SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Twenty days in advance of the Notre Dame women’s basketball team’s Oct. 30 exhibition game with Purdue Northwest and 17 days ahead of its high-profile season opener against South Carolina in Paris, Olivia Miles directed her teammates through some warmups during a Tuesday afternoon practice.
Without actually warming up herself.
“The best-case scenario is to play in Paris in November,” the 5-foot-10 junior All-America point guard said Tuesday during ND women’s basketball media day.
The last-ambitious scenario?
“She could redshirt,” said head coach Niele Ivey, whose 2023-24 rendition is expected to end up as a preseason Top 10 team on the heels of a 27-6 season and a NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance with Miles on the sidelines.
McDonald’s All-American Game co-MVP and freshman Hannah Hidalgo has been running the point during Miles’ comeback, which still doesn’t have a clear timeline from April surgery on a right knee she injured against Louisville in the Feb. 26 regular-season finale.
Miles was ND’s second-leading scorer last season (14.3), its leading rebounder (7.3) and the nation’s No. 6 player in assists (6.9).
“I’m in a good place,” Miles said. “Obviously, the goal is to play, but I’m not going to rush it. I have years in this game that I want to be able to produce, and do it hopefully. So, I’m going to take my time.”
Miles in the meantime is flexing her leadership skills and sporting a new free-flowing hairdo.
“I’m learning to love different parts of myself,” she said. “That’s why my hair is out. I’m kind of being free and expressing myself like that.”
So what will inform her about a timetable that remains murky that she is ready to to rejoin the team in a full capacity?
“Myself and my athletic trainers,” Miles said.” Everyone’s process is different. I’ve talked to a lot of people who have suffered knee injuries, and just kind of see what their timelines look like and whether I’m moving too fast or too slow.
“There’s no pressure on that, but that’s kind of helping me gauge where I’m at.”
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