{"id":530121,"date":"2026-03-18T04:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T04:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/530121\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T04:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T04:30:10","slug":"a-year-later-tcus-olivia-miles-is-a-lock-to-be-a-high-wnba-draft-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/530121\/","title":{"rendered":"A year later, TCU\u2019s Olivia Miles is a lock to be a high WNBA draft pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

TCU’s Olivia Miles (5) puts up a shot against Kansas State in the semi-finals of the Big 12 Conference tournament earlier this month in Kansas City, Mo.Charlie Riedel\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Olivia Miles makes the types of nifty passes that can leave fans gasping in astonishment.<\/p>\n

The stunning decision she made last year regarding her future produced a similar reaction.<\/p>\n

Although she was predicted to go as early as the second overall pick in the WNBA draft, Miles opted to spend one more year playing college basketball. But rather than returning to Notre Dame for one more season, she transferred to TCU \u2013 the school that had just knocked her old team out of the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

Miles\u2019s choice apparently hasn\u2019t damaged her pro stock. The 5-foot-10 guard again is considered one of the top few prospects in the upcoming draft. Before she focuses on that, Miles is trying to advance beyond the Sweet 16 for the first time in her career.<\/p>\n

TCU (29-5) is the No. 3 seed in the Sacramento 4 Regional and will host UC San Diego (24-8) in a first-round game Friday.<\/p>\n

Miles reached regional semi-finals with Notre Dame in 2022 and 2025, though she didn\u2019t play in the Irish\u2019s NCAA Tournament runs to Sweet 16s in 2023 or 2024 because of a knee injury. She knows how different it is to perform on this stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just an aspect of desperation,\u201d Miles told reporters Sunday. \u201cYour season\u2019s on the line. Your dream\u2019s on the line with a group of people you really care about. That\u2019s the difference between March and the regular season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miles has averaged a career-high 19.6 points to go along with 6.9 rebounds and 6.4 assists while recording five triple-doubles. She\u2019s of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award, which goes annually to the top point guard in women\u2019s college basketball.<\/p>\n

She also was named the Big 12\u2019s overall player of the year and its newcomer of the year.<\/p>\n

Miles is one of the top prospects in the upcoming WNBA draft participating in this year\u2019s NCAA tournament. Here\u2019s a look at some others (limited to one player per school).<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Lauren Betts of the UCLA Bruins catches a pass against Ava Heiden (5) of the Iowa Hawkeyes during the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament championship game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse earlier this month in Indianapolis.Justin Casterline\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Lauren Betts, UCLA<\/p>\n

UCLA has a few likely WNBA draft picks on its roster, such as Kiki Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Gabriela Jaquez.<\/p>\n

Betts probably will get selected the earliest of any of them. The 6-7 centre was named the national defensive player of the year last season while leading UCLA to a Final Four and becoming the first player in school history to have at least 600 points, 300 rebounds and 100 blocks in a season.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s averaging 16.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and a career-best 3.2 assists this season for a UCLA team that has won its last 25 games.<\/p>\n

Azzi Fudd, UConn<\/p>\n

Fudd has been exceptional since returning from a torn ACL that limited her to two games in the 2023-24 season. Fudd was the most outstanding player in the 2025 Final Four while helping UConn win a national title and has built on that momentum this season with the unbeaten Huskies.<\/p>\n

Fudd is shooting 44.6 per cent from three-point range while making 3.1 three-pointers per game. Fudd also is shooting 48.9 per cent overall and 95.1 per cent on free-throw attempts while scoring a career-high 17.7 points per game.<\/p>\n

Flau\u2019jae Johnson, LSU<\/p>\n

The 5-10 guard is just the sixth player in LSU history to score 2,000 career points for the Tigers. Johnson is shooting 40.2 per cent from three-point range this season.<\/p>\n

Ta\u2019Niya Latson, South Carolina<\/p>\n

South Carolina has so many quality draft-eligible players that the challenge is predicting which of them will get taken first.<\/p>\n

Raven Johnson and Madina Okot also figure to get drafted, but we\u2019re guessing Ta\u2019Niya Latson gets taken first. The 5-9 guard scored a Division I-leading 25.2 points per game last season at Florida State before accepting more of a supplementary role at South Carolina. She has 14.3 points, 3.5 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game this season while shooting a career-best 49.3 per cent.<\/p>\n

Cotie McMahon, Mississippi<\/p>\n

After playing three seasons at Ohio State and earning first-team all-Big Ten honours each of her last two years there, McMahon has scored a career-high 19.9 points per game this season at Ole Miss. She also has 5.3 rebounds and three assists per game. The 6-footer is one of five finalists for the Cheryl Miller Award that goes annually to the top small forward in women\u2019s college basketball.<\/p>\n

Tonie Morgan, Kentucky<\/p>\n

Morgan probably won\u2019t get drafted as early as the other players on this list, but her passing ability should assure this 5-9 guard has a productive pro career.<\/p>\n

In her first season at Kentucky after three years at Georgia Tech, Morgan has distributed 8.2 assists per game to rank second among all Division I players. She\u2019s one of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: TCU’s Olivia Miles (5) puts up a shot against Kansas State in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2428,2416,2429,4,2408,2430,103,2407,2422,2423,2418,2409,2406,101,526,192,2421,2414,2441,2410,2411,2420,2417,149,983,2431,2413,2436,2437,2439,2434,2438,2432,2435,2412,2425,2426,111,2424,2433,99,2415,74,2427,2419,194,434,965,2440],"class_list":["post-530121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-wnba","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}