The Notre Dame women’s basketball team returns to play in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon. When they do so, when they look to go to the Elite 8 for the first time in Niele Ivey’s run in South Bend, it looks like they’ll have one of their best players back.
During an early morning press conference on Friday, Ivey addressed the elephant in the room. Will Olivia Miles play against TCU and will she be playing at full strength or will she hobbled? The question comes after Miles played in the Fighting Irish’s last game and gave the usual amount of minutes. After the game though, she made it clear that there was a very real chance she was going to sit it out, especially when she woke up that morning.
While Ivey wouldn’t say that Miles would 100% play in the Notre Dame women’s basketball game on Saturday, she did say she was encouraged by the guard’s progress. The head coach added the program had made sure Miles got rest, and treatment. That allowed her to practice the past two days.
Notre Dame women’s basketball star appears ready to return vs TCU
Needless to say, Miles is a big part of a machine that is playing some of its best basketball this season right now. They finished the year looking very mediocre but they have two blowout in the NCAA tournament.
Miles had the best season of her very impressive career in 2024-25. She averaged 15.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 5.9 assists and perhaps most impressively, she’s shooting 40% from beyond the 3-point arc.
Against Hailey Van Lith and TCU, the Notre Dame women’s basketball team will need as much as Olivia Miles as they can get. As long as she’s not playing through a situation where she’s hobbled and hurts the outcome.