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Drysdale Player of the Year Watch List Includes Miles

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Midway through her sophomore season and around two years after she arrived at Notre Dame as the program’s first early enrollee, Olivia Miles continues to rack up the watch list honors. On Wednesday, the point guard was named to the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Ann Meyers Drysdale Women’s Player of the Year Award Watch List along with 20 other women.

Miles, a native of Phillipsburg, N.J., leads Notre Dame in four of the five major statistical categories this season: points (15.1), rebounds (7.9), assists (7.4) and steals (2.4). She is one of just two Division I players averaging at least 15 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists per game (Iowa’s Caitlin Clark). 

While she is solid across the board, it is Miles’ passing game that often draws eyes and forces jaws to drop. Her 7.4 assists per contest currently ranks fourth in the nation and leads the ACC.

In addition to Miles, two other ACC players made the cut: Virginia Tech center Elizabeth Kitley and Florida State guard Ta’Niya Latson.

In the past, numerous Notre Dame players have been named to the USBWA All-America Team, but Ruth Riley is the only player to earn the National Player of the Year honor. She did so during the 2000-01 season when the Irish won the program’s first national championship.

The winner of the 2022-23 Drysdale Award will announced at the Final Four in Dallas and formally recognized at the USBWA’s College Basketball Awards on Monday, April 10 at the Missouri Athletic Club in St. Louis. She will be joined in St. Louis by the Oscar Robertson Trophy winner as the men’s national player of the year. The women’s and men’s national coaches of the year and the two national freshman players of the year will be honored as well, the winners of the Wayman Tisdale Award and Tamika Catchings Award.

The full list of nominees can be found here.

About The Award

The Ann Meyers Drysdale Award is presented annually to the women’s national player of the year by the USBWA. Named for the legendary UCLA guard, the award was first presented in the 1987-88 season and formally named in Meyers Drysdale’s honor in the 2011-12 season. South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston was the 2021-22 winner.

Drysdale played at UCLA from 1974-78, which pre-dates the USBWA All-America selections. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999.

The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 900 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected an All-America team since the 1956-57 season.