Mikayla Blakes timed her jump perfectly, grabbed the rebound in front of the rim and drained the ball in with 0.8 seconds left. Not long after, she was celebrating Vanderbilt’s first win over rival Tennessee since 2019.
Then something interesting happened.
“After the handshake was over, I was like, ‘Who is this bald guy on the court? I swear I’ve seen this reaction before,'” she said of an ardent Vanderbilt fan who stormed the court. “I was like, ‘Who is this? I know him.
“Then I got closer and thought, ‘Wow. My dad just came to court. Where did he come from?
Monroe Blakes, a former player and Hall of Famer at Division II St. Michael’s College in Vermont, is conservative by nature. The Blacks were a humble family, and Michaela laughed at the thought of her father rushing through security and into the courtroom. But on Sunday, Monroe couldn’t help himself as his daughter, the Commodores’ freshman phenom, hit the game-winning shot in the biggest moment of her college career.
Just as he couldn’t control his emotions Saturday, Mikaela’s brother, Stanford guard Jalen Blacks, ran up the court at the Dean E. Smith Center and drained the game-winning shot from the left wing. Step back jump shot.
Two kids, two buzzer-beaters in two days, and an excited father witnessed it all.
“The word I keep using is ‘awesome.’ Blessed. I’m not sure if that makes sense,” Monroe Blacks said. “I started playing basketball when I was 13 years old and have been playing for over 40 years now. … But those two brought me to new heights and new memories that I haven’t experienced in the past 40 years.
“What are the chances that a brother and sister would do this in a row?”
The face of a proud father🥹
Mikayla Blakes and brother Jaylen Blakes hit game-winning shots within 24 hours of each other.#AnchorDown https://t.co/jJZZnnXulp pic.twitter.com/mCSB9OxHe1
— VanderbiltWBB (@VandyWBB) January 19, 2025
MIKAYLA Blakes pulls one back for Dores#AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/uCXnEgAiXw
— VanderbiltWBB (@VandyWBB) January 19, 2025
Jalen, who spent three years at Duke before transferring to Stanford as a graduate transfer for his final season of eligibility, is no stranger to playing in the Dean Dome. He went 2-1 in three games against Duke in Chapel Hill and dreamed of having his own big moment at one of the sport’s most storied venues.
The night before taking the field at Stanford, Jalen took some time to think about former Blue Devils guard Austin Rivers, whose iconic game-winning field goal against North Carolina in 2012 remains in Duke lore. middle. He also recalled Wendell Moore’s game-winning putback in 2020 at the Smith Center to help Duke beat the Tar Heels in overtime.
“This is exactly what I dreamed of doing,” Jaylen said. “It was a special thing to be in that moment.”
Stanford trailed 70-71 with seven seconds left when Jalen inbounded the ball under the Cardinal basket. He caught the ball right and raced down the left sideline.
“I had a really good defender next to me in Seth Trimble. So I thought, ‘OK, he’s going to cut me off,'” Jalen said. “As soon as he interrupted me, I felt his momentum regressing, so I decided to take a step back and shoot.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s an unbelievable moment. One thing is, when you make a shot, it’s not just you who makes the shot. Everybody has supported you on this journey. .
In the stands, Monroe felt as if he was watching the game in slow motion. It took him a second to realize what he had just seen.
“That goal went in. That goal went in,” he recalled. “That’s the winner of the game.”
In Nashville, Mikayla had just finished practice and was watching the game on her phone before heading to Memorial Coliseum to watch the Vanderbilt men’s team take on Tennessee. She missed the live footage because her stream kept freezing. But when the texts and calls started pouring in, she thought Stanford had won and rushed to the locker room to get better service in rewinding the tape.
“I saw him make the shot and I was just excited,” said Mikayla, a former five-star recruit who leads all freshmen nationally with 20.2 points per game. “I started FaceTimeting with my dad and then started calling my brother because he was already in the locker room by then. So I called my brother’s phone and texted him, really excited.
Jaylen and Michaela Blakes. (Vanderbilt Athletics)
The next day, Monroe flew to Nashville, where his wife, Nikia, joined him to watch Mikaela play. The Blacks, who live in New Jersey, made a deal where at least one of them would make every effort to attend every one of their kids’ games — not a bad deal considering Jalen and Mikayla played on opposite sides of the country. A small thing.
When Vanderbilt blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and it became clear the game was going down to the wire, one of Blake’s friends shouted those words.
“It’s funny, one of the guys we were with said to us, ‘What if Mikayla hits the game-winning shot?'” Monroe said. “I thought, ‘No, I don’t think that’s going to happen twice. That’s not going to happen.
Jaylen, who returned to the California campus, watched the entire game in the training room of Stanford University while receiving treatment. He also doubted his family would be so lucky on a weekend.
“I was thinking, ‘There’s no way we’re going to win games several days in a row.’ It all comes down to that last game,” he said. “I saw that layup and she was behind and she made it, and when I realized she made it, I was running around the training room screaming, ‘Oh my God, my God. Ah. This is special.
After Monroe rushed onto the court to celebrate, Jaylen joined the carnival with his parents via video. Mikayla later learned from her mother that her father was in tears at that moment. When Mikayla returned to the locker room, she had received six missed calls from Jaylen.
“I answered the phone on the seventh call,” she said.
“I’m so lucky to have her as my sister,” Jaylen added. “I’m so lucky to be her brother.”
This week, Monroe finally responded to about 100 text messages he received, and Michaela joked that it might be the best moment of his life, and he continues to enjoy it.
Whenever he was rebounding for the kids in the yard, or when a one-on-one game got too competitive, Nikia helped separate them, and it was a moment the Blake family will never forget.
“One thing I love about my kids is they’re very competitive,” Monroe said. “They compete with each other but they love each other, so it makes each of them better. It’s a Amazing motivation – love and support for each other.
“They were talking all the time, giving each other advice. After the game, when he hit the winning shot, she called him and he called her, and that’s why I’m so proud. They put in a lot of hard work, I was happy for them at that moment.
(Top: Grant Halverson/Getty Images; Andrew Nelles/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
