SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After No. 3 TCU defeated No. 10 Virginia 79-69 to achieve the Elite Eight, guard Olivia Miles stated coming to TCU allowed her to seek out her “joy back” and “love basketball again.”
Miles, who transferred from Notre Dame after the 2025 season and opted to forgo the 2025 WNBA draft, stated Saturday’s victory represented not simply her happiness for advancing past the Sweet 16, but it surely additionally confirmed that she made the best resolution to hitch the Horned Frogs.
“I’m so happy about that,” she stated. “But no, that’s just another bonus as to what I wanted to do here. I feel the people around me have helped me to love basketball again and compete at a high level and hold people accountable and challenge people and be vulnerable with people that I know love me, support me and care for me.”
Miles added that the help she feels from the TCU program has “helped me with my own confidence, so that’s all I could ask for.”
In Saturday evening’s win, Miles recorded 28 factors, 10 rebounds and eight assists, falling shy of changing into the primary lady in Division I historical past with three profession NCAA match triple-doubles. Miles has 12 triple-doubles for her profession, the third most in Division I historical past, trailing solely Sabrina Ionescu (26) and Caitlin Clark (17).
Miles signed with the Horned Frogs as a switch in April 2025. She had been a projected lottery choose within the 2025 WNBA draft, however after receiving an additional 12 months of eligibility because of sitting out the 2023-24 season due to an ACL harm, Miles opted to complete her profession at TCU.
She began 34 video games and averaged a career-high 15.4 factors on 48.3% capturing as a junior at Notre Dame. During her time there, she helped the Irish grow to be the top-ranked crew within the AP ballot earlier than Notre Dame fell aside within the semifinals of the ACC match in opposition to Duke and misplaced within the Sweet 16 to TCU.
Horned Frogs coach Mark Campbell, who’s in his third 12 months in Fort Worth, stated he has been intentional about how he builds his roster and depends on the switch portal to acquire standout gamers reminiscent of Miles.
“I think it’s really hard in today’s landscape of college athletics because of the portal, because of NIL and all the variables. We try really hard to create an environment where young people can blossom and flourish and enjoy the game of basketball,” Campbell stated. “We try to be very intentional with that.”
This season, 10 members of TCU’s roster are transfers, together with Miles. After taking on, Campbell rapidly turned a forgotten Big 12 program into an NCAA match contender.
“We’ve built our program literally all through the portal,” Campbell stated. “I think we’ve had 18 portal players, six each year. And our program’s come a long ways. There’s a lot of negative you hear about the portal. I think there’s a lot of positive too.”
He added, “It’s great to win at a high level, but if you can enjoy the journey and win at a high level, then it’s really special.”
Against Virginia, Miles and teammate Marta Suarez scored or assisted on all 79 factors for the Horned Frogs. At the beginning of the second half, TCU went on a 17-4 run to take management of the sport. Virginia’s protection could not get well in opposition to Miles and Suarez, in the end resulting in the Cavaliers’ defeat.
“Olivia Miles, she’s a triple-double-type kid,” Virginia coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton stated. “She’s really hard to guard. They put her in ball screens, multiple ball screens, sometimes in possession. … She just got away from us. But she’s a phenomenal player. I don’t know if you really stop her. We were just trying to limit some of the things she wanted to do.”
The Horned Frogs’ run to the Elite Eight final 12 months was the deepest in program historical past. TCU will tackle South Carolina within the Elite Eight on Monday evening.
