{"id":672962,"date":"2026-03-22T17:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672962\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T17:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:16:23","slug":"madness-in-music-city-vanderbilt-wins-big-illinois-muscles-past-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/672962\/","title":{"rendered":"Madness in Music City: Vanderbilt wins big, Illinois muscles past Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014\u00a0The first round of March Madness got off to a rousing start Saturday night in Music City when the hometown heroes bested the High Point Panthers 102-61. The game saw two records bested or tied (Mikayla Blakes<\/a> added another points record to her lengthy list, and Sacha Washington<\/a> recorded 17 rebounds) and put the team in a strong position ahead of Monday night\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

The Fighting Illini came out of the second game of the night with a 66-57 win over the Colorado Buffaloes. The team managed to edge out their opponent every quarter except the first; freshmen Cearah Parchment<\/a> and Destiny Jackson<\/a> netted a game-high 21 points and a double-double, respectively. <\/p>\n

All four teams reflected on the season they\u2019ve had, and what comes next. And, perhaps more than anything, a thread of mutual respect was woven from coach to coach, player to player, throughout the night. There are winners and losers, but during March Madness, every team is on the court because they belong there. <\/p>\n

\u2018Everybody has value\u2019: Vanderbilt\u2019s big win was about more than basketball<\/p>\n

The Vanderbilt Commodores ended round one of March Madness with a commanding 102-61 victory over the High Point Panthers, a win that head coach Shea Ralph said was the result of the team\u2019s season-long emphasis on \u201cwhole team basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Vanderbilt, Ralph said, \u201cEverybody has value. Everybody has a role that they play.\u201d<\/p>\n

That also extends to people off the court, including the students, families, and individuals who come out to see the Commodores play. Ralph spoke about the impact that women in the game (specifically her mother, Marsha Lake, as well as longtime Tennessee head coach Pat Summitt) had on her as a child, and what it\u2019s meant to be watch the athletes she\u2019s coaching impact the people who show up at every game.<\/p>\n

Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women\u2019s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women\u2019s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women\u2019s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the best way I can describe it is that representation matters,\u201d Ralph told reporters. \u201cIt matters. And the role that I play as a leader is that every day I show up, and my job is to be a torch bearer and a trailblazer for my players, because there were women, my mother, [and] Pat Summitt, they did that for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, she added, it\u2019s \u201cmy job to show our players what that looks like. You can be a powerful woman and a leader. You can also be a wife and a mom if you want. You can be somebody who has transformational relationships with players. And, I get it: sports is a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it,\u201d Ralph said again. \u201cThe name of the game is to win. Our job is to win. But I\u2019ve always thought if I can help them understand what that looks like in terms of creating winning habits \u2014\u00a0showing them every day that the result does not define us \u2026 that doesn\u2019t define who you are. You can be all those other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her players, including Washington (who had a record-tying 17 rebounds) and Blakes (who bested a single-season scoring record set by Wendy Scholtens<\/a> during the 1989-90 season with 856 points), are showing everyone who comes to the team\u2019s games that \u201cYes \u2014 you can. You can look like me. You can come to Vanderbilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018This year has been so special\u2019: High Point holding their heads high, despite loss<\/p>\n

The Panthers may not have come away from the tournament with their desired outcome, but that doesn\u2019t take away from the program\u2019s success this season. As head coach Chelsea Banbury told reporters following the game, \u201cSomething I\u2019ve given this team a lot of credit for is knowing game plans and buying into them, and that\u2019s what I said to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Commodores are tough, Banbury continued, but her team \u201cbought in and learned them and they learned what they wanted to do. That was the message.\u201d While speaking to her team in the locker room, she added, \u201cI said this season was a lot of fun, and this game didn\u2019t turn out how we wanted it to. We had some breakdowns, but you guys bought into the game plan and what we wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why this year has been so special, because you\u2019ve done that, and you\u2019ve believed in me and our staff. It\u2019s tough when you meet the big dogs \u2026 but I\u2019m really proud of [how] we came in, and we bought into what we wanted to do out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

High Point will see the departure of two seniors Nevaeh Zavala<\/a> and Chana Paxixe<\/a>, as well as graduate students Aaliyah Collins<\/a> and Lexi Fleming<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our league prepared us\u2019: Illinois came prepared to win the battle of the boards<\/p>\n

Illinois\u2019 66-57 win over Colorado came down to rebounding, head coach Shauna Green<\/a> told reporters after the game \u2014 and that\u2019s something the team will need to keep in mind as they move through the days to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to these guys the biggest thing was the rebounding coming into this, the battle of the boards,\u201d Green explained. \u201cWe were right there. We only lost by two, and I thought if you were right there or won it you would have a chance to win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the team prepares to face the Commodores on Monday night, they\u2019ll need to focus on \u201cresiliency down the stretch\u201d she continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve been in a lot of close games where this group has had to make those key plays. I thought that kind of came through today, that our league prepared us for a lot of those tight ones and close ones against really tough teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Order \u2018Rare Gems\u2019 and save 30%
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, wrote this deeply reported book. \u201cRare Gems\u201d follows four connected generations of women\u2019s basketball pioneers, from Elvera \u201cPeps\u201d Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.<\/p>\n

If you enjoy Megdal\u2019s coverage of women\u2019s basketball every Wednesday at The IX Sports, you will love \u201cRare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.\u201d Click the link below to order<\/a> and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout to save 30%!<\/p>\n

Tough was the name of the game between the Fighting Illini and the Buffaloes. The match was frequently close, which meant players had to completely lock in \u2014 something they\u2019re used to doing. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of close games this season, and some of them we may not have closed out earlier in the season,\u201d forward Cearah Parchment told reporters. \u201cThat experience helped us now. We didn\u2019t make these mistakes we were making a month ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timing is a crucial piece of the March Madness puzzle: the timing of your games, the timing of your team\u2019s peak. But toughness is another key element, and Illinois brought that in spades. \u201cThat\u2019s what you got to do if you want to win in March, right? It\u2019s the NCAA tournament,\u201d Green said. \u201cYou lose, you go home. I tell them that all the time. I say that all the time. How tough are you going to be? How bad do you want it? Every 50\/50 has to be yours if you\u2019re going to continue to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved it,\u201d she said of her team\u2019s resolve to answer that call. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want this program to be about is tough, gritty, blue collar, hard nosed, whatever you want to call it. I told them that in pregame, that ball is on the floor, we better see five white jerseys diving. I thought we showed a lot of toughness tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018What we do is really hard\u2019: Colorado built a new team with a solid foundation<\/p>\n

While the Colorado Buffaloes couldn\u2019t pull off the win they wanted Saturday night, the team still had a special 2025-26 season. It takes a lot to successfully pull off being a college athlete, head coach JR Payne told reporters after the game, and her group knows how to do that well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do is really hard. I think I\u2019ve said this before,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a college athlete is really hard. There is so many cool things about it but there is also so many really difficult, physically, emotionally, mentally things that are hard about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it\u2019s hard because you\u2019re rebuilding, and your team is young. Seven Buffaloes just finished their freshman and sophomore seasons, and they did so by \u201cshowing up with a joyful spirit\u201d every day, Payne added. \u201cThey were genuinely happy to be at practice; I was genuinely happy to see each and every one of them \u2026 and they weren\u2019t all perfect practices. We didn\u2019t make all our shots all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Buffaloes came into the game believing they would win it, Payne said, and knowing they were prepared \u2014 which isn\u2019t something that always happens. \u201cWe had had some of the best practices of the year this week as far as just focus and the right type of lightheartedness and really locked in and focused,\u201d she said. But, in the end, so did Illinois, something Payne respects.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the loss came down to the fact that the Fighting Illini \u201calso probably were very locked in and like I said earlier, just two really good teams that I thought competed good, clean, aggressive basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois and Vanderbilt will face off in Round 2 on Monday at 7:00 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Looking for more March Madness stories? Read all our NCAA Tournament coverage<\/a> at The IX Sports.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014\u00a0The first round of March Madness got off to a rousing start Saturday night in Music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[83268,7,66965,765,85877,85878,17851,2048,27963,9017,58287,52892,35150,8651],"class_list":["post-672962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-2026-ncaa-tournament","tag-basketball","tag-cearah-parchment","tag-colorado","tag-destiny-jackson","tag-destiny-jakcon","tag-high-point","tag-illinois","tag-mikayla-blakes","tag-ncaaw","tag-sacha-washington","tag-shauna-green","tag-shea-ralph","tag-vanderbilt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116273963754834542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}