contrast of styles,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “We want to grind it out. They want to get out and go. If we have to get out and go with them, we’re in trouble.”
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