Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles will forgo the WNBA draft and enter the transfer portal, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Monday.
Miles, the projected No. 2 pick, had said she was undecided about entering the draft. Many players have returned to school for their final year of eligibility, but it’s not common for a player to come back to college and enter the portal.
“It just changes every day. I love college. I think I’ve outgrown it a little bit, though, so that makes my decision tougher to stay. It’s comfortable, a place where you have security,” Miles said after Notre Dame’s Sweet 16 loss Saturday.
“The W … the volatility is up and down. So I don’t know. I’m deciding between a bunch of factors.”
Miles is eligible for the draft because she has been in college for four seasons and is 22. She has a year of eligibility remaining because she sat out 2023-24 after injuring her knee at the end of the 2022-23 regular season.
The junior guard returned to start all 34 games this season and averaged a career-high 15.4 points on 48.3% shooting. Her 3-point shooting went from 22.8% last season to 40.6% this season.
After her final home game in South Bend, Indiana, in the round of 32, Miles thanked the fans for their support — a signal that her time at Notre Dame could be over.
Miles and teammates Hannah Hidalgo and Sonia Citron were widely considered one of the best backcourts in college this season. They led the Irish to the No. 1 spot in the AP poll for the first time since 2019 after handing UCLA its first loss of the season.
But toward the end of the season, Notre Dame struggled, dropping two of its last three regular-season games. The Irish were the No. 2 seed in the ACC tournament but were ousted in the second round. Notre Dame earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.
The Irish hoped for a deep run but lost in the Sweet 16 to TCU, which had never reached the Elite Eight.
After Notre Dame’s 71-62 loss to TCU, Miles said the thought of joining the WNBA in a few months was daunting and that having an offseason would be nice after suffering an ankle injury during the Sweet 16 game. But she added that passing up the opportunity to be a lottery pick was “a lot to give up.”
But now, she will look for a new start elsewhere.
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