Campy, goofy, stylish, a little chaotic—there is something so college basketball about Olivia Miles. Her decision to forgo last spring’s WNBA draft, where she was poised to be a top-three pick, and use her final year of NCAA eligibility might have surprised WNBA fans, but it also felt fitting. You get the sense that March is exactly where she belongs.
In the two tournaments Miles was healthy for at Notre Dame, March ended at the Sweet Sixteen. But wearing a TCU jersey this year, she finally got over the hump. On Saturday night, she led the third-seeded Horned Frogs to the Elite Eight with 28 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists in a 79-69 win over pesky 10-seed Virginia. Don’t mourn the two missing assists: Miles can already boast a tournament triple-double, one she earned in the first round against UC San Diego with the absolutely perfect line of 12 points, 16 rebounds, and 14 assists.
Yes, some of what makes Miles the perfect college character is the look. Those goggles. "WHY WASNT I NOTIFIED ABOUT SUCH AN EVENT," she commented on a Notre Dame Instagram post advertising a "Look Like Liv" promotion with "free Olivia Miles replica glasses for students" at a game against Florida State last season. But it’s also that she plays with an unencumbered flair. She’ll attack the rim and take the bravest, most interesting route there. She racks up no-look pocket passes, behind-the-back lobs to the corners, and whatever the hell this was:
Any big who plays next to her is in the good hands of the best pick-and-roll operator in the game. Saturday’s Sweet Sixteen game was a perfect showcase for Miles and her 6-foot-3 teammate Marta Suarez, who together scored or assisted on every one of TCU’s 79 points. The points, not just the field goals: The two of them were the only Horned Frogs to attempt free throws. The news that Miles would play her final season somewhere other than Notre Dame was a bit of a stunner, but she makes perfect sense at TCU, where head coach Mark Campbell runs a pro-style, pick-and-roll–heavy offense. "Olivia—there's maybe five women on the planet that can do what she does. Men or women," Campbell said at Saturday's postgame press conference. "Her basketball vision, her IQ, her understanding of the game is magical. It's a gift that she has."
Between Miles this year and Hailey Van Lith last year, TCU is looking like a sort of vibe rehab facility for dispirited point guards. "The people around me have helped me to love basketball again," Miles said yesterday. Last year, the Fighting Irish fell apart down the stretch, and some signs pointed to an issue in the locker room. Notre Dame lost rotation players to the transfer portal in the offseason. At a Dallas Wings game this summer, Miles also starred in a viral video of a possible beef with her former Notre Dame teammate Hannah Hidalgo. Separately, Hidalgo and Miles have now made it further in the tournament than they ever did as teammates. Hidalgo was herself a few assists shy of a 31-point quadruple-double in Notre Dame's Sweet Sixteen game against Vanderbilt on Friday; she settled instead for a triple-double with 10 steals.
I also think of Miles as a true college player because it’s still not totally clear what her career will look like at the next level, where there’s less space and more speed. She’s an average athlete whose ability to get downhill will be challenged by pro defenders. Even by the forgiving standards of a high-usage college guard, her instincts on defense are puzzling and usually bad. If there’s any test of a player’s pro readiness, it’s a meeting with South Carolina and human seatbelt Raven Johnson. They’ll play for a trip to the Final Four on Monday. The Gamecocks will have to find a way to make this self-assured star look a little uncomfortable.
