Indiana Women's Basketball Recruiting Target Mikayla Blakes Dominating at Summer Classics

2024 five-star prospect and Indiana women's basketball recruiting target Mikayla Blakes has been dominant during the 2023 summer basketball season. She has won MVP awards at three separate events in New York City, and is showing why she's one of the most coveted players in the country.

Daniel Olinger | Aug 27, 2023

Indiana Women's Basketball Recruiting Target Mikayla Blakes Dominating at Summer Classics /

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Indiana Hoosiers

Indiana women's basketball basketball coach Teri Moren is incredibly good at her job.

Anyone who followed the Hoosiers this past season or in years prior did not need to be told that. It's quite evident every time her team takes the court.

But, Moren has also proved her greatness as a coach off the court as a recruiter, bringing in high profile prospects to Bloomington left and right.

Indiana has yet to earn a commitment from Mikayla Blakes. However, the five-star prospect in the class of 2024 did include Indiana in her top seven for her college decision, along with Rutgers, Stanford, UCLA, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Wisconsin.

During the course of the summer, Blakes has absolutely dominated each and every event that she's played at. She won the MVP at the Aces Elite Classic in May, the MVP at the Dyckman Park Summer League and the MVP at the SLAM Summer Classic. All were held at either famous gyms or outdoor courts in New York City, with Rucker Park being perhaps the most notable.

Blakes is from New Jersey and plays for the AAU team Philly Rise 17U. She's been used to dominating courts in the Northeast her entire life.

NYC 🏀Summer Fun @mikaylablakes 🔥🔥💪🏾👏🏾📈
✅Gauchos Gym: Aces Elite Classic MVP 🏆
✅Rucker Park: @SLAM_HS MVP 🏆
✅Dyckman Park: @IamDyckman MVP 🏆 pic.twitter.com/VSVfZtlMSK
— Monroe Blakes (@MonroeBlakes) August 24, 2023

While it's hard to find good film or reliable stats for women's basketball games at the amateur levels, we have some good numbers from Blakes' games with Philly Rise.

Synergy Sports tracked 17 games Philly Rise 17U played during the NIKE Girls EYBL 2023 circuit, and Blakes' recorded stats were truly out of this world.

She averaged 18.3 points per game while shooting 100-for-230 on two-point attempts (43.5%) and 33-for-100 on three-point attempts (a very clean 33.3%). Blakes' points per game average was the 5th-best mark out of 335 players with over 10 possessions per game in Synergy's EYBL database.

"[Blakes] is not just college good. She's already on a professional track for me," Mark Schindler told HoosiersNow.com in an interview earlier this month. Schindler covers the WNBA for Compare.bet, WNBA.com and hosts the women's basketball podcast They Got Now.

"She is legit, with a really insanely good first step and good vertical pop," Schindler said. "[Blakes] is a pretty good passer too, but I would consider her a little more score-first. She can shoot off the catch. She can relocate, and she's solid defensively. She's so good."

Moren and the Indiana Hoosiers currently have two players already committed in the class of 2024 in Sydney Penn and Faith Wiseman. Additionally, IU locked up an early commitment in the class of 2025 from Indiana's own Maya Makalusky, a superstar prospect nearing the same level of Blakes. HoosiersNow.com wrote a profile on Makalusky back in July.

Still, though, Blakes might be the most coveted recruit of them all. She has legitimate superstar potential at the next level, as evidenced by not one, not two but three summer classic MVP awards she's taken home this summer.

From Yarden Garzon in 2022-23, to perhaps Julianna LaMendola in 2023-24, Moren and Co. have proven they can get talented freshmen in the building and have them contribute to winning right away. If Blakes brings her talents to Bloomington, it's almost certain she'd add to that track record in 2024-25.

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