Mikail Blaks Packed her jump perfectly, grabbed the rebound from the front of the rim and applied the ball for 0.8 seconds remaining on the clock. After a few moments, she celebrated Vanderbilt's first victory over the opponent Tennessee Since 2019.
Then something was ridiculous.
“After the line of the handshake, I said:“ Who is this bald head on the site? I swear I saw this reaction earlier, ”she said about the passionate fan of Wanderbilt, who stormed the court. “I said:“ Who is it? I know him.
“Then I came closer and said:“ Wow. My dad just got to the court. Where did he come from?
Monroe Blaks, a former player and member of the Hall of Glory in the college of St. Michael in Vermont of division II, as a rule, is more reserved by nature. Blaks is a modest family, and her dad’s idea will explode past safety to storm the trial, forced Mikail to hack. But Monroe could not restrain himself on Sunday, when his daughter, a hairdryer of the freshman of the Commodores, was struck by the winner at the largest moment in her career in college.
Just as he could not restrain his emotions on Saturday, when the elder brother of Mikails, Stanford guard Jaylene BlaksI drove along the length of the site in the center of the dean E. Smith and shot down a winning jumper with a step from the left wing against North Carolina With the remaining 0.9 seconds.
Two children, two tucked buns in two days, one inspired dad at hand to see both personally.
“The word that I continue to use is amazing. Blessed.' And I'm not sure that this is fair, ”said Monroe Blaks. “I started playing basketball when I was 13 years old, so I played it for more than 40 years. … But the two of them took me to new heights and new memories, which in the previous 40 years that I have not experienced.
“What are the chances that brother and sister will make (what) back in the back?”
The face of the proud father 🥹
Mikail Blaks and Brother Jalen Blaks both hit the victory in the game for 24 hours from each other.#Anchordown https://t.co/jjzznnxulp pic.twitter.com/mcsb9oxhe1
– WANDERBILT WBB (@Vandywbb) January 19, 2025
Mikail Blaks with a “set back”#Anchordown pic.twitter.com/ucxnegaixw
– WANDERBILT WBB (@Vandywbb) January 19, 2025
Jaylen, who spent three years in Duke Before the transition to Stanford as a graduate of his last season, the right to participate in Dean Dome. He went 2-1 in three games in Chapel Hill with the Duke and dreamed of having his big moment in one of the most famous sports.
At night before Stanford went to the court, Jaylene spent some time thinking about the former Blue devils The guard Austin Rivers, whose cult shot in the game against UNC in 2012 still lives in the Lore Duke. He also flashed back into the gaming defender of Wendell Moore in The Smith Center in 2020, which gave the duke the victory over Tar Heels in overtime.
“This is just what I dreamed about,” Jaylene said. “And to be able to be at that moment was something special.”
With Stanford, defending 71-70 with the remaining seven seconds, Jaylene stood on the ball under the basket of the cardinal. He got the ball right back and went down the left side line.
“I had a very good defender at me in Seth trimblThe field so I said: “Okay, he cut me off,” Jaylen said. “And as soon as he cut me off, I felt his impulse returned back, so I decided to retreat and make a shot.
“It was incredible. It was an incredible moment. One thing about when you are doing this shot, this is not only you, who makes this shot. These are all who supported you on this path. ”
From the stands, Monroe felt as if he was watching how the game develops in a slow state. It took him a second to understand what he had just seen.
“This ball entered. It has come in, ”he recalls, thinking. “This is the winner of the game.”
In Nashville Mikail, she had just left the practice and watched the game on her mobile phone before going to the memorial gymnasium to see the men's team of Wanderbilt, which took on Tennessee on the same day. She missed a shot in real time, because her stream continued to freeze. But when the influx of text messages and phone calls began to appear, she suggested that Stanford won and rushed to the locker room for better service to rewind food.
“I saw that he was blowing, and I was excited by the moon,” said Mikail, a former five-star avenue who leads all freshmen at the national level, gaining 20.2 points per game. “I began to facet my father, and then began to call my brother, because by that time he had already reached the locker room. So I just called my brother on the phone and wrote him, just so excited. ”
Jaylene and Mikail Blaks. (Athletics Vanderbilt)
The next day, Monroe flew to Nashville, where his wife Nikkia joined, for the game of Mikails. Blaks, living in New Jersey, entered into an agreement that, at least, will do everything possible to be in each of his children – a considerable feat, given that Jaylene and Mikail play on the opposite sides of the country.
When Vanderbilt He lost the leadership of 10 points in the fourth quarter, and it became clear that the game would leave the wire, one of the friends of Blaks said that a quiet part aloud.
“It was funny, someone who was with us told us:“ What if Mikail is amazing the victory? “, Monroe said. “I am:“ No, I don't think this can happen again twice again. This cannot happen. “
Jaylene, returning to the campus in California, watched the whole game from Stanford's study room during treatment. He, too, was doubtful that his family could be so lucky in one weekend.
“I thought:“ There can be no way that we both reached the winner of the game a day. ” And it came to the final game, ”he said. “I saw a missing gasket, and she pulled it and did it, and when I realized that she had done this, I ran around the training room, screaming, like:“ Oh battle, oh my God. ” It was special. “
A few moments after Monroe burst into court to celebrate, Jaylene prompted his parents to join fun. Mikail later learned from her mother that at that moment tears brought tears in her father's eyes. By the time Mikayla returned to the locker room, she had six missed calls from Jaylene.
“I took on the seventh call,” she said.
“I was just lucky that she is like my sister,” Jaylen added. “Fortunately, to be her older brother.”
This week, Monroe finally reacted to about 100 text messages that he received, because he continues to ride at the maximum of what Mikail is joking, maybe the best moment in his life.
From all times, he bounced for his children in the yard, or Nikkia helped to ruin them when the games were one on one too competitive, it was a moment when the Blaks family never forget.
“One of the things that I like in my children is that they have a very competitive series,” Monroe said. “They compete with each other, but love each other, so this makes each of them better. It was just an amazing dynamics – that love and support of each other.
“They talk all the time, they give each other advice. She called him after the game when he hit his winner of the game, and he called her, and therefore I am so proud. They just invest a lot of work, and I'm just glad for them at that moment. ”
(Top Photos: GratE Halverson / Getty Images; Andrew Nelles / USA Today Network through Imagen Images)
