Tag: Olivia Miles

Three Notre Dame players projected as 2025 WNBA first-round picks

You’ll definitely want to watch these players for the Irish next season.

The dust barely has cleared on the 2024 WNBA draft. But that hasn’t stopped people from looking ahead to the 2025 draft. And if you do that as a Notre Dame fan, you’ll realize why next season likely will be the best chance yet for the current group to go far.

Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic has put together a list of who she believes will make up the first round of next year’s WNBA draft. Merchant figures three current Notre Dame players will be taken in that round, beginning with [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] at No. 3:

“It’s hard to design a more prototypically perfect 2-guard than Citron. She is tall and strong, defends well and has a beautiful jumper that goes in 37 percent of the time from long range. Citron is overtaxed as a primary ballhandler, but let her run off screens or handoffs, and she can create her own shot. She is plug-and-play on any team, adding positive value on both ends of the floor.”

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag], who announced her return to the Irish for next season earlier this week, also made the list as the sixth overall pick:

“Another player who could have been a first-rounder in this year’s draft, Westbeld does everything well. She can shoot from distance (36 percent on 3s in her college career), and she also can drive to the basket. Westbeld is a load in the paint and dominates on the glass. She can body bigger players on defense; her effort to limit (Elizabeth) Kitley to 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting during the 2024 ACC season was an eye-opener. It’s unclear if she has All-Star upside, but Westbeld is the type of player winning teams find minutes for.”

[autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] rounds out this list at No. 8, but she has an asterisk next to her name since she still has a medical redshirt year:

“It’s been a long time since we watched Miles play basketball, so in case you forgot, she’s an elite passer who excels at creating offense in transition. She rebounds well for her position and is a defensive playmaker with 2.1 steals per game. The 3-point jumper was a work in progress during her sophomore season, but she started to fill it up from midrange at least. Without the jumper, she’d be a solid backup point guard in the WNBA, but she has a chance to be even more if that developed during her rehab year.”

So yeah, the 2024-25 Irish are going to be special. Get excited for it now because there’s no time like the present, but more importantly, all of these special players will be off to greener pastures before you know it.

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Sonia Citron, Maddy Westbeld talk day before Notre Dame starts tourney

Everyone has been talking about Notre Dame All-American freshman guard Hannah Hidalgo. But every great basketball player needs a supporting cast in order to succeed on the team level. For Hidalgo, no supporting cast members have been greater this …

Everyone has been talking about Notre Dame All-American freshman guard [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag]. But every great basketball player needs a supporting cast in order to succeed on the team level. For Hidalgo, no supporting cast members have been greater this season than [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag].

Both players made Second Team All-ACC and First Team All-ACC Tournament. Someone need to step up in the absence of [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], and they’ve done just that and then some. More importantly, they’ve provided the veteran leadership needed for the Irish to excel, especially as the roster continued to be ravaged by injuries. Both of them were injured themselves at various points this season, but they’re fully healthy now.

All this and more are why they were selected to meet the media the day before the Irish opened the NCAA Tournament against Kent State. Here is some of what they had to say:

Notre Dame’s Kylee Watson will miss NCAA Tournament with torn ACL

Tough news.

When Notre Dame’s [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag] went down with a knee injury during the Irish’s ACC Tournament semifinal win, many feared the worst. Those fears turned out to be true as Watson posted on Instagram that she tore her ACL and will not be able to play in this year’s NCAA Tournament:

https://www.instagram.com/kylee.watsonn/p/C4op-y6sq9G/?hl=en

This obviously casts a shadow over the Irish earning a No. 2 seed in this year’s tournament. There also will be questions moving forward about her availability for next season as All-American guard [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] has missed all of this season with a knee injury. A medical redshirt figures to be a possibility much like it happened with Miles this past season.

Watson has started every game for the Irish since transferring from Oregon before the 2022-23 season. This year, she averaged 6.2 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.4 blocks a game. Needless to say, the Irish will miss her presence down low.

The loss of Watson also stretches the depth of an Irish roster hit hard already by injuries even further. Questions linger about how far they’ll be able to go this March Madness with so few players available. They got through the ACC Tournament all right, but they’ll facing teams now that might not be so forgiving with every game being an elimination game from here on. But they play the games for a reason, and we’ll see if the Irish can make some magic again.

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Notre Dame projected as No. 4 seed or better in all bracketologies

The Irish might not be done playing at home yet this year.

In beating both Virginia Tech and Louisville last week, Notre Dame did what it needed to do to move up bracketologists’ projections. Every available bracketology now projects the Irish to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. ESPN, CBS Sports and Her Hoop Stats all have the Irish as a No. 4 seed in their latest updates. College Sports Madness projects them as a No. 3.

Connor Groel, the women’s bracketologist for CBS Sports, wrote the following about the Irish in his latest update:

“It’s been a terrific close to the season from Notre Dame, who now have a chance to perhaps even jump to a No. 3 seed, equaling last season’s result despite [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] having missed the entire year. [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] exceeded all expectations and was named both ACC Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year while [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] is playing some of her best basketball as of late.”

With the Irish one of the four ACC Tournament semifinalists, they have another chance to make their case. Hopefully, they won’t need to with the case possibly already having been made.

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Niele Ivey confirms Olivia Miles’ Notre Dame return for 2024-25 season

Any rumors about transferring can be squashed.

With [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] having taken this season by storm the way few others have, it’s safe to call her the face of Notre Dame. For the previous two years, it was [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], who has missed this entire season with a knee injury. With Hidalgo and Miles playing the same position, questions arose about whether Miles would stick with the Irish.

Miles’ future in South Bend no longer is in doubt. Speaking ahead of the Irish’s trip to the ACC Tournament, [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] announced that Miles had given her permission to publicly relay that she will return to the Irish for the 2024-25 season. That means Irish fans will see their dream backcourt of Miles and Hidalgo come to pass.

In her first two full seasons, Miles made the All-ACC First Team and led the conference in assists both times. She also was a Second Team All-American in 2023 and had three triple-doubles. One of those was the first for a freshman, men or women, in the NCAA Tournament. That came in the Irish’s 2022 first-round victory over UMass (12 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists).

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Notre Dame 2024 signee named Naismith Second Team All-American

Another top talent on the way to Notre Dame is honored.

Hannah Hidalgo has set a high bar for future Notre Dame freshmen. That doesn’t mean future first-year players won’t try to top her though. One player who could do it during the 2024-25 season is [autotag]Kate Koval[/autotag].

Koval is a five-star player at Long Island Lutheran in Brookeville, New York who signed with the Irish in December. Now, she’s been named to the Naismith Trophy Girls’ High School All America Second Team.

Hidalgo made the Second Team in 2023, and [autotag]Emma Risch[/autotag] was an honorable mention. [autotag]KK Bransford[/autotag] was a Third Team honoree in 2022 and an honorable mention in 2021. [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] made the Third Team in 2020, and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] and [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag] were senior honorable mentions.

It’s evidence that even in the post-[autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag] era, Notre Dame continues to attract top talent for women’s basketball, and there’s no reason to think that will stop anytime soon. Even so, a strong postseason showing would do wonders to show just how attractive the program still is.

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Ivey, Hidalgo, Citron, Westbeld speak after Notre Dame win

Hear what the victors had to say about this game.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – There’s no doubt Notre Dame wants to have one or two more games at Purcell Pavilion this season. The Irish have been playing even better lately, most recently with their 74-58 win over Louisville. It all depends on what the NCAA Tournament selection committee thinks of its resume. We’ll save that discussion for another day though.

The discussion right now is this latest victory, which [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] was happy to talk about afterwards. After a win like that though, it wasn’t enough to bring in the usual one or two players. She brought in her three best, and they all deserved it.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] did her usual thing with 26 points, eight rebounds, four assists and six steals. [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] scored 17 points, and [autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] had a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Fighting Irish Wire was on hand during this postgame news conference, and here is some of what was said:

Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles officially ruled out for the season

What we hoped wasn’t true has been realized.

Saturday began with the hope that injured Notre Dame All-American guard [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] would play this season. Before the Irish’s 82-67 upset of UConn, Miles was spotted taking shots on the court. There even was speculation that she would play in this game, but she soon changed back into the bench garb she’s worn all season.

While the game still was going on, the Fox announcing team of Gus Johnson and Stephanie White casually let it slip on the air that Miles had told them she wouldn’t play at all this season. This fueled speculation about how true that was. Although [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] didn’t confirm it in her postgame news conference, a Notre Dame official soon confirmed to several Irish beat reporters that the worst fears were in fact true:

This obviously puts a damper on a great night and is a tough blow for the player who was the face of the program until [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] started turning heads this year. The good news is Miles will have two years of eligibility remaining, so she and Hidalgo still will have time to be teammates on the court. Still, Irish fans can’t help but wonder how differently this season would have gone had she been able to play.

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Watch: Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles practices shooting before UConn game

A sliver of hope for seeing the Irish guard this season exists.

With all of the exciting surrounding [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] this season, it’s often easy to forget about [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag]. Notre Dame’s best player the previous couple of seasons, Miles hasn’t played since she was injured in the Irish’s regular-season finale last year. Since then, the Irish have been vague at best on updates about her, but it appears progress is being made.

Emily Adams of the Hartford Courant took video of Miles practicing her shot ahead the Irish’s much-anticipated game against UConn. Adams speculated that this might mean she would play against the Huskies:

The hope of Miles playing turned out to be short-lived. Soon after, Adams spotted Miles on the Irish’s bench having changed out of her basketball gear:

As the Irish get deeper into the season, each game obviously becomes more important. Having Miles back for the ACC Tournament and NCAA Tournament would be a huge boost. The question is how she’ll fit into a rotation that is used to playing without her by now. Hopefully, we’ll get an answer soon.

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Notre Dame’s Risch out for season; still no updates on Miles, Citron

Tough break for the freshman.

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag], who just won her sixth ACC Rookie of the Week award. That means it’s easy to forget that Notre Dame has another freshman guard. However, [autotag]Emma Risch[/autotag]’s season already is over.

Risch, who hasn’t played since Nov. 29 at Tennessee, has been sidelined for the season because of upcoming hip surgery according to [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag]. However, she is expected to retain her entire college eligibility:

Between Risch’s news and no updates on [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] or [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] either, it really raises the question on how much longer the Irish can survive having a shorthanded roster. The New Year’s Eve loss at Syracuse that began ACC play had to be a sobering experience for everybody, and one has to wonder if that game would have played out differently with a healthier group.

Risch’s season ends having averaged 4.6 points and 3.1 rebounds over seven games. Her best game was a 16-point, five-rebound outing Nov. 21 against Chicago State. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for her.

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