Skip to main content
notre-dame logo

Olivia Miles injury update: Notre Dame guard 'should be good' to play vs. Michigan in NCAA Tournament

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•03/21/25•

tbhorka

miles (4)
Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles, left, drives to the basket during the first round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament between Notre Dame and Stephen F. Austin at Purcell Pavilion on Friday, March 21, 2025, in South Bend. (Photo by Michael Clubb/South Bend Tribune/Imagn Images)

Up 39 points at the time in an eventual 52-point smackdown of Stephen F. Austin, Notre Dame senior guard Olivia Miles dropped to the floor at Purcell Pavilion on Friday afternoon. The hearts of thousands of Fighting Irish fans on hand for the first round of the NCAA Tournament mimicked her sinking motion.

Then the arena went silent.

All of that has happened all too often for Notre Dame women’s basketball in recent seasons, including an infamous instance involving Miles herself. This time, thankfully, Miles’ injury is not feared to be nearly as serious as the one that held her out of her entire junior season.

Miles left Notre Dame’s 106-54 win over SFA with just under nine minutes to play in the fourth quarter with a left ankle injury. She did not return to the floor, eventually limping to the locker room after a brief stay on the Irish bench, but she did get up with coaches and teammates shortly after the matchup went final.

Everyone liked the initial prognosis.

“She’s in great spirits,” Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said. “She just stepped on someone’s foot, unfortunately. What she did earlier in the season, I think against UConn. Walking over to her, she kind of reassured me that she was OK. That made me feel a lot better. But again, she’s going to be really sore. So, credit to Ann, our trainer, that’s going to do a great job for the next 48 hours to get her ready.”

Asked if Miles will play Sunday vs. No. 6 seed Michigan, who beat No. 11 seed Iowa State on Friday, Ivey said, “she’ll be OK.”

“She might be sore, but she should be good,” Ivey said.

Fellow Notre Dame players gave ringing endorsements of optimism, too. Hannah Hidalgo did not see her back court mate go down, but when she heard it was an ankle tweak she didn’t fret all to much. As Ivey said, she’s seen Miles come back from one of those very quickly before.

Hidalgo said Miles told her she’s doing “fine” and that a solid tape job for Sunday should suffice.

“We’re just trusting in God that he’s going to take care of her and that she’ll be back for the next game,” Hidalgo said. “If not, the game after.”

“If it’s not serious, you know she’s gonna play,” graduate senior forward Maddy Westbeld added. “She’s an incredibly tough player. She’s very mentally tough with the knee injury that she had to deal with, coming back from that. So she’s just an incredibly mentally tough human, mentally tough player. She can get through anything. So I’m not worried at all.”

Miles led Notre Dame with 8 assists against SFA. For the season, the Second Team Associated Press All-American is averaging just over 16 points and just under 6 rebounds and 6 assists per game.

You may also like