LOS ANGELES, Calif. — For the second time in a few hours, Olivia Miles is a feature piece of a prominent midseason watch list. On Monday evening, the Notre Dame point guard was named to the Wooden Award Late Season Top 20. She was on the group’s Midseason Top 25 earlier this season as well and was named to the 2023 Nancy Lieberman Award Top 10 earlier today.
Miles leads Notre Dame in four of the five major statistical categories this year: points (15.0), rebounds (7.2), assists (7.0) and steals (2.2). She has posted double-digit assists in four games this season, and her 14 assists against Merrimack are the most in a single game by any ACC player this year. Also against Merrimack, Miles recorded her third career triple-double, passing Skylar Diggins and Jackie Young for most in Notre Dame basketball — men’s or women’s — history.
The New Jersey native is one of two players in the nation averaging at least 15 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game (Caitlin Clark, Iowa). She has been named the ACC Player of the Week twice (Dec. 5 and Dec. 19).
Three schools — Iowa, South Carolina and Stanford — have multiple selections on the list. South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston was last season’s winner. The ACC leads all conferences with five players, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 have four each. The complete list of 20 women can be found here.
Players who did not make the late season list are still eligible for the Wooden Award National Ballot. That list will consist of 15 players, and close to 1,000 voters will rank in order 10 of those 15 players when voting opens just before the start of the NCAA Tournament. The Wooden Award All American Team will be announced during the Elite Eight, and the winner of the award will be named following the national championship.
About the John R. Wooden Award
Created in 1976, the John R. Wooden Award Program hosts the most prestigious honors in college basketball recognizing The Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player for men and women, The Wooden Award All America Teams for men and women and the annual selection of the Wooden Award Legend of Coaching recipient. Honorees have proven to their university that they meet or exceed the qualifications of the John R. Wooden Award as set forth by Coach Wooden and the Wooden Award Steering Committee, including making progress towards graduation and maintaining at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA. Previous winners include Larry Bird (’79), Michael Jordan (’84), Tim Duncan (’97), Kevin Durant (’07), Candace Parker (’07; ’08), Maya Moore (’09; ’11), Chiney Ogwumike (’14), and last year’s recipients, Aliyah Boston of South Carolina and Oscar Tshiebwe of Kentucky.
Since its inception, the John R. Wooden Award has contributed nearly one million dollars to the universities’ general scholarship fund in the names of the Wooden Award All American recipients and has sent more than 1,000 underprivileged children to week-long college basketball camps. Additionally, the John R. Wooden Award partners with the Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) each year to host the Wooden Award Special Olympics Southern California Basketball Tournament. The day-long tournament brings together Special Olympics athletes and Wooden Award All Americans and coaches in attendance. It is hosted at the Los Angeles Athletic Club during the John R. Wooden Award Weekend.