Shea Ralph has taken Vanderbilt from surprise team to true contender – Chattanooga Times Free Press

NASHVILLE — Going into her sixth season at Vanderbilt, reigning AP women’s college basketball coach of the year Shea Ralph has the Commodores right where she is most comfortable.
Chasing championships.
“I think every year it’s like, ‘Vanderbilt: Surprise, we’re good!’ It’s not a surprise,” Ralph said. “We came here to be good. We came here to be great. I’m excited. This is what I’ve trained for. And I’m excited to be able to share that with our players.”
Revitalizing a Southeastern Conference program that has reached the NCAA Division I tournament’s Final Four just once, way back in 1993, is why athletic director Candice Storey Lee lured Ralph away from the University of Connecticut, where she won one national title as a player and six more as an assistant coach.
“I’ve spent the better part of my life working with great players, playing with great players,” the 48-year-old Ralph said.
Vanderbilt is coming off its best season in nearly 20 years. The Commodores went 29-5 and reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2008-09. Ralph has seven players back from that team, led by junior shooting guard Mikayla Blakes, who was an AP All-America first-team pick, and point guard Aubrey Galvan, who was the SEC freshman of the year.
Still, this is a new team.
“We have to prove ourselves first,” Galvan said.
Blakes led the nation in scoring with 27 points per game and was even better in conference play, averaging 30.5 points per contest. That’s why she was voted the SEC player of the year and now is the league’s preseason player of the year. Blakes is only the 13th player in SEC history to win both player of the year and freshman of the year, and the first since former South Carolina star A’ja Wilson — who this year became a five-time WNBA MVP — to win the awards in back-to-back seasons.
The 5-foot-8 Blakes is established as an explosive and prolific scorer, but she’s working to be more of a leader and all-around player for Vanderbilt in her third college season. Blakes knows the more confidence she helps her teammates build keeps her from being the focal point.
“My role is going to change,” Blakes said. “We have a lot of good scorers this year and really a lot of good players. So I feel like (it’s about) doing whatever the team needs me to do and continuing to read defenses really well.”
Ralph wanted more rebounding and scoring, and she added two players through the NCAA transfer portal. Mia Woolfolk is used to the SEC grind after leading Georgia in rebounds last season, averaging 5.4 a game as a sophomore. Woolfolk also ranked second in scoring for the Lady Bulldogs with a career-best 13.9 points a game, which is why Ralph is happy the 6-2 forward is on her team now.
“I tell her every day, ‘You used to torch us,'” Ralph said.
Vernell Atamah was the Southland Conference player of the year last season after leading that league in scoring with 19.2 points a game for Louisiana’s Northwestern State. Ataman, who ranked 29th nationally in scoring, shot 39.4% from 3-point range, ranking 11th nationally by making an average of 2.9 3-pointers a game.
Ralph also brought in her highest-ranked freshman class yet with a trio led by Olivia Jones, a consensus five-star recruit who played in the McDonald’s All America Game. Jones, ranked as the nation’s No. 14 prospect overall by ESPN, joins Blakes as the only five-star recruits to sign with Vanderbilt out of high school. Jones also helped the U.S. win gold at the 2026 FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup.
Ralph is trying hard not to compare Jones to Blakes, though it’s a bit of a challenge.
“In terms of her impact on our program, on our team, the intensity that she practices with, the determination, the attitude she brings every day, her personality, it reminds me a lot of some of the greatest players I’ve coached, including Mikayla,” Ralph said.
The new class also features 6-4 forward Jhai Johnson and Sther Ubaka, a forward from Brazil who played two seasons at DME Academy in Florida and is on her country’s national team. Johnson’s ability to play both in the paint and outside will be a big boost to a program that has struggled to rebound.
Vanderbilt tips off its 2026-27 schedule on Nov. 2, when fellow Nashville program Lipscomb University of the Atlantic Sun Conference visits Memorial Gymnasium. The Commodores will also be at home for their SEC opener against Arkansas on New Year’s Eve, and on Feb. 7 they’ll host the only scheduled meeting this season with league rival Tennessee, which has lost three straight to Vanderbilt in a series the Lady Volunteers lead 80-13.
All the talent has Ralph busy figuring out exactly what she has — and where to move the players around to help Blakes tap into all of her skills for a simple reason.
“So that she becomes unguardable,” Ralph said, “in every way.”
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