Vanderbilt Women's Basketball Remains Steady In Latest Bracketolgy Update
The Vanderbilt Commodores have lost three straight games, but their NCAA tournament projections have seemed to hit a plateau.
ESPN's Bracketology updates every Friday to give an outlook of what the March Madness field would probably look like if the tourney started right now.
Despite losing their only game since the last update, a thriller with the LSU Tigers, the Commodores have remained an eight-seed. They would be traveling to the South Bend region.
Their first round matchup would be against the Indiana Hoosiers. The winner of that game would take on the winner of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Longwood Lancers.
Being an eight seed is an unlucky draw, since it means that you would have to go through the one-seed to get past the first weekend of games. Vanderbilt would certainly have a chance to take down the Hoosiers, but the Fighting Irish would be a different story.
The Commodores currently sit with a 14-4 record and 1-3 in conference play. Despite the losing streak, this is still a fantastic start to the season for Shea Ralph and her team.
Ralph has had Vanderbilt finally moving in the right directions since last season. They made their first appearance since 2014, getting slotted in as a 12-seed where they lost in the first round to the Baylor Bears.
The young guard-forward duo of Khamil Pierre and Mikayla Blakes has led the way on offense this season.
Pierre, a sophomore, has been their best player without a doubt. She has exploded for 22.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.2 steals this year. For context, she averaged 8.9/5.3/1.0 as a freshman.
She was a four-star recruit out of high school, so Ralph has done an exceptional job of developing her so quickly.
Blakes, a five-star recruit, has hit the ground running as a freshman. She is putting up 20 points a night with 3.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists.
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders