Vanderbilt

[YoDore]

SEC media day for women's basketball will be next Wednesday in Birmingham. Coach Ralph will be taking grad student Jordyn Oliver, who has been a blessing to the program since transferring in from Duke last year, and junior Iyana Moore, who is a senior academically but has two years of basketball remaining due to an injury redshirt year.

 

[YoDore]

Vandy gets an official visit from '25 prospect Ciara Byars. At one time she was the #34 Hoopgurlz recruit, but she missed this summer after knee surgery. While out of sight out of mind, she dropped to #63. She's 6'2 and versatile, equally effective inside and out. Her finalist list is Vanderbilt, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Cal, Mississippi State, Maryland and Michigan. She has visited most of them and will apparently visit all seven before announcing a decision. She visited Vandy unofficially last year.

 

[maple]

^ Seems like she would be a good get for Coach Ralph. How is the squad looking for this season?

 

[YoDore]

^ Seems like she would be a good get for Coach Ralph. How is the squad looking for this season?

It's radio silence over there. No injury news, which is a great positive. All I can tell you is, if they stay healthy, this should be Shea's best and deepest team. It will be extremely hard to match last season's 23 wins given the schedule, particularly a brutal SEC road schedule. Still, I no longer have that "hang on for dear life" feeling. I think they'll be good. Can they be very good? They have to shoot the ball better.

 

[maple]

It's radio silence over there. No injury news, which is a great positive. All I can tell you is, if they stay healthy, this should be Shea's best and deepest team. It will be extremely hard to match last season's 23 wins given the schedule, particularly a brutal SEC road schedule. Still, I no longer have that "hang on for dear life" feeling. I think they'll be good. Can they be very good? They have to shoot the ball better.

That's great to hear. I'm going to try and watch/listen to all their games this year.

 

[YoDore]

Coach Ralph Gets Contract Extension

Ralph Extended

Women’s basketball head coach enters her fourth season at the helm of Vanderbilt program

vucommodores.com

 

[YoDore]

Media picks Vandy to finish 10th in 16-team SEC. Last season, they picked the Commodores to finish last in the league. They wound up 6th.

 

[YoDore]

 

[YoDore]

Here is a link to Shea Ralph’s press conference with SEC media Wednesday at the tipoff event in Birmingham.

Coach Shea Ralph Press Conference (10/16/24) - Live Stream - Watch ESPN

For those who can’t access the SEC+ link to the press conference, here is a shorter interview with a young reporter from vandysports.com.

 

[YoDore]

 

[YoDore]

Coach Ralph revealed today that senior post player Sacha Washington is currently out with a non-basketball related medical issue and will not play in the season opener Monday against Lipscomb. She has had limited activity for the last month. The following is from a story in The Tennessean following coach Ralph's meeting with the media:

"Washington has been out for about a month. She has been able to participate in practice in a limited form, but she has not been cleared for contact. In the next few weeks, the team will get more clarity on her situation."

This truly sucks. On the bright side, it does not appear to be anything debilitating. She's still working on conditioning and appears to be her happy-go-lucky self. Just not a great way to start a season, but we all know worse has happened to a lot of other teams and players leading up to the season. Guess we should count our blessings. Sacha was named to the Cheryl Miller Award pre-season watchlist earlier in the week: