Olivia Miles, a two-time AP All-American with Notre Dame who was projected to be the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, sent shockwaves through women’s basketball when she decided to forgo going pro and enter the college basketball transfer portal.
After roughly a week of being recruited by various programs, Miles decided Tuesday to transfer to TCU {Texas Christian University) and conclude her college career with the Horned Frogs.
Miles averaged 15.4 points, 5.8 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals in the 2024-25 season, in which she was named a second-team All-American. She led the ACC in assists per game for the third time, and she was also named All-ACC First-Team for the third time in her career. Only Paige Bueckers of the NCAA champion UConn Huskies was projected to be selected before Miles in next week’s WNBA Draft, so the Horned Frogs are ecstatic that she decided to take her talents to Forth Worth, Texas, instead of the WNBA.
Campbell and TCU know firsthand how gifted a player Miles is as her last game with the Fighting Irish, coincidentally, came against the Horned Frogs. TCU eliminated Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 of March Madness, marking the fourth straight year that the Fighting Irish were bounced in the Sweet 16. Miles score 10 points with three assists, two rebounds and a steal in the defeat, and it didn’t take her long to realize that her Notre Dame tenure was over.
Two days after that loss on March 29, Miles entered the college basketball transfer portal. Perhaps that defeat to Texas Christian left a lasting impression as Miles will attempt to have an ending to her amateur career similar to Hailey Van Lith’s. Van Lith transferred to TCU last offseason and experienced immediate success. She was named Big 12 Player of the Year, led TCU to its first-ever Elite Eight, and, like Miles, was named an AP All-American.
Van Lith was also the leading scorer in that Sweet 16 win over Miles and Notre Dame, dropping 26 points to go along with nine rebounds and four assists.
The 2025-26 college basketball season will be Miles’s final year of eligibility and her sixth year in college. She’s played in four of her previous five years as she sat out the entire 2023-24 season after tearing her ACL very late in the previous season. She was also a Second-Team All-American in the 2022-23 season after a stellar first full season on campus in South Bend, Ind. During her freshman year in 2021-22, Miles became the first freshman, male or female, in NCAA Tournament history to record a triple-double when she had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a first-round win over UMass.
Miles was an early enrollee at Notre Dame who joined the program during the 2020-21 season. She graduated high school in December 2020, turned 18 on Jan. 29, 2021, and made her college debut two days later. She would play six games for the Irish that season, which did not count toward her college eligibility as it was the pandemic-affected season, for which impacted student-athletes were extended a year of eligibility. She already attained her bachelor’s degree at Notre Dame and is on track to earn her master’s degree this spring.
Expectations will be a bit lower for Miles at TCU than at Notre Dame, as the latter boasts nine Final Four appearances and two national championships. TCU has never reached a Final Four, and last season was the first in 15 years that the Horned Frogs even made the NCAA Tournament. Also, including Van Lith, the team is losing its top four scorers from last season, as they are all out of eligibility.
Miles isn’t the only player in the transfer portal whom TCU went after. The school also signed Taliyah Parker, formerly of Texas A&M. The native Texan stays in-state after averaging 5.4 points in a reserve role with the Aggies a year ago. Unlike Miles, Parker has three years of eligibility remaining.
As for Notre Dame, it brings back star Hannah Hidalgo, who is not only a two-time First-Team All-American but is also a two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year. However, there are few other Irish players returning. Due to transfers and expiring eligibility, Notre Dame is losing six of its top eight players, in terms of both points scored and minutes played, from its 2024-25 roster.
