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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. − They remain the three most dreaded words in March Madness that Notre Dame women’s basketball graduate student guard Olivia Miles hears these days.
TCU Redeux: When does Notre Dame women's basketball play next in NCAA tournament? Sweet 16 preview, prediction
Be it back on campus or points south for the second weekend of the NCAA Women’s Tournament, she knows they’re coming. There’s too much interest in her health and in Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup (1 p.m., South Bend time, ABC) between No. 3 Notre Dame (28-5) and No. 2 TCU (33-3) for someone not to inquire.
Noie: What a Notre Dame women's basketball walk-on did to draw the day's biggest ovation
Here they come again. That question. Those three words.
How’s the ankle?
That would be the left ankle that Miles sprained in the fourth quarter of a victory over Stephen F. Austin on March 21 in an NCAA Tournament opener. Miles hobbled off the Purcell Pavilion court and into a strenuous around-the-clock rehabilitation regimen that got her back on the floor Sunday against Michigan.
Miles played 27 minutes. Miles made plays that day (eight points, four rebounds, five assists), a day that she guessed her ankle was about 45% healthy while all sorts of shades of black and blue and purple and red.
She felt “not great” Monday morning.
“It comes with it,” Miles said. “Now is the time. With this group, I want to do something special.”
How about at the end of the week as Sweet 16 game time neared?
“It’s good,” Miles said Thursday morning in a corner of a Legacy Arena locker room. “It’s gotten a lot better. I haven’t played a game, so I’m going to say about 75 percent. That could change (Friday). I’m doing better.”
How it feels or how it might hinder her matters little to Miles. Every game might be Notre Dame’s last game. Her last game.
“It’s everything,” she said. “I can’t not play. If it was December, I’d be like, ‘Yeah, let me take some time off.’ I can’t do that. I refuse not to play.”
Miles took Monday and Tuesday off and practiced Wednesday. During Thursday’s 10-minute media viewing window of practice, Miles moved and cut with no noticeable limp. The black ankle brace she wore Sunday was absent Friday.
“She feels really good,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said.
Could Miles push her minutes past 30 on Friday against a TCU team that beat Notre Dame in November?
“I hope so,” she said.
If it were up to Miles, she’d go more. Do more. She knows time is running short on whatever remains of her collegiate career. Miles has an additional year of eligibility, but she’s likely not using it. She is projected as a top five pick in the April 14 WNBA draft.
As for those three words that Miles has so often heard this week, she’d like to replace them with three others Friday afternoon.
How’s that win?
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: March Madness goes to another level this weekend with Sweet 16 matchups
Continue reading...
TCU Redeux: When does Notre Dame women's basketball play next in NCAA tournament? Sweet 16 preview, prediction
Be it back on campus or points south for the second weekend of the NCAA Women’s Tournament, she knows they’re coming. There’s too much interest in her health and in Friday’s Sweet 16 matchup (1 p.m., South Bend time, ABC) between No. 3 Notre Dame (28-5) and No. 2 TCU (33-3) for someone not to inquire.
Noie: What a Notre Dame women's basketball walk-on did to draw the day's biggest ovation
Here they come again. That question. Those three words.
How’s the ankle?
That would be the left ankle that Miles sprained in the fourth quarter of a victory over Stephen F. Austin on March 21 in an NCAA Tournament opener. Miles hobbled off the Purcell Pavilion court and into a strenuous around-the-clock rehabilitation regimen that got her back on the floor Sunday against Michigan.
Miles played 27 minutes. Miles made plays that day (eight points, four rebounds, five assists), a day that she guessed her ankle was about 45% healthy while all sorts of shades of black and blue and purple and red.
She felt “not great” Monday morning.
“It comes with it,” Miles said. “Now is the time. With this group, I want to do something special.”
How about at the end of the week as Sweet 16 game time neared?
“It’s good,” Miles said Thursday morning in a corner of a Legacy Arena locker room. “It’s gotten a lot better. I haven’t played a game, so I’m going to say about 75 percent. That could change (Friday). I’m doing better.”
How it feels or how it might hinder her matters little to Miles. Every game might be Notre Dame’s last game. Her last game.
“It’s everything,” she said. “I can’t not play. If it was December, I’d be like, ‘Yeah, let me take some time off.’ I can’t do that. I refuse not to play.”
Miles took Monday and Tuesday off and practiced Wednesday. During Thursday’s 10-minute media viewing window of practice, Miles moved and cut with no noticeable limp. The black ankle brace she wore Sunday was absent Friday.
“She feels really good,” Irish coach Niele Ivey said.
Could Miles push her minutes past 30 on Friday against a TCU team that beat Notre Dame in November?
“I hope so,” she said.
If it were up to Miles, she’d go more. Do more. She knows time is running short on whatever remains of her collegiate career. Miles has an additional year of eligibility, but she’s likely not using it. She is projected as a top five pick in the April 14 WNBA draft.
As for those three words that Miles has so often heard this week, she’d like to replace them with three others Friday afternoon.
How’s that win?
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: March Madness goes to another level this weekend with Sweet 16 matchups
Continue reading...
