Early in January, grinning at the podium after the biggest win of her college basketball career, Mikayla Blakes said everything that was expected of her.
Describing how then-No. 12 Vanderbilt knocked off then-No. 5 LSU, the sophomore guard talked about getting stops, diving for loose balls, all the most reliable phrases in the basketball hustle dictionary. And then Blakes was asked if this was the reason she had come to Nashville, if she had wanted to be part of a win like this when she committed to Vanderbilt in 2024, and she pulled out something different.
