How a knee injury made Olivia Miles a better 3-point shooter and turned Notre Dame into a contender

Olivia Miles says that she sees the game of basketball as art.

A self-taught hooping wizard with a wicked handle, the Notre Dame point guard has said that she learned all her highlight-worthy dribble moves on her own, experimenting in games, practices and after-hours, testing her skills and pushing her potential. In her first few seasons playing for the Fighting Irish, that’s what caught everyone’s attention: Miles’ combination of fearlessness, creativity and precision when it came to making plays for herself and others. Her elusiveness helped her lead Notre Dame in scoring as a freshman and sophomore, and her vision placed her amongst the top six nationally in assists per game in each of those seasons where she also earned All-ACC nods.

If the game of basketball is art and the court is a canvas, then Miles’ go-to instrument for creating a pretty picture over the course of a contest was her passing ability, followed closely by her knack for getting to the rim with ease.

“She’s extremely flashy. She has great ball handling skills. Her change of pace is phenomenal,” Miles’ backcourt mate Hannah Hidalgo said. “And I think the most impressive thing is — we all know it’s her passing ability. I mean, the way that she’s able to see what nobody else sees. She’s able to get the ball through certain tight spaces and it’s extremely impressive.”

But after an unfortunate injury in the regular season finale of her All-American sophomore campaign, Miles’ collegiate career was put on pause. Her right ACL required surgery to repair and kept her on the bench for all of what would have been her natural junior season, where she likely would have contended for ACC Player of the Year and a second All-American honor. She watched from the sidelines as her teammates captured an ACC Tournament title and advanced to the Sweet 16.

Instead of simply trying to get back to the player she used to be before tearing up her knee, Miles somehow got even better. She’s still an exceptional passer, and she’s recaptured the speed and agility that allows her to carve up defenses and get to the rim almost whenever she wants to, but she has added a new wrinkle to her game as well.

Before, Miles may have approached the canvas of a game with sharp pencils and colorful crayons. Now, after that brutal knee injury, she also brings a paint brush that she uses to illustrate dozens of high-arching rainbows from behind the arc and into the basket.

Simply put, Miles has turned herself into one of the best 3-point shooters in the country. And now, she doesn’t just look like a great ACC player, but one capable of leading Notre Dame back to the national championship and someone who will likely have a long career in the WNBA.

As a freshman and sophomore, Miles shot 27 and 22.8 percent from 3-point land, respectively. On scouting reports, opposing coaches would tell their players to not worry about closing out on the 5-foot-10 guard from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, because she couldn’t make those shots with any semblance of consistency. Fast forward to this season and Miles is shooting 44 percent from deep — good enough for 55th best nationally and fifth best in the ACC, as she’s knocking down 2.4 3-pointers per game.

According to ESPN, no player who played last season has improved their 3-point shooting percentage more than the jump Miles has made from the 2022-23 season to now.

“She’s elite. She’s been playing at a high level,” Irish head coach Niele Ivey said of Miles.

The way Miles tells it, she didn’t lock herself in the gym to transform into a better 3-point shooter. It was her injury, and how it forced her to view the game through a different lens, that gave her a different perspective and changed her approach when it came to attempting deep shots.

“I feel like I didn’t work on anything, really. It was really, just truthfully, my confidence,” Miles said. “I felt like, before I got hurt, I was just thinking too much when I shot the ball, worried about teams going under me, I was just in my head. I feel like, it’s hard to explain, but being injured, you look at things so differently. Not everything matters. If you miss a 3, it doesn’t matter.”

Miles’ shot is sharper and her memory is worse. She doesn’t think about those shots that don’t find the bottom of the net. She doesn’t reflect on the balls that bounce off the backboard or ricochet off the rim. She just moves on to the next play.

“You know, I used to hang onto those misses so much, and it would make me miss more,” Miles said. “So now I have the mindset of, just let it fly. I’ve put the time in and I put the work in, and, you know, it’s showing on the court.”

Indeed it is. For the newly minted No. 1 team in the country in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll, Miles is averaging a career-best 16.7 points per game along with 6.2 assists per game, which ranks eighth nationally. Paired with fellow ultra-talented guards in Hidalgo and Sonia Citron, one could easily make the case that Notre Dame has the best backcourt in the country. And with a stable of post players ranging in size, skill and versatility, the Irish just might have the right combination of talent and depth that can take them to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida.

Notre Dame leads the nation in 3-point shooting at a 42 percent clip, they’re fifth in defensive rating and fifth in rebounding.

“Oh, gosh, their team is way better than last year,” North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart said of the Irish.

Mitchell Northam, SB Nation

By almost any metric, Banghart’s Tar Heels are one of the top defensive teams in the country this season. North Carolina is 23-4 overall, 11-3 in the ACC and ranked ninth in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. They rank inside the top 25 nationally in field goal percentage defense (35.6) and points (55.7) allowed per game. According to HerHoopStats, UNC is 10th in defensive rating (75.6), 11th in opponent’s points per 100 possessions (78.3), 11th in points allowed per play (0.68), 10th in points allowed per scoring attempt (0.87) and 11th in effective field goal shooting percentage allowed (40.3). In short, if the Tar Heels have a true identity this season, defense is it.

And still, with Miles leading the way, Notre Dame lit them up, winning by 10 points in Chapel Hill’s Carmichael Arena on Jan. 5. The Irish shot 61.9 percent from behind the arc, which is their second-best single-game mark of the season and best against a major conference opponent. Miles knocked down five of Notre Dame’s 13 3-pointers in that game, setting what was then a career-high for her. She shattered that mark a few weeks later by knocking down eight shots from deep range in a Feb. 13 thrashing of Pitt, where the Irish won on the road by 31 points behind 28 from Miles.

“When you’re out injured, you get a lot of chances to work on stationary things. Shooting, for her, is what she had time and her body allowed her to do,” Banghart said of Miles. “It’s added a great dimension to her game. It’ll help her move up the draft board, for sure.”

In her team’s loss to Notre Dame, Banghart was able to see a bit of a silver lining.

“That’s a great team that we played against and they had to play great to beat us, and that’s our goal,” Banghart said. “If the other team has to shoot 62 percent on 13 made 3s to beat us, you know, then we look forward to the next time, right?”

But that speaks to just how good this Notre Dame team is. The Irish turned the ball over 20 times and still won comfortably. Even one of the top defensive teams in the country, playing on their home floor, couldn’t contain the combination of Miles and Hidalgo and keep the game within the margin of single digits. And Miles’ 3-point shooting was a big reason why. The Tar Heels simply didn’t have an answer for her.

“They’re not just dribbling it down and shooting it. They get their 3s because of how you have to handle the ball screen, and if you don’t handle the ball screen, then you’re giving up layups,” Banghart said. “Any shooter wants to see the ball go in the basket, and so, you really want to take away layups and force them.”

Mitchell Northam, SB Nation

The Tar Heels should take some solace in the fact they aren’t the only ones to be torched by Miles and Notre Dame this year. Yes, the Irish did lose two games in November in the Cayman Islands to TCU and Utah, while rotation regulars and all-conference post players Maddy Westbeld and Liza Karlen were sidelined with injuries. But in the continental United States this season, the Irish are undefeated. And when they’ve been completely healthy, they’ve looked unbeatable.

Consider that Notre Dame’s smallest margin of victory this season is nine points — meaning that its other 22 wins have come by double figures. And consider that Notre Dame is the only team this season with victories over fellow contenders Texas, USC and UConn. Toss in wins over ACC powers North Carolina and Duke – and the fact that two of those five wins against top-tier teams were true road games – and one could make the case that Notre Dame has the strongest resume in the country.

And while Hidalgo has been excellent, a lock for a First Team All-American spot as she’s third in the nation in both scoring and steals, Miles deserves a large share of the credit for helping Notre Dame turn into a team that looks very much capable of capturing a second straight ACC Tournament crown and returning to the national semifinals for the first time since 2019.

“For anyone that knows ACL (injuries), your quad completely shuts down. It’s tough… The rehab process was very rigorous. You can’t really skip any levels. I could barely run full speed,” Miles said. “Now, I feel better than I’ve ever felt.”

Throughout this season for Notre Dame, it’s not hard to find Miles laughing, talking trash or grinning wide on the court. In that win against North Carolina in Chapel Hill, as she tossed no-look passes and drained 3-pointers over Indya Nivar and Lexi Donarski, she was giggling, bumping chests with Hidalgo and throwing three fingers across her face in celebration.

“It’s all credit to my injury. That was the most difficult thing I’ve ever gone through,” Miles said. “Just being on the court, I have no choice but to smile and play with joy, especially with the guards I get to play with. Hannah is the best in the country and Sonia as well. I just play with such great players that also play with joy, so it’s hard not to.”

It’s easy to smile for the folks watching Miles too. She’s playing at an incredibly high level, having a whole lot of fun doing it, and not taking a single moment for granted.