Jaylen Blakes is in his first season as the men's basketball program’s director of player personnel.
Blakes appeared in 32 games as a graduate transfer at Stanford in 2024-25, averaging 13.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game while ranking fourth in the ACC in free throw percentage (89.6%) in conference play. His totals ended up ninth all-time in a single-season at Stanford for steals (54) and 13th in assists (149).
Successful on the court and in the classroom, Blakes was an ACC All-Academic Team selection at Stanford and his game-winning shot on the road at North Carolina earned him the Stanford Athletic Board’s Bob Murphy Award for the department’s play of the season.
Blakes spent his first three seasons at Duke, where he was a two-time ACC All-Academic team honoree and a two-time recipient of Duke’s Dr. Deryl Hart Award, given to the team’s top scholar-athlete. He helped the Blue Devils to the 2022 NCAA Final Four and the 2024 NCAA Elite Eight.
During the 2025-26 campaign, Blakes played for Hapoel Upper Galilee Safed in Israel, where he averaged 15.6 points, 2.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game before a season-ending injury cut his campaign short.