The marvelous Olivia Miles and her gasp-a-minute act

OLIVIA MILES PUSHES the shot up the court, her legs churning arsenic she beats her defender connected the accelerated break. The way to the rim is clear, but Miles reads it differently. Wearing her signature goggles, her hairsbreadth scattering from the apical of her bun, Miles delivers a agelong bounce walk up to freshman KK Bransford arsenic the assemblage gasps with surprise. Bransford lays the shot done the hoop successful Notre Dame's season-opening crippled against Northern Illinois.

Trotting backward, Miles jumps disconnected her backmost ft and intercepts a walk with 1 hand. She pushes forward, dribbles betwixt her legs and pulls up for a midrange jumper. On different accelerated break, she sprints to the close with the shot earlier firing a no-look walk crossed her assemblage to a cutting Maddy Westbeld for a layup.

It is intolerable not to ticker Olivia Miles erstwhile the hoops is successful her hands, whether she's making a one-handed pass, finishing with flair astatine the rim oregon showing disconnected her handles.

Basketball is rhythmic. Certain things hap astatine circumstantial times. Miles disrupts the rhythm. Her unorthodox choices, similar throwing a one-handed walk crossed her assemblage with her near manus portion disconnected balance, mightiness look to be, astatine times, ill-advised. But defenses seldom spot it coming.

She h2o dances similar Arya Stark and feints similar Amanda Nunes. She is Notre Dame's 5-foot-10 do-everything motor trying to powerfulness the Fighting Irish backmost into nationalist title contention.

After winning the nationalist rubric successful 2018 and falling successful the last crippled successful 2019, Notre Dame went 23-28 implicit the adjacent 2 seasons and missed the 2021 NCAA tourney (the 2020 tourney was canceled owed to the COVID-19 pandemic). Legendary manager Muffet McGraw retired pursuing the 2019-20 play aft the Irish had their archetypal losing play since 1991-92. Their 13-18 grounds ended a streak of 9 consecutive 30-plus-win seasons.

Longtime adjunct Niele Ivey took implicit successful 2020-21, inheriting a programme that was sinking fast. "I knew it was a rebuild astatine that time," Ivey says.

After an 8-6 commencement to Ivey's archetypal season, the archetypal aboriginal enrollee successful Notre Dame women's hoops past arrived. Ivey believed she had her foundation.

"You person to get the caput of the snake, you person to get that constituent guard," Ivey says. "I needed idiosyncratic who could travel successful close distant and marque an impact. And that's who [Miles] is."

Two winding years later, the snake seems poised to strike.

SHE FELT MORE similar an intruder than the No. 8 enlistee successful the nation. Miles remembers her archetypal signifier astatine Notre Dame vividly. It's a time she'd alternatively forget.

It was the mediate of the 2020-21 season, and Miles had conscionable enactment her precocious schoolhouse acquisition connected accelerated guardant -- grinding done her classwork and graduating a semester aboriginal -- aft the COVID-19 pandemic had enactment her elder play astatine New Jersey's Blair Academy successful doubt.

She walked into Notre Dame's signifier gym and saw strangers -- players who had started the play together, players who had struggled together, players who had bonded together. And present Miles was expected to beryllium the 1 to crook it each around.

"I retrieve tearing up," Miles says. "Everything was overwhelming. I conscionable felt retired of place. I didn't cognize if I could flooded that benignant of feeling."

On the surface, South Bend and Phillipsburg, the New Jersey municipality wherever Miles grew up, look similar. Phillipsburg, location to astir 15,000 people, sits connected the borderline of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Miles attended a backstage Catholic schoolhouse for overmuch of her puerility and went to precocious schoolhouse 45 minutes up the roadworthy astatine Blair Academy, a prep boarding school. A tiny metropolis similar South Bend with a Catholic schoolhouse successful Notre Dame wasn't unfamiliar.

But to Miles, everything seemed new: a caller level of competition, a caller playbook, a caller school. Practice was hard. Classes were hard.

Irish defender Dara Mabrey had heard astir the hotshot prospect, a chap New Jerseyan, but the kid Mabrey met that archetypal time of signifier seemed quiescent and reserved.

"I wouldn't accidental she got comfy close away," says Mabrey, present a senior, "but she trusted successful her abilities close away."

So did their coach. Ivey had archetypal seen Miles play successful mediate schoolhouse -- "She conscionable stood out," Ivey says -- and erstwhile she took implicit the Notre Dame program, Miles was 1 of her archetypal calls. On Ivey's 2nd time connected the job, Miles committed.

Notre Dame was flailing astatine 8-6 earlier Miles played her archetypal game, successful which she scored 4 points and picked up 4 fouls successful 14 minutes successful a nonaccomplishment to Syracuse.

But rewind backmost to that archetypal practice. For Mabrey, 1 infinitesimal stands out. Miles dribbled the shot up the mediate of the level portion Mabrey tracked on the sideline. Miles fired a agelong walk to Mabrey successful the corner. She caught it successful measurement and drilled the shot.

"We conscionable had this contiguous connection," Mabrey says. "I was similar 'Oh wow, this is going to beryllium fun.'"

The fun, however, was fleeting. With Miles, the Irish limped to a 2-4 finish, including a season-ending first-round nonaccomplishment to Clemson successful the 2021 ACC tournament, a crippled successful which Miles committed 7 turnovers.

The roadworthy backmost to the apical of the crippled appeared awfully steep.

OLIVIA MILES NEVER bothered with crawling, and it took specified months for her dad, Yakubu Miles, to admit his daughter's carnal gifts.

"At 6 months old, if you held her hand, she would really conscionable walk," helium says. "And by 8 months she was moving astir walking connected her own."

Usually with a shot astatine her feet. Soccer was Olivia's archetypal love, and her dada says she started playing arsenic soon arsenic she could walk.

But 1 time successful simple school, erstwhile Yakubu arrived astatine her after-school program, helium recovered his girl playing basketball. He watched and waited for Olivia to finish. He watched and waited the adjacent time arsenic well. Then again the next. Finally, Yakubu enactment Olivia successful an instructional programme truthful she could larn to play for real.

Like a favourite aged teddy bear, Olivia brought shot on with her, and that athletics continues to power Miles' hoops crippled to this day. She played midfield done mediate schoolhouse and was a guardant successful precocious school. Those passes successful choky windows connected the break are not dissimilar to threading a done shot connected the counterattack. The mode she opens lanes for herself and her teammates is drawn from the aforesaid container of tricks arsenic a shot stepover.

"She's not conscionable beating the idiosyncratic connected her," erstwhile Blair Academy girls' hoops manager Quint Clarke says. "She's trying to determination the assistance defence with her shoulders and her hips and her eyes truthful that she tin marque the pass. She'll announcement idiosyncratic she thinks tin get a shot, and she'll conscionable determination that assistance defender a mates steps with immoderate benignant of decoy and drawback the walk retired there."

The results person prompted much than a fewer gasps.

"Her imaginativeness surprises maine sometimes," says Ivey, a erstwhile Notre Dame constituent defender herself. "The plays that she'll spot and the information that she'll marque it happen. Sometimes it's her finishes. She's got an elite finishing package, and she'll decorativeness successful a mode that adjacent I've ne'er seen."

Former constituent defender to existent constituent guard, and manager to player, Ivey keeps an unfastened enactment of connection with Miles. She knows Notre Dame's occurrence depends connected it.

"I similar to speech to her astir things that I see," Ivey says. "I inquire her a batch of questions. What bash you see? What could person been possibly a amended decision? I effort to marque definite that I'm truly being transparent and pass what I request from her. I effort to marque definite that I bash that arsenic her manager truthful she tin play with that consciousness of freedom."

The state to travel her shot instincts to hoops success.

"You person to instrumentality that risk," Miles says. "In basketball, it benignant of translates to having the assurance to either marque a done shot oregon marque a bully walk down the lane. They some emulate each other."

Miles stays connected to shot done the planetary game. She doesn't basal for a circumstantial squad but rattles disconnected a database of players she watches: Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and truthful on.

She besides enjoys playing FIFA. Like connected the court, she's assured successful her abilities -- nary substance wherever the situation comes from.

"PlayStation's close retired there," Miles smirks erstwhile I archer her I, too, play FIFA.

NOTRE DAME LOOKED poised to marque a leap a twelvemonth up of schedule. In her archetypal afloat season, Miles and the Irish had NC State, the region's apical seed, connected the ropes successful the 2022 Sweet 16 astatine Webster Bank Arena successful Bridgeport, Connecticut. Notre Dame entered the last 4th starring by seven. Miles dominated the archetypal half, scoring 15 points connected 6-for-10 shooting and dishing the shot astatine will.

During the 2nd half, however, she was silenced arsenic the NC State defence keyed successful connected her.

Five days earlier successful the 2nd round, Notre Dame had thrashed fifth-seeded Oklahoma 108-64 connected the Sooners' location court. The Fighting Irish had shown flashes of greatness each play agelong but had been incapable to prolong it.

Such was the lawsuit connected this nighttime successful Bridgeport. In the 4th quarter, NC State enactment Notre Dame connected its heels, erasing the seven-point shortage and going connected to triumph the crippled 66-63. In the last period, Notre Dame had 5 turnovers, 2 of them Miles'. Miles changeable 2-for-7 from the level successful the 4th quarter, including 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.

"I consciousness similar we afloat deserved to spell to the Elite Eight and beyond," Miles says. "So that was decidedly frustrating for me."

During her 2 weeks disconnected aft the decision of the season, Miles texted adjunct manager Michaela Mabrey, Dara's sister, asking to ticker the movie of the game. She wanted to look the mistakes, her ain mistakes, successful the face.

"She was bare aft that game," Mabrey says. "She was bare due to the fact that she knew we should person won."

Notre Dame finished the 2021-22 play an encouraging 24-9 and 2 wins from a travel backmost to the Final Four. But aft that loss, Miles knew she needed to marque changes. She focused connected expanding her endurance during the offseason. She started moving down-and-backs betwixt drills, she deed the value room, she focused connected getting amended sleep, eating amended food.

"Last twelvemonth we had a truly abbreviated bench, truthful I got a sensation of staying successful the crippled a agelong clip and sometimes I couldn't bash it," Miles says. "This offseason, my extremity was like, 'Don't inquire Coach Ivey for a sub.' Be truthful successful signifier that you ne'er person to inquire for a sub oregon you ne'er person to beryllium successful uncertainty of coming disconnected the floor."

As the 2022-23 play started, Miles was pushing gait successful signifier and successful games. She ratcheted up the tempo anytime she could, sprinting with the shot arsenic overmuch arsenic possible. Last season, that attack would person worn her down. But truthful far, being winded hasn't been a problem. The offseason dedication was successful work of 1 goal: triumph a nationalist championship.

After all, she came to Notre Dame because the academics were challenging. She relishes the situation of forcing radical to bring their attraction backmost to an esteemed programme moving its mode backmost to the top.

"I conscionable privation to bring Notre Dame backmost to the glory days," Miles says. "For immoderate crushed I consciousness similar for a batch of my beingness I've been benignant of moving nether the radar. I consciousness similar determination is an underdog facet to that and that benignant of motivates me."

So does that bitter season-ending nonaccomplishment to NC State. "Fuel for this twelvemonth for sure," she says.

SITTING IN A gangly seat wrong of Notre Dame's movie room, Miles crosses her arms crossed her thorax arsenic she considers her play from the 2022-23 play opener, an 88-48 triumph against Northern Illinois. "To beryllium honest," she says. "I was beauteous disappointed."

The root of that disappointment is her shooting. She went 5-for-14 from the tract and 1-for-4 from beyond the arc. She finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals. It's the benignant of souped-up stat enactment that has go modular for the sophomore guard, who past play became the archetypal freshman successful NCAA past to person a triple-double successful the NCAA tourney erstwhile she dropped 12 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists successful Notre Dame's first-round 89-78 triumph implicit UMass.

Miles is speedy to beryllium candid with her shortcomings, but she is besides wary of however her self-critique whitethorn beryllium perceived. "I don't privation to dependable similar a brat; I had a bully game," she says soon aft criticizing her shooting show against Northern Illinois. "I'm arrogant of myself for coming retired and starting a play similar that, but astatine the aforesaid time, if I bash privation to scope that adjacent level, I person to not miss those shots that I did."

She ever has been much comfy with enactment by deed than enactment by word.

Miles thinks astir however she is perceived by those astir her often. She's considerate with her words, ne'er wanting to accidental the incorrect happening oregon travel disconnected successful a mode she doesn't intend. She has heard from immoderate radical that she's unapproachable, but that's not however she sees herself.

"A batch of radical accidental that I springiness them soiled looks and I'm like, that's conscionable benignant of my RBF," Miles says. "I committedness I'm not mean, but I'm conscionable precise shy and precise quiet. I'm not giving you soiled looks. I promise."

Quite the opposite, Michaela Mabrey says. Miles is simply taking banal of the situation. Like an emerging person should.

"Olivia is simply a precise genuine and gentle idiosyncratic who understands feelings," Mabrey says. "She reads energies successful the consciousness of she's precise alert of wherefore radical are the mode they are."

The newness of South Bend has, successful galore ways, abated. Miles feels comfy with the Notre Dame playbook; strangers person go teammates; aged acquaintances person go friends.

With the Mabreys, the transportation is food.

"In New Jersey, the food, it's amazing," Miles says. "It's mode amended than Indiana [where] it's conscionable accelerated food. There's nary ma and pops."

A pork roll. Egg and food connected an everything bagel. A Playa acai bowl. Pizza. Thinking of immoderate nutrient from the enactment makes Miles yearn for home, and the Mabreys bring a spot of New Jersey to Indiana for Miles. Sometimes, that includes literal bits of Jersey.

"It's the bagels and the pizza," Michaela says.

Fellow sophomore Sonia Citron, who arrived astatine the commencement of past year, brought different East Coast tie.

Hailing from Eastchester, New York, the No. 16 enlistee played some with and against Miles arsenic they ascended done the prep ranks. They met portion waiting successful enactment astatine an all-star lawsuit with their dads -- who are some talkative portion Citron and Miles ... are not.

"We were some shy," Citron says. "We were like, 'Oh, hey.' Quick smile. Didn't speech astatine all."

Citron, who besides played with Miles successful the USA Basketball system, watched Miles blossom from the shy miss she met successful enactment to the quiescent but assured person astatine Notre Dame.

"A batch of the things she does, it's due to the fact that she's truthful assured successful herself and her abilities," Citron says. "It's astonishing to watch, honestly. It benignant of rubs disconnected connected people."

MILES JOGS TO the apical of the cardinal to instrumentality the shot from Westbeld. It's midway done the archetypal 4th successful the Fighting Irish's November crippled against Ball State, and Notre Dame trails by 2 points. Miles sizes up her defender, who is hitched guardant astatine the hips, her backmost rounding toward the ceiling.

Miles dribbles a crossover from her near to her close manus and takes a measurement toward the basket. The Ball State subordinate tries to enactment with her, but Miles crosses backmost implicit to her left. The defender's momentum carries her past Miles, and arsenic Miles steps backmost down the 3-point line, she sees thing but bare abstraction successful beforehand of her.

Miles elevates for the changeable and drains it to springiness Notre Dame the lead. As she trots backmost connected defense, Miles shakes retired her manus arsenic if to accidental it was connected fire.

Despite the mounting evidence, defy the temptation to telephone Olivia Miles flashy.

"I've ever had a antagonistic connotation astir that connection for myself," Miles says. "From the mode I spot it, being flashy is doing excessively much."

Doing much, peculiarly successful the scoring column, is precisely what is expected of Miles successful her sophomore season. Her proverbial blistery manus against Ball State produced yet different awesome stat line: 13 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists successful a 35-point triumph for Notre Dame.

"I'm a pass-first constituent guard," Miles says. "But I've been moving connected being much assertive to the basket."

The archetypal subordinate Miles mentions arsenic a hoops power is Sue Bird, which seems astonishing connected the surface. Bird embodied the classical constituent defender archetype. Though she erstwhile passed the shot betwixt her legs to Lauren Jackson, Bird was much John Stockton than Magic Johnson.

"I conscionable emotion comparing myself to her due to the fact that her emotion for mounting radical up and being that playmaker for her team," Miles says. "That's what I respect successful her a batch and what I effort and emulate. Not truthful overmuch play style."

A Sue Bird mentality with a Chelsea Gray-style execution. Miles besides mentions Skylar Diggins-Smith, Maya Moore, Arike Ogunbowale, Stephen Curry and Trae Young arsenic players she loves to ticker and emulate. Miles likes to propulsion the envelope. She likes to bash the unexpected.

So if not flashy, past what?

"Swaggy," she says. "I deliberation swaggy is simply a bully mode to enactment it."

MILES STANDS PERFECTLY inactive erstwhile she archetypal sizes up a defender. She moves precisely however and erstwhile she means to. In the infinitesimal earlier that action, however, determination is implicit stillness. It's the millisecond earlier she flashes her ft into a jab step, oregon conscionable earlier she flicks her wrist for a cross-court pass. Somehow, she is inactive adjacent erstwhile hopping done the aerial arsenic she pulls a hesitation determination earlier driving to the basket.

It's the stillness that puts defenders connected their heels. They mightiness deliberation they cognize what Miles is astir to bash and effort to cheat it. They mightiness stab a ft toward her and scope a manus toward the shot oregon effort to leap a screen. That's erstwhile Miles looks omniscient down her goggles. The stillness is deceptive; her assemblage mightiness not beryllium moving, but her caput is active.

For each the absorption connected her flair, Miles is simply a sophomore constituent guard, the person astatine the forefront of this blue-blood women's hoops programme trying to find its mode back.

Seven games into her sophomore season, Miles is averaging 15.7 points, 6.7 assists, 7.0 rebounds and 2.7 steals. She leads the squad successful assists and steals and is 2nd successful points and rebounds.

After opening the play with six consecutive wins, Miles and Notre Dame encountered their archetypal sensation of adversity Thursday night, dropping a heartbreaker astatine location to Maryland, 74-72. With 55 seconds to spell and Notre Dame trailing by two, Miles snagged a antiaircraft committee and sprinted up the tribunal toward the basket. Swerving done the lane, Miles flicked the shot disconnected the backboard with her close manus arsenic she was fouled. Her escaped propulsion enactment the Fighting Irish connected top, but lone temporarily. It was Miles astatine her best, but it wasn't enough. Plagued by foul occupation each night, Miles finished with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 7 assists. There's nary clip to sulk.

Next up is No. 3 UConn (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, ABC), a storied rival that has beaten Notre Dame by an mean of 21.5 points successful their past 2 meetings. It volition diagnostic a showdown betwixt 2 of the champion sophomores successful the country: Azzi Fudd vs. Olivia Miles.

How the Fighting Irish execute volition accidental a batch astir whether Ivey's squad is acceptable to genuinely contend for a nationalist title. It volition accidental a batch astir Miles, too. The kid who was mislaid astatine her archetypal signifier 2 years agone mightiness present beryllium coiled to strike.

"I deliberation that truly made maine turn up successful a batch of antithetic ways and benignant of accelerated my process here," Miles says.

One happening is guaranteed: Miles volition marque an unthinkable walk oregon decorativeness successful postulation with 1 hand. She volition lull a defender to slumber successful that deceptive infinitesimal of stillness.

"We go," says adjunct manager Michaela Mabrey, "as she goes."