SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The NCAA Tournament watch party was in progress for Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team Sunday night at Club Naimoli in the Joyce Center.
And part of it was just too hard to watch.
When ESPN showed highlights of teams expected to be chosen for the dance, video of Irish standout guard Olivia Miles injuring her knee in the season’s regular-season finale against Louisville on Feb. 26 was included.
Miles, sitting with her team, turned her back on the TV screen.
Her status for the start of the tournament, which begins in South Bend on Friday — St. Patrick’s Day — as a No. 3 seed in one of two Greenville Regional brackets against No. 14 Southern Utah (23-9), remains a mystery, per head coach Niele Ivey.
“We’ll know more this week,” said Ivey, who wouldn’t attach a percentage to the odds she’ll play, and Miles was limping while moving around Club Naimoli. “She'll meet with doctors again this week. She is progressing along well, but again, we'll know more this week.”
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That’s been the party line — she’s day-to-day — with every update since the injury.
Miles is one of the country’s top point guards and in the mix for several national awards. The 5-foot-10 sophomore is second on the Irish in scoring at 14.3, first in rebounds at 7.3 and first in steals with 58. But her value goes well beyond those numbers because of how she ties the offense together with her control of the tempo, handling of pressure and terrific passing — 192 assists in 28 games, almost seven per contest (sixth nationally).
If Miles’ injury was a factor in the NCAA Selection Committee’s seeding decision, it doesn’t show, at least on the surface, for the No. 11-ranked 25-5 Irish, whose response to the seeding announcement Sunday night was subdued overall.
“It was kind of what was predicted for us,” Ivey noted, though the Irish landed in the same regional as overall No. 1-overall seed and defending national champ South Carolina (32-0).
The winner of the Notre Dame-Southern Utah game (3:30 p.m. EDT on ESPN2) will play Sunday against No. 6 Creighton (22-8), No. 11 Illinois (22-9) or No. 11 Mississippi State (20-10). The latter two teams meet in a First Four play-on game on Wednesday.
“Southern Utah, that's No. 1 for us, and we’re excited for that,” Ivey said. “(We’ll do) a lot of scouting, a lot of trying to figure out things that we need to work on.
“We had a really great week of practice trying to simulate all kinds of scenarios. And now it's great that we can actually lock in and focus on Southern Utah.”
Southern Utah’s Thunderbirds compete in the Western Athletic Conference and won the regular-season and tournament titles. They are on a six-game winning streak since a Feb. 23 loss to Abilene Christian and turned back California Baptist in Saturday’s tourney finale, 82-73.
They feature four players scoring in double figures, led by 5-10 grad student Cherita Daugherty (15.3 points), and allow 65.9 points a game.
Notre Dame is back in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year after a three-year absence.
The Irish advanced to the Sweet 16 last season before falling to another Atlantic Coast Conference team, NC State.
Beyond Miles, the Irish health is fine. Center Lauren Ebo was in a walking boot Sunday from the lower-leg injury that caused her to miss five games late in the season.
Ivey said the boot was a precaution and there are no playing-time limits for the 6-4 grad student averaging 8.9 points and 6.5 rebounds.
The Irish are 1-1 without Miles, the most recent game a 64-38 loss to Louisville in the ACC Tournament semifinal on March 4.
Sophomore and leading scorer Sonia Citron (14.7 points) has taken on most of the point guard work with help from freshman KK Bransford.
"I just have to be confident in whatever I do,” Citron said, “and just play my game.”
Ivey said there was a lot to learn following the loss to Louisville.
“We worked with our point guards in putting them in certain scenarios to read defenses,” she said. “(We worked on facing) a lot of pressure. We really worked on execution this week. We worked on our shooting and a lot of fundamental work.
“So we had a great week of learning from that game. But now this week, we are looking forward.”
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