Olivia Miles surged to the top of WNBA mock drafts ahead of Monday’s draft after a dominant final college season at TCU vindicated her bold decision to leave Notre Dame a year earlier
Olivia Miles is atop multiple WNBA mock drafts(Image: Getty)
Olivia Miles made a bet on herself. After four years at Notre Dame, she had been one of college basketball’s most electric players but was often sharing the spotlight and the ball.
In 2025, she chose to forgo the WNBA draft, enter the transfer portal, and give herself one more year to become the unquestioned top prospect in the country. On Sunday, with ESPN’s latest mock draft projecting her as the No. 1 overall pick ahead of Monday’s draft, the verdict is in: it worked.
Miles transferred to TCU for her final college season and delivered in every measurable way. She averaged a career-high 19.6 points per game, led the nation in triple-doubles with six, and became the first NCAA player to average at least 19 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 1.5 steals in a single season. It comes after Miles saw her live ESPN interview interrupted during March Madness.
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She was named Big 12 Player of the Year and led the Horned Frogs to the conference’s regular-season title and the program’s first-ever Elite Eight appearance.
In the NCAA Tournament, she averaged 19 points, 9.8 rebounds and 9.0 assists. The decision to return for another season was not universally praised at the time. In the 2025 draft, Miles had been widely projected as a top-two pick, but Paige Bueckers was the consensus top selection, making Miles’ path to the No. 1 spot narrower than her talent deserved.
Rather than enter the draft as a certain high pick but not the clear-cut top choice, she chose to step away, step back, and step up.
Olivia Miles shockingly left Notre Dame, raising rumors of tension between her and Hannah Hidalgo(Image: Photo by Lance King/Getty Images)
A full season as TCU’s unambiguous centerpiece, freed from the Notre Dame system and from sharing duties with players like Hannah Hidalgo, gave evaluators exactly what they needed to see.
The timing also aligned neatly with a WNBA draft class that has shifted significantly. Azzi Fudd, who had been projected No. 1 in two previous ESPN mock drafts, slid to third after a difficult end to her NCAA Tournament run, shooting just 30.8 percent over her final three games. Miles, meanwhile, never stopped producing.
Off the court, Miles has already moved to secure her future in women’s basketball beyond the WNBA. On Sunday, the league announced she had signed a multiyear deal with Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league where she had previously participated through an NIL arrangement.
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“After I did the Future is Unrivaled, this seemed like a style of play I could adjust to well and something I wanted to be a part of as a piece of women’s basketball history,” she told ESPN.
She was direct about why the format suits her game. “I love having a lot of space, and obviously with having just three players on the court, it’s a lot more space. It’s a lot of quick decisions which I thrive with.”
The Dallas Wings, who hold the No. 1 pick, already have Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale on their roster, raising legitimate questions about how three ball-dominant players coexist. Miles herself seems unconcerned about adjusting.
“Coming in, I’m excited to bring my IQ and my ability to read any situation,” she said. “That’s really useful to any team.”