SOUTH BEND – She left enough breadcrumbs over the previous eight days that you had an idea where the trail might lead Notre Dame women's basketball guard Olivia Miles.
Make that former Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles.
On Monday night, ESPN Senior NBA Insider Shams Charania, usually one to break big NBA news – Lakers acquire Luka Doncic – broke some equally big women’s college basketball news. He reported through sources (i.e., agents), that Miles, the dynamic, play-making guard who earned first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference and second team All-American honors this season, would bypass the 2025 WNBA draft to enter the transfer portal and play her final year of college.
It seemed stunning that the 5-foot-10 Miles would walk away from being a top-five pick – likely top two – in the April 14 draft for another season of (theoretically) classes and homework and workouts and road trips and conference games to chase a Final Four/national championship at a powerhouse/blueblood program that doesn’t carry a 46556 zip code.
Any elite program in need of an elite guard? Miles’ DMs are open.
Surprising? Shocking? Not really. Not if you’ve paid attention. To Miles. To the WNBA. To where the college game is with Name Image and Likeness and all (i.e., $$$) that it entails.
Miles admitted following the March 23 second-round NCAA Tournament home win over Michigan, after which she took the public address microphone to thank the fans at Purcell Pavilion, that that was her last home game at Notre Dame. The belief was that Miles, who missed the 2023-24 season after suffering a serious right knee injury in the closing stages of the 2022-23 season, which allows for that return in 2025-26, was ready to start her WNBA career clock.
It was time to be a pro.
Or was it?
The rookie salary scale for a top-four WNBA pick is $76,535. A college player the caliber of Miles (elite) might demand – and earn – 10 times that in NIL. The bigger the market/program, the more earning opportunities. It’s about dollars, but it also makes sense.
It makes too much of it that Miles can make more in college than in the W. That matters.
Seated in a somber Notre Dame locker room Saturday afternoon inside Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, Miles walked through the decision-making process that awaited with a handful of reporters. It was like listening to a tennis match. Back and forth she volleyed ideas. Pros. Cons. Everything.
After one sentence, you thought, she’s gone. After another, it was, uh...hold on.
Maybe she would declare for the draft. Maybe being a top-five pick might be too good to pass up. Maybe she would return to school. She loved college but also admitted that she’d outgrown it.
College was the ultimate known. The WNBA was the great unknown.
“I’ll be prepared and I’ll be confident in my ...
