INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) – High-scoring first-year Vanderbilt guard Mikayla Blakes rewrote the Southeastern Conference's freshman record book, leading the Commodores to a second straight NCAA Tournament with 23.3 points per game to earn her the 2024-25 Tamika Catchings National Freshman Player of the Year Award from the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
Blakes will be recognized at the upcoming Women's Final Four in Tampa next month and formally presented with the award on April 17 and the USBWA Awards Dinner, hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis.
Despite 26 points from Blakes, the Commodores were eliminated in overtime, 77-73, by Oregon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. But that hardly tells the story of a sensational first season in Nashville, playing for Head Coach Shea Ralph, herself a winner of this award at UConn in the 1996-97 season.
The 5-8 true freshman from Somerset, N.J., didn't waste any time making her mark. She scored in double figures in her first 13 games, 32 of 33 games this season and 19 straight to finish the year.
On Feb. 16 at Auburn, she set the NCAA single-game scoring record with 55 points in a 98-88 overtime win. That was after she broke the SEC single-game record with 53 points at Florida on Jan. 30. The NCAA record topped Elena Delle Donne's 54-point game in 2009-10. And, her 53-point outburst broke an SEC conference game record that stood since 1976.
Seven times she was named the SEC Freshman of the Week and four times she earned the Tamika Catchings National Freshman Player of the Week from the USBWA. At the close of the regular season, she was named to the USBWA's All-America second team, just the fourth Vanderbilt player to be so honored and the first since Chantelle Anderson was a three-time selection ending in the 2002-03 season.
She is the only Division I player – men's or women's – to have a 50-point game this season.
"Nothing she does surprises me. She came in day one cooking, and she cooks day, what day is it, 200 – day 200. She's a hooper, a dawg," said teammate Jordyn Oliver. "But I think one thing that goes missing about Mikayla is she's a great kid. Her family is a great family. She's humble. She's funny. She's not just a hooper, she's actually a great person, a great kid. That's Mikayla Blakes for you."
To go with her prolific scoring average, which is eighth in the nation and tops among freshmen, she added 3.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.4 steals per game. Along with sophomore teammate Khamil Pierre, they are the only pair of teammates in Division I to average more than 20.0 points per game this season.
The USBWA has named a national freshman player of the year since the 1991-92 season. In the 2020-21 season the award was named for Tamika Catchings, the legendary Tennessee star who was a three-time USBWA All-American and the association's national freshman player of the year in the 1997-98 season.
The USBWA was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 800 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact executive director Malcolm Moran at malcolm@usbwa.com.