NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Justine Pissott didn’t even know what exactly Vanderbilt was when she hopped on a video call with Shea Ralph and her assistant coaches. She’d heard of the school’s academic reputation, but she felt like she owed a favor to assistant coach Kevin DeMille, who began recruiting her when she was 13.
DeMille reached out as soon as Pissott hit the transfer portal after one season with Tennessee. Pissott’s dad “was like, ‘Just do a favor for him,'” she told The IX Sports at the Commodores’ practice gym Tuesday. “And I did a favor, in a sense — went on the Zoom call with the staff here, and, 10 seconds into the Zoom, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is where I want to be.’ And I haven’t looked back since.”
One thing was almost immediately clear to Pissott: “I needed to play under Shea Ralph.” She’s not the only athlete on Ralph’s roster who sings her praises; postgame conferences at Memorial Gymnasium are often filled with praise for the team’s leader, whether they’ve won that night or not.
Ralph is “someone who cares about you as a person, but also executes on caring about you as a person — she doesn’t just say it,” Pissott emphasized before pausing. “It just felt like Vanderbilt was somewhere where I can grow as a player.”
Pissott is a complete player, but she’s definitely known for her shooting (she’s currently the only player in women’s college basketball who is ranked in the top 10 nationally in three-point percentage and three pointers made). During her first season with the team, she hit a career-high five three-pointers against Dayton and racked up three or more three-pointers in nine games; the following season saw her hit four three-pointers in one game against Texas A&M.
Both seasons netted impressive results, but her senior year with the program is turning out to be something else entirely. Right now, Pissott is “the best shooter in the country,” Ralph told reporters Tuesday. “We talk about that all the time, in our locker room, on the court, we watch a lot of film about how we need, when she’s open, we need to give her the ball a little bit more.”
“But also, she’s not just a shooter,” Ralph continued. “And I think that’s what makes her so good at that, because she’s constantly moving.”
That movement is key to Pissott’s game, and it’s what makes it difficult for other teams to know exactly what the Commodores are cooking. Colleagues in the SEC have been known to spend up to two weeks scouting Vanderbilt (and attempting to figure out how to approach Mikayla Blakes), something that’s becoming increasingly difficult as the team’s chemistry continues to gel.
Keeping Blakes unguardable is an important piece of the puzzle, and Pissott is key. “She sets great screens,” Ralph said. “She’s a good decision maker with the ball. We can play her all over the court, which makes her more lethal when you don’t know what we’re running.”
If Pissott is taking up space “all over the place” and “able to do more than just shoot the ball … she becomes even better, and a more lethal three-point shooter,” Ralph said. “I mean, she can make it from Chattanooga.”
(For the unfamiliar, Chattanooga is 134 miles south of Nashville… and Ralph may not be wrong.)
That kind of confidence in her roster is what keeps Pissott and her teammates dialed in. The Commodores are hovering dangerously close to the usual Final Four suspects — UConn, South Carolina, UCLA, and Texas — and may be poised to cause a little trouble during March Madness.
But right now, the Commodores and Ralph repeatedly insist they’re only focused on the moment and the game ahead of them. “We are taking it day by day,” Pissott said, before noting that at the moment, she was only focused on their next game (a rematch against Kentucky on Sunday, Feb. 22), which is also the team’s senior night.
But March Madness is lurking. After thinking for a moment, Pissott allows a glimpse into what’s going on behind the scenes: “I think if we continue to do what the coaches tell us to do, we continue to watch film, we continue to get extra work in and do the small details, then we will have better success than we did the past two years in the NCAA tournament.”
There’s also a four-letter acronym on the other side of March Madness that Pissott is paying attention to: the WNBA. While a date for this year’s draft is up in the air until a new Collective Bargaining Agreement is signed, there’s little reason to believe she’s not at least thinking about her post-college next step.
But for now, Pissott insisted she’s enjoying the relationships she’s built with her teammates, and the success the team is having so far this season. She and her teammates were in Nashville all summer, playing pick-up basketball and getting to know one another. That allowed a truly organic chemistry to develop, something that’s likely contributing to the whole-team approach on display most nights.
“I think it helps when you have people on your left and your right that you consider your sisters, and you consider super close with you,” Pissott explained. “I can go down the line of my teammates and say that these girls are my sisters, for sure. So, when we’re out on the court, it’s just easy.”
She paused again and reworked her words. “Let’s not say easy, but it’s just… I know where Mikayla [Blakes] is going to be,” Pissott continued. “I know where Aubrey’s [Galvan] going to be. I know where Sacha’s [Washington] going to be.”
“I would just say… being together in this sisterhood, I love that.”
The Vanderbilt Commodores will host the Kentucky Wildcats on Feb. 22.