Olivia Miles

Olivia Miles (born January 29, 2003) is an American college basketball player for the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in NCAA Division I. She attended Blair Academy in Warren County, New Jersey, where she she made the All-Mid-Atlantic Prep League and all-state first teams for three successive years and the MaxPreps All-America third team in 2020. Miles was ranked number eight overall and the number two point guard by ESPNW in the class of 2020. Internationally, she was a member of the United States under-16 team in 2018-2019 and assisted in winning the 2019 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship.
== Early life ==
Miles was born on January 29, 2003 in Summit, New Jersey, to Maria and Yakubu Miles and has a brother, Isaiah and was raised in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
== High school career ==
Olivia Miles had been playing soccer "since she could walk" and started basketball in the fourth grade; consequently, she was a successful athlete at both soccer and basketball while at high school. She played soccer in the autumn and eschewed basketball except for a weekly gym session and then reverted back to basketball when the soccer season ended in November. She thought that as well as being enjoyable, the mix of sports helped her athletic ability. Blair Academy head girls' varsity coach Quinten Clarke said of Miles that "Olivia is a strong student, an electrifying and unselfish basketball player, and, more importantly, a humble and compassionate person who adds a great deal to the Blair community"
Her first season saw Blair Academy achieve success as runners-up in the Prep A State Championship and winning the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL), after winning all their regular season games, in a 77-39 victory over Peddie school with Miles netting 14 points. The following season saw the team move closer to state success and only narrowly lost out in the final to Pennington in a 72-68 loss with Miles contributing 24 points. The MAPL tournament was however won again in a 76-47 victory against Lawrenceville in which Miles turned in three 3-pointers in her 11 points.
Miles averaged 13.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.6 assists for Blair Academy in 2020 while leading them to a Prep A championship 76-52 win over the Hun School as well as netting 21 points in another MAPL victory.
Her progress and success over the years resulted in recognition across basketball:
* 2020 MaxPreps All-America third team.
* 2019 USA Today All-State second team.
* 2018, 2019 and 2020 all-state first team.
* 2018, 2019 and 2020 All-Mid Atlantic Prep League first team.
=== Recruiting ===
With the COVID-19 pandemic bringing an early end to the 2020-21 high school basketball season, Miles contacted soon-to-be coach Niele Ivey to arrange an early start at her chosen college, Notre Dame, By that stage, she was ranked as the number 1 and 2 point guard and number 4 and 8 overall player overall in the high school Class of 2021 Prospects Nation and ESPN respectively. She was the first signing of new coach Niele Ivey and had been pursued by a number of colleges and, in particular had narrowed down a shortlist of Notre Dame, UConn, North Carolina, Oregon, Princeton and Stanford but had opted for Notre Dame because she said it had a strong academic program as well as the basketball. 
== College career ==
==== Freshman year ====
Notre Dame had a transition season in 2020-21 with a 10-10 regular season record and did not qualify for the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament through losing in the AAC Tournament semi-finals. Miles scored four points and three steals in fourteen minutes in her first match on January 31st at Syracuse but was in double figures for scoring in each of the subsequent five matches before the season ended. Six and eight assists in her last two matches and eight rebounds in the match against Florida State Seminoles women's basketball hinted at the court vision and unselfishness distribution that was commented on in her play in the 2021-22 season. She retained her freshman status going into the following season but was denied the opportunity to win any of the freshman weekly awards.
Miles led the team to the sweet sixteen of the 2022 NCAA finals and in the process set a new record for points scored in a match, 108 against Oklahoma and became the first freshman in the history of the NCAA to score a triple double (12 points, 11 assists, 11 rebounds) in their first round match against UMass. She dominated the sweet sixteen match itself posting 21 points and led until the last fourteen seconds when a steal and score gave NC State a 66-63 victory; only one other Notre Dame player was in double figures in that match. Her all-round assist game was quoted as limiting her personal scoring numbers in her freshman season to 13.5 points, 7.4 assists and 5.7 rebounds but she still showed herself capable of dominating the scoring charts with a 30 point game against Boston College Eagles women's basketball and a 24 point game against Virginia Tech. Her overall showing won her entry in the first-team All-ACC team from the Blue Ribbon Panel and the conference’s coaches. It was widely considered that she would have won the "freshman of the year" title had it not been for her ineligibility due to the six games at the end of the 2020-21 season. Coach Niele Ivey described her as the "best point guard in the country" and actual "ACC freshman of the year" winner, team mate Sonia Citron, commented that "She would definitely deserve this honour. She’s been doing an amazing job leading our team as a freshman."
== National team career ==
Miles's performances in her high school fresher year led her to be invited to the USA under-16 national trials. Miles was chosen, out of the 146 invited trialists at U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, to be part of the 12-strong squad that participated in the 2019 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship.The event in Puerto Aysen, Chile was won by Miles, Notre Dame teammate Sonia Citroen and the rest of the USA team where Miles started in all six games, averaged 5.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game to help the USA to a 6-0 record.
== Statistics ==
=== Blair high school ===
Season 	2PT	3PT	FT 	PTS 	REB	AST	BLK	STL	GP
2017-2018 	76 	33 	39 	290 	9 	5 	4 	4 	26
2018-2019 	118	60 	63 	479 	13 	8 	2 	3 	28
2019-2020 	109	51 	41 	409 	19 	20 	0 	6 	30
Career Totals:	303	144	143	1,178	41 	33 	6 	13 	84
=== 2019 FIBA Americas under-16 tournament ===
2019 FIBA Americas under-16 tournament|2019	United States women's national under-17 basketball team|USA under 16 national team	6	6	18.8	.424	.182	.5	2.2	7.5	1.5	.016	1.5	5.2
=== College ===
2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball season|2020–21	2020–21 Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's basketball team|Notre Dame	6 	0 	22.7	.511	.1 	.467	3.7	3.5	1.2	.2	3 	9.3
2021–22 	Notre Dame 	33	33	33.3	.455	.27	.677	5.7	7.4	1.8	.2	3.8	13.7
Category:2003 births
Category:American people
Category:American basketball players