Next month might be too soon for Olivia Miles to return for Notre Dame women's basketball

SOUTH BEND - Happiness for Notre Dame women's basketball junior point guard Olivia Miles has long been a 94-foot stretch of hardwood where she can be her.

Put her at midcourt with a basketball and options on either side and let her flow. She might offer a hesitation dribble here or an around the back dribble there. She might fake a pass left, then look right. She might keep it herself and pull up for another mid-range jumper or race all the way to the rim and finish with such a flourish that everyone around wonders how she did that.

The basketball court has long been home for the 5-foot-10 Miles. Her sanctuary. Her place of peace when she wanted it. Needed it.

Fast forward: Notre Dame women's basketball ready to fly

That’s why it was hard last week to watch Miles watch her teammates do defensive drills at one end of Purcell Pavilion. She stood alone at center court with a blue zip-up hoodie on, hands clasped behind her back, watching and likely dreaming of the day when she again can practice, again can be all in with the game she loves.

Instead, Miles and basketball are just friends.

On guard: One team had Olivia Miles, and the other didn't

When they again might get serious, no one can say. Or will say. It's likely not going to follow the quicken-the-pulse timeline Miles floated last week. She said that her best-case scenario is playing the season opener against powerhouse South Carolina in Paris.

That’s next month. That’s not going to happen.

Miles doing more than shopping in Paris barely eight months removed from suffering a significant right knee injury — more on that in a minute — is akin to Notre Dame football playing for a national championship this season or Notre Dame men’s basketball getting to the 2024 Final Four.

Best case? Sure. Realistic case? No. Minutes before offering the season opener as a return date, Miles tiptoed into her timeline as gingerly as she still walks/jogs/jumps with that right leg. She sometimes looks as if she’s dragging it along. Let’s go already.

“The goal is to play this season, but I’m not going to rush it,” Miles said. “I have years in this game that I want to produce and be able to do it healthy, so hopefully, I’m going to take my time.”

Reading between those lines — and there’s been much of that since Miles crumpled along the baseline of KFC Yum! Center late in the first half of the 2022-23 season finale against Louisville last March — you get the sense that Miles hopes to play this season.

Maybe.

She might be healthy enough to try by January or February. Maybe she’s cleared to practice sooner than later, but looks only a shadow of her former confident, attacking, free-wheeling self. There’s hesitation. There’s self-doubt. Head coach Niele Ivey might meet with Miles and the medical staff down the road and decide its best to play the long game through a long season.

Might Miles sit until 2024-25? Maybe.

“It’s more of an individual healing process,” Ivey said. “If she’s back, whatever time frame that is, I’m prepared for that and if she’s not, then I’ll prepare for that as well.”

How serious the injury is murky. Miles still won’t say the extent of it when asked. Won’t even say the words anterior cruciate ligament. Maybe it is a torn ACL. Maybe it’s more.

Maybe.

Miles didn’t wade into those weeds. If she did, it would make it too real. Too raw. Maybe if she did, it would underscore the seriousness of it all and how steep the climb really is to get back.

“It was a pretty major injury,” she said. “It wasn’t anything really, really serious but it was a pretty big injury.”

Listening to Miles and Ivey, you get the sense that at the least, it was an ACL tear. Miles offered that she’s talked with former Irish players Natalie Achonwa and Devereaux Peters, both of whom suffered ACL injuries in college. Ivey talked about her rehabilitation and recovery and return from a pair of ACL injuries as a player. She also highlighted Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray and his return from an ACL as an example for Miles.

Was the Murray reference a coincidence? Maybe. It took Murray 18 months to return.

Whatever the physical hurdles, it’s been a struggle mentally for Miles. For so long, she was defined by what she could do with the ball on the court. As the point guard. As the focal point. Handling being hurt has allowed Miles to figure out who she is. On the court, and off. Thus, the new hair style and a willingness to be more of a vocal leader for someone who’s long been painfully polite.

Rehab’s been easy. It’s been the quiet hours away from rehab that’s been a challenge to identify her identity without basketball. Every injured player deals with that.

“Whether you’re progressing day by day, you’re still stuck in this, ‘I want to be there. I want to do this’ sort of thing,” Miles said. “Mentally, it’s harder to just be OK where you’re at and just to watch everything happen and absorb it.”

If offered the opportunity, Miles insisted that she’s ready to cut it all loose right now. Get back on the court and run and jump and be the player she believes she again can be. Play with that passion and that poise and that purpose.

She tells herself “a thousand times a day” she’s going to be even better once she’s back. Everything feels so close, but it’s also all still so far away. Dealing with what she’s had to deal with has allowed Miles to gain a new perspective about the game, about herself, about life.

It’s a perspective you don’t own when you’re not hurt.

“As basketball players, we put our worth into only being a player and we kind of forget that we’re humans that love and care and also have humans who love and care about us,” Miles said. “I’m learning to love different parts of myself.”

Miles may play this season. Miles may not play this season. If that’s the case, college basketball is poorer for it. The game needs her just as much as she needs the game. The game’s been good to Miles and Miles has been good to the game.

Maybe we see her this season. Maybe we don’t.

Maybe. That’s life.

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Women's college basketball needs players like Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles