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Olivia Miles forgoing WNBA draft, intends to enter transfer portal
USAT’s Meghan Hall breaks down what it means that Olivia Miles will not be entering the WNBA draft and most likely hitting the transfer portal.
Sports Seriously
The 2025 WNBA draft has just received a huge shakeup.
Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles was projected to be the No. 2 overall pick in USA TODAY Sports’ latest mock draft, following UConn’s Paige Bueckers, the consensus No. 1 overall pick, but Miles is reportedly holding off on turning pro. Miles will forgo the 2025 WNBA draft and instead enter the NCAA’s transfer portal using her final season of eligibility, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Monday.
Miles, 22, teamed up with Hannah Hidalgo to form one of the best backcourt duo in the country at Notre Dame this season, nearly two years removed from a season-ending knee injury. Miles averaged a career-high 15.4 points, an ACC-leading 5.8 assists and 1.4 steals in 34 games this season. However, the All-ACC First Team guard struggled to get much going on offense or defense in the 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament, which marked her first since 2022.
Miles averaged just 6.6 points in three March Madness games this season and was regularly sidelined during defensive crunch time. She scored two points in No. 3 seeded Notre Dame’s first-round win over No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin, but suffered a sprained ankle in the process. Miles played through the injury and had eight points in the Fighting Irish’s second-round win over No. 6 seed Michigan and 10 points in Notre Dame’s loss to No. 2 seed TCU in the Sweet 16.
“At the end of the day, my goal coming to Notre Dame was to leave Notre Dame better than I found it and I think I did a pretty good job of that,” Miles said Saturday after her season ended. “I love all my teammates in that locker room. We’ve stayed together. We’ve grown so much through this entire season. We are very proud of the work we’ve done, and ultimately we have had fun. That’s really what this is all about. You sign up as a kid because it’s fun to throw a ball in a hoop and look where it’s gotten us to at this point?”
Miles enrolled early at Notre Dame and joined the team in January 2021 for the 2020-21 season, where she averaged 9.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists in six games. In the 2021-22 season, Miles increased her average to 13.7 points per game, and she recorded an ACC-leading 7.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game. She became the first freshman in NCAA tournament history, women’s or men’s, to record a triple-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in Notre Dame’s 89–78 first-round victory over UMass.
Miles averaged 14.3 points, 7.3 rebound and an ACC-leading 6.9 assists her sophomore year in the 2022-23 season. She surpassed Skylar Diggins-Smith and Jackie Young for the most triple-doubles in Notre Dame history with the third of her career on Dec. 10, 2022 vs. Merrimack. Miles’ season ended prematurely, however, after she suffered a season-ending knee injury during the team’s regular-season finale.
She missed the 2023 NCAA Tournament and the entire 2023-24 season as a result of her knee injury.
“I wouldn’t wish that injury on my worst enemy,” Miles said Friday following news of USC superstar JuJu Watkins’ ACL tear in the No. 1 seeded Trojans’ second-round win over No. 9 seeded Mississippi State. “My heart breaks for anyone that goes through that.”
Miles returned to the lineup this season and made a statement in her first game back with another triple-double (20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists) vs. Mercyhurst to open the season on Nov. 4. She became the first player in ACC history to record consecutive triple-doubles a month later against Loyola (Mayrland) and Virginia. Miles’ three triple-doubles led the nation this season and her six career triple-doubles is tied for 7th all-time in women’s college basketball.
“They will always have a special place in my heart, because they believed in me when I took over this program and being a first-time head coach” Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey said on Saturday, referring to Miles and Sonia Citron being part of her first recruiting class as head coach. “It just speaks to their loyalty, the vision that they were looking for, for the institution of their choice, being Notre Dame, and the vision I had with them being my premiere guards. I’m just grateful that they trusted in that and, again, there is a bond that I will always have with both of those two.”
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