Vanderbilt and Illinois Square Off in NCAA Women’s Tournament Round Two at Memorial Gymnasium
Vanderbilt and Illinois for a Sweet 16 Berth
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Round Two of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is upon us here in Nashville as the No. 2-seed Vanderbilt Commodores host the No. 7-seed Illinois Fighting Illini at Memorial Gymnasium.
We have all heard many times from Coach Shea Ralph and the Commodores this season, and their mission remains the same. Their focus remains the same. Vandy is out to play their best ball and their best will take care of what needs to be taken care of.
They got off to a great start with energy and effort from the whole team against High Point, now as the rounds get tougher they must carry that same fight starting with the Fighting Illini.
I wanted to look at a couple of points from Illinois’ view, and the Fighting Illini are coming in at 22-11 and fresh off a 66-57 win over Colorado in the First Round. A few things this young team does well are taking care of the ball (13.1 turnovers per game), moving the ball well, and hitting threes, as they are the 17th best in the country. However, against Colorado, they only hit 4-of-14 for 28.6 percent.
When Vanderbilt has great nights guarding the perimeter, teams normally fall on the lower end of three point makes and percentages. I look back to the Oklahoma game, when the Sooners shot probably their lowest of the season, hitting just 2-of-24 for 8.3 percent beyond the arc.
Those will of course be important areas for them to try and capitalize on against Vanderbilt, if they want to pull the upset, but it will take more than that.
Both Destiny Jackson and Maddie Webber from the Fighting Illini acknowledged the opportunity in front of them of playing in front of a nice crowd, and the great players that Vanderbilt has. While they appreciate the moment, they also feel they are built for this as they play in the Big Ten Conference, which has tough teams and environments as well.
“Yeah, like Destiny said, I think the Big Ten has allowed us to prepare for moments like this. And for us, even though it is like a home-court advantage technically, I think it’s just a great opportunity just for women’s basketball in general that there’s going to be that many fans here,” said Maddie Webber. “I think it’s just something we should also take advantage of and just appreciate.”
As for head coach Shauna Green of Illinois, she spoke to the Big Ten’s loaded conference from top to bottom. It is probably one of the most similar conferences to the SEC in terms of quality teams. Any given night, you can suffer a defeat.
“I’ve said this, I think the Big Ten and SEC are the two best conferences in the country, and we’re prepared,” said Green. “I think the Big Ten, one thing about it, from top to bottom, it’s a ton of parity, where it’s not top heavy. Anyone can really beat anyone.”
When speaking on the toughness of preparing for Mikayla Blakes, she referenced Iowa great Caitlin Clark and some similarities in how she had to prepare for her.
“Blakes is an elite guard. I referenced her even with some of the things we talked about. We don’t have many that are still left from my first couple of years when Caitlin Clark was in our league, but I referenced her this morning in film with Blakes just because of how they volume shoot and how she’ll pull up from really deep in transition, and how you just can’t let them,” said Green.
“They’re going to get their shots off, but you got to try to make their life as hard as possible in that 40 minutes.”
Speaking of Mikayla Blakes, she set the Vanderbilt single-season scoring record Saturday night, with a 30-point game that puts her at 867 points on the season. Wendy Scholten’s record of 855 points stood since the 1989-90 season. Blakes’ 867 for the season are the second-most by an SEC player in the NCAA Era of 1981-82 to present time, and she needs 48 more points to break Chamique Holdsclaw’s current SEC record of 915 points, which she set in the 1997-98 season.
The Commodores have not lost in Memorial Gymnasium all season. They are a perfect 17-0 in this building for the first time ever, and have the chance to cap it at 18-0 tonight.
Justine Pissott stated that it was never really the focus.
“I don’t think we’ve really focused on going undefeated at home, even though that is kind of a great experience and feeling,” said Pissott. “But like I said before, that is what we came to Vanderbilt for is to improve every single year. I feel like my three years here we have taken a step in the right direction.”
Pissott is also on the cusp of setting a Vanderbilt single-season record herself for most made 3-pointers in a season. She needs five more to pass Caroline Williams, who made 95 during the 2005-06 season.
Monday night’s game tips off at 6 p.m. CT and will be televised on ESPN2 with Jay Alter and Kim Adams on the call. Fans can listen to the radio broadcast on 94.9 in Nashville and on the Vanderbilt Commodores app. As always, Jake Lyman will have that call.
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