As the college basketball season draws closer, the Nashville Sports Council hosted its sixth annual Tip-Off Breakfast on Oct. 7 as part of its women in sports program. In attendance were seven Division I women’s basketball coaches of teams in the Nashville area: Belmont University, Lipscomb University, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee Tech, Middle Tennessee and Austin Peay. 

The coaches previewed what to expect from their 2024-25 seasons and addressed critical questions surrounding the current state of women’s basketball. Among the panelists was Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph, with almost her entire staff and athletic director Candice Storey Lee in the audience. Ralph offered one of the first glimpses into her fourth year running Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball. 

What to expect this season

Coming off its most successful season in a decade, the hopes for Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball are high. Since coming to Vanderbilt four years ago, Ralph’s goal has been to compete for SEC and national championships, and this year is no different. She recognized the success her group experienced last year but elaborated that it was just the start.

“We did have a wonderful season last year; [however] we are, as we like to say at Vanderbilt, proud but not satisfied,” Ralph said. “There’s a tradition of excellence that our program has — we are used to being in the NCAA Tournament. We want to compete for championships, whether it’s a conference championship, a Thanksgiving tournament championship [or] an NCAA Tournament championship.”

This goal is well within reach for the Commodores, who returned almost every integral piece from their roster last year, with the only departure being graduate student Jordyn Cambridge. Although Cambridge’s leadership and staunch defense will be missed, Ralph feels that her team has adequately filled gaps and added more talent.Penn State Transfer Lelani Kapinus and high school recruits like Trinity Wilson and top-10 recruit Mikayla Blakes were mentioned.

“This year, we added some really neat pieces in terms of our freshman class, which is exceptional,” Ralph said. “One of our freshmen [Wilson] is the daughter of a player that I played with at UConn. [Wilson is] 6-foot-, which, in [the SEC], we need some big kids. We’ve also added a couple of kids out of the transfer portal, and we bring back four of our top five scorers, so we have high expectations this season.”

Overall, Ralph feels that this team is equipped with the physical and mental skills it needs to compete at the highest level. 

“I’m excited for [my team] because I think that we finally have a group that has a shared vision; we have a locker room that’s behind us and behind that vision 100%,” Ralph said. “I don’t know that everyone understands how important that is, and it takes time, but we have that this year and that’s exciting.”

Player mentorship and NIL 

Ralph also discussed the importance of supporting and mentoring her players through their college experiences, particularly amid the ever-changing NIL landscape. She emphasized that her program could not succeed in the NIL space without the support of Vanderbilt’s athletic administration. 

“Super transparently, [if] anyone tells you they know what’s going on with NIL, they’re probably not telling the truth. It changes day to day,” Ralph said. “I think I’m most happy that we have complete support from our athletic director, Candice Storey Lee, which allows me to do my job, which is to put my head down and make sure that my team can compete at a high level.” 

While Ralph said that her job is to win basketball games, she also wants to ensure her players are prepared for life after college. 

“I think sometimes what gets lost in all this is that these are kids. They make mistakes,” Ralph said. “My hope is that as as we move on into this new era of college athletics, which I think is a good one, that we can make sure that these young people can be successful, contributing members of society when they leave our college and they can understand that the amount of money that we’re talking about college athletics right now, when you get to the real world, is not reality.”

Coaching dynamics

In addition, Ralph discussed what it meant to have her husband on staff. She said that she “doesn’t know if it could be any other way” and that they have been married for six years. 

“We built a friendship long before we worked together, and we had had a friendship for multiple years before we even started dating that revolved around our passion for playing and coaching basketball,” Ralph said. “A credit to my husband — I wouldn’t describe myself as always being selfless when I was younger, and being married and having a child has made me a better person. It’s made me a better coach, a better leader, a better daughter and a better woman.”

Ralph also loves how her players have seen firsthand what a healthy relationship looks like. She believes that this dynamic can make them better as a team, both on and off the court. 

“I like [my players] to see me as a mother. I like them to see me as a wife. I like them to see me as a mentor and a leader,” Ralph said. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that it’s always easy, that would be a lie, but I am grateful for the sacrifice that my husband has made, the investment that our staff makes, for working with with us and knowing that our players get to see what a real life love story looks like, day in and day out.”

Importance of representation and getting involved

Towards the later part of the conversation, a question regarding the importance of having dedicated coaches and mentors for young girls in every level of basketball arose. Ralph, who has a six-year-old daughter, talked about the importance of representation at the collegiate level — ensuring that young women and men  see someone they can identify with. 

“I think our job is to make sure that we support those high school and AAU coaches and [ensure] that we’re providing representation for these young [people],” Ralph said. “[Representation] is really important because it is really easy for kids to think they can’t do something, especially when they don’t see people that look like them doing it.”

Ralph also hopes that collegiate basketball programs will continue to serve and influence the community around her. She offered insight into what her team is doing to better the Nashville as a whole.

“We ask [you all] to come support us, and I think we have to do the same for young people in the community,” Ralph said. “[It] creates a feeling that they know us, and then they come to our games or through an autograph line. Next year, we [will] put on camps so we [can] work [at] a grassroots level with some of the young kids who live in Nashville.”

Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball will look to build upon last season’s success when it tips off in just under four weeks on Nov. 4 against cross-town rival Lipscomb University.