As Olivia Miles was giving her multicolored and swollen — but decidedly healing — left ankle a rest on Monday night, she decided to absorb some of March Madness unfolding beyond her Notre Dame women’s basketball team’s own journey.
And stumbled upon a reminder of how grateful the Irish grad senior point guard is to be still dancing — personally and collectively — even in pain, even at less than 100% since suffering the injury a week ago.
And how it hurts to have that taken away, as Miles had in both the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Tournaments by an ACL tear.
Something USC All-American JuJu Watkins is dealing with now after suffering the same fate early in the Trojans’ 96-59 second-round dismissal of Mississippi State, on the other side of the big bracket.
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“I mean, first up, prayers to JuJu,” Miles said Friday at an early-morning press conference advancing Saturday’s Sweet 16 matchup/grudge match between 3 seed Notre Dame (28-5) and 2 seed TCU (33-3) at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala. (1 p.m. EDT on ABC)
“I was actually watching the game in real time and saw it happen. My heart breaks for anyone that goes through that. I wouldn't wish that injury on my worst enemy. So it's just a tough one.
“I think the advice that I would give to her is to take her time. There are a lot of external factors, a lot of people who would like to see you back earlier than you may be able to, and you may rush your recovery. But at the end of the day this injury takes time, and it really takes you listening to your body and what it needs.”
And after a couple of days off following Notre Dame’s 76-55 second-round dismissal of 6 seed Michigan Sunday in South Bend and a couple of days of practice ahead of Friday’s final dress rehearsal, Miles’ body is telling her what she needs to hear when it comes to how much and how hard she can go against a team that handed the Irish perhaps its most humbling loss of the season.
“My performance team is so good,” she said. “They've been helping me to rehab. You know, keeping me on track, making sure I'm wearing a brace, making sure I'm icing, stim, whatever it may be. They've helped me a lot.”
Miles suffered the injury early in the fourth quarter of Notre Dame’s 106-54 first-round tourney romp over 14 seed Stephen F. Austin. Then two days later, ND’s second-leading scorer and rebounder and leader in assists logged 28 minutes in the rout of Michigan, contributing eight points, five assists, four rebounds, zero turnovers and invaluable leadership.
"She's the head of the snake," Irish senior guard Sonia Citron said. "Just having her on the court, it's not only beneficial for scoring, but I mean, she just does so much for everybody else too."
“I thought that the adrenaline definitely kicked in for her,” ND head coach Niele Ivey said of Miles playing through pain against Michigan. “It is going to kick in tomorrow as well. But again, we had the entire week that she received a lot of rest, a lot of treatment.
“She did exactly what she needed to do as far as being at home, doing the things that our trainer required her to do. She feels really good, has had a couple of practices, and she's fresh and ready.”
In fact, watching the game film of ND’s 76-68 come-from-ahead loss to TCU Nov. 29 in the Cayman Islands Classic might have been the toughest thing Miles was tasked with this week.
In that game, the Irish squandered a double-digit, fourth-quarter lead and got outscored 31-12 in the final period.
TCU 6-7 center Sedona Prince, who turns 25 in six weeks, racked up 20 points, 20 rebounds and eight blocked shots against Irish freshman Kate Koval, as ND was without grad senior frontcourt players Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen due to injury/rehabs.
“Obviously the circumstances were different,” Miles said. “You know, could be a lot of excuses, but at the end of the day it was a bad game whether we had six people, 10 people, whether we had Maddy or not, whatever it may have been.
“A few days ago we watched the film from when we played them in November, and I was just cringing. I was, like, I can't even watch this. It was difficult to watch.
“Coach Ivey showed it to us for a specific reason. She showed it to us to ignite something in us, to make us mad, to see how we were playing and how we've been playing recently. So it showed a lot of growth.”
Should Notre Dame’s growth translate into a victory over TCU, it would be the first time since 2019 that the Irish advanced beyond the Sweet 16. That ND team lost 82-81 in the national title game to Baylor.
The tourney was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Irish didn’t qualify in 2021, Ivey’s first season as head coach. They’ve reached and stalled in the Sweet 16 each of the past three tournaments.
Should Notre Dame break that trend, ND’s opponent on Monday night would be the winner of Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. matchup between 1 seed Texas (33-3) and 5 seed Tennessee (24-9). Tip time for Monday’s Elite Eight clash is 7 p.m. EDT (on ESPN).
You again?
On Saturday, Notre Dame will be facing TCU guard Hailey Van Lith for the ninth time in her career — a second time this season after missing her during her one season with LSU in 2023-24.
Before that the Irish saw her seven times in her three seasons with ACC foe Louisville. Notre Dame has only prevailed twice in the first eight games, both in the 2022-23 season.
For the Horned Frogs, the 5-foot-9 Van Lith is leading the team in scoring (17.7) and assists (5.5) and is averaging 4.4 rebounds per game. She’ll be playing in her fifth Sweet 16 in her five collegiate seasons on Saturday.
Portal Power
Second-year TCU head coach Mark Campbell inherited a team that had gone 8-23 overall and 1-17 in the Big 12 in 2023.
Two years later, the Horned Frogs are playing in their first-ever Sweet 16 against a program that has already played in 20 of them. His building blocks? The transfer portal.
Twelve of his players, including every member of his starting five, started their career somewhere other the TCU. And Van Lith and Prince as well as reserves Deasia Merrill and Maddie Scherr are actually on their third schools, respectively.
“Inheriting a 1-17 team, it's really hard to win with high school kids,” Campbell said. “You're in such a deep hole, you've got to get old, and you've got to get talented, and you have to do that quickly.
“So for us I think it's 12 portal players. We signed six last year and six this year. Between those two classes, we've been able to assemble one of the best teams in the country, and it didn't take long to do that. That's where the portal has changed college athletics.
“I'm not saying that's the only way that you need to do it. That way has worked for us to get the program up and running. We have some high school kids coming in next season that we signed. So that blend.
“I think the portal is not going away. I do think our program -- it's really hard to take kids out of the portal and get them to become a really efficient basketball team and to get a great locker room, and I think we've been able to do that as well as anybody in the country, and we'll continue to do that.”
The women's college basketball transfer portal opened Tuesday and remains open through the end of the day on April 23.
Nov. 29 TCU-ND Box Score
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