Notebook: Miles confident of a second wind for herself and Notre Dame WBB
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — There are days when Olivia Miles’ body still reminds her that the ACL surgery the Notre Dame grad senior underwent in the spring of 2023 isn’t ancient history, and yet she pushes back at it with a message of her own.
“I sat out for a year and some, so it’s taken me a little bit to get adjusted to the amount of load on my body,” Miles told Inside ND Sports on Thursday, just ahead of the 3 seed Notre Dame women’s basketball team’s final practice before they dance into March Madness Friday at Purcell Pavilion with a 2 p.m. EDT matchup (ESPN) with 14 seed Stephen F. Austin (29-5).
“Especially in back-to-back games after playing 31 games this year," she continued. "But I look at it as I’m getting better every day. And I truly believe that I am.”
Though reminding herself that progress isn’t always a straight line.
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Michigan (22-10), seeded sixth, and 11 seed/First Four survivor Iowa State (23-11) meet in both the first game at Purcell on Friday (11:30 a.m.) and of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament round of 64 itself. Friday’s winners advance to a second-round matchup Sunday (TBA) at Purcell, with a ticket to a Sweet 16 matchup next week in Birmingham on the line.
Perhaps the most painful zag for Miles since her return to play this season, after a year off to rehab, came in a 61-56 loss to Duke on March 8 in the ACC Tournament semifinals.
In that game Miles came out of the game at the 8:28 mark of the fourth quarter and didn’t return until 91 seconds remained. She had tweaked an ankle earlier in half, but her long absence from the game during its most critical stretch was a coach’s decision, not anything having to do with her ankle.
And it stung more than the modest stat line that came with it — 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting, with three turnovers and a game-worst minus-10 in the plus/minus column that hinted at the holes in her defensive game.
“We had a lot to clean up,” Miles said. “Ihad a lot to clean up.”
But first the recently anointed second-team All-American hit the reset button — with coach Niele Ivey’s blessing — on a beach in Puerto Rico for a few days early last week, never once thinking about basketball and keeping in shape by swimming.
“I needed it a lot, actually,” she said. “This season gets long, and it takes a lot out of you. So, the rejuvenation was nice.”
And the practices that welcomed her and the rest of the Irish (26-5) when they returned from their various spring mini-break destinations were some of the most intense since Miles was repatriated on the Irish roster in November.
“It was only natural for us to get back in the gym and start fixing those things,” Miles said. “So, pretty intense.”
In SFA, the Irish will face a team out of the Western Athletic Conference and Nacogdoches, Texas, that has won 15 games in a row and has shattered the old school record for 3-pointers in a season by 78 and counting with 320. Five players average in double figures scoring for the Ladyjacks.
“Just really impressed by the way they play,” Ivey offered. “They play very hard. They've got great shooters. It's going to be a task for us to do a great job defensively. That's a big piece of what we're trying to accomplish tomorrow, is to be locked in defensively.”
Miles admitted the golf clap the team collectively gave on camera on Selection Sunday after receiving a No. 3 seed from the NCAA Tournament selection committee was more about surprise than disappointment.
“To go from the No. 1 team in the country to a 3 seed in the span of a few weeks, it was a little bit disorienting,” she said, “but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what seed we are. It’s about whoever we play that’s in front of us.”
Could these be the final games that Miles plays this weekend in front of the home crowd? Because of her medical redshirt last season, Miles is eligible to return to ND for one more season. But she’s also a projected top three draft pick in the next WNBA Draft.
“I think about it here and there,” Miles said. “I don’t have a definite decision right now. There are a lot of factors that go into it. So, I’m speaking with my agent, speaking with whoever needs to be involved, taking that step by step. But I really want to focus on winning right now. That’s all that matters.”
Giving the silent treatment
Over the past couple of seasons, grad senior forward Maddy Westbeld asserted herself verbally, whenever the Irish hit some notable turbulence.
Until the three-losses-in-five-games tailspin to end the regular season, that is, punctuated by a scoreless 27 minutes of court time in the 61-56 ACC Tourney loss to Duke in which Westbeld went 0-for-6 from the field, grabbed one rebound and committed three turnovers but did have four steals.
It marked only the second time in her 138 games at ND in which she failed to score. The other came in a 13-minute cameo earlier this season in a win over North Carolina on Jan. 5, when Westbeld came off the bench in her first game back from foot surgery rehab and did not attempt a field goal.
“To go scoreless as a player is crazy,” Westbled said. “I hit rock bottom as a player. It’s like, ‘OK, I’m done talking. I’m going back to work. I’m not asking for excuses. I’m not asking for permission. I’m going to work, and that’s what it’s going to be.’”
And after cooking the entire roster a meal before they headed off in different directions for an abbreviated spring break, Westbeld started the silent treatment.
“It was important for me to stop talking and go to work,” she said, “because you can’t be the leader you need to be if you’re not holding yourself accountable and being the person that you need to be, first. That was the biggest thing for me — put your head down and go to work.
“A game like I had is probably the thing you want to avoid at all costs. But after it was done, I think it was a great wakeup call. I can say it was a blessing to experience that, because as a player with as much experience and as much natural instincts as I do, that just doesn’t happen. So, it’s a unique experience but also I think it’s a beautiful way for me to turn around and look at myself in the mirror and go to work.”
Natalie Achonwa returns
Former Notre Dame All-American Natalia Achonwa will be back at Purcell Pavilion Friday as part of the Michigan Wolverines’ coaching staff. Specifically, the Canada native who played for the Irish in the 2011-14 seasons, is in his first year as an "assistant coach for player development."
Achonwa and Irish sophomore guard Cass Prosper were teammates on the Canadian Olympic team this past summer. And ND head coach Niele Ivey was an assistant coach on Hall-of-Famer Muffet McGraw’s staff during the entirety of Anchonwa’s Irish career, with Notre Dame reaching the Final Four in all four of her seasons.
“When we saw the draw, the brackets, I was like, ‘Great, Ace is coming home.’” Ivey said. “She's a phenomenal woman, has had so much success as a player. I knew she was going to be a phenomenal coach.
“For her to get her first opportunity at a storied program like Michigan is big. I'm excited. I haven't had a chance to see her. Really proud of her and excited that her full-circle moment back in the NCAA Tournament is back at Notre Dame.”
Tip-ins
• Redshirting guard KK Bransford and presumptive redshirt center Kylee Watson both took part in Notre Dame’s partly open-to-the-media practice Thursday, though in varying degrees.
The 5-11 junior Bransford was a full participant in drills during the media window. The 6-4 senior Watson, roughly a year removed from ACL surgery, was limited to throwing passes to teammates in drills while avoiding running and cutting.
• The Stephen F. Austin sports information department shares four acceptable ways to refer to the school or its team, the Ladyjacks, and five unacceptable ones. … Irish grad senior Laitu King has moved into fifth place on the ND single-season rebounds list with 311. Just ahead of her in fourth is Michigan assistant coach Natalie Achnowa. … Associated Press honorable-mention All-American Sonia Citron is shooting .575 from the field over her last 10 games. … Seven of SFA’s 11 players started their college career at another school. … Pam Ward and Stephanie White form the ESPN broadcast team for the Notre Dame game.
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