It wasn’t that way back that Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo made up probably the most entertaining and deadly backcourt duo in all of ladies’s school basketball.
The pair of Notre Dame guards shared a SLAM Journal cowl collectively in January and the story featured the duo reminiscing in regards to the first time they noticed the opposite play, how they praise one another so nicely and the way they wished to assist the Irish win a nationwide championship. It was the play of Miles and Hidalgo — two guards hailing from New Jersey — who powered Notre Dame on a 19-game profitable streak and a No. 1 rating within the AP High 25 Ballot on Feb. 17 earlier this yr. Certainly, as the ultimate month of the common season wound down, the Irish regarded like official contenders for the Ultimate 4.
After which all of it fell aside, a strategy of crashing and burning that started with a double-overtime loss at N.C. State in entrance of ESPN’s Faculty GameDay. Starting with that defeat, Notre Dame misplaced three of its subsequent 5 video games, which included a semifinal loss within the ACC Event. After two of these defeats, the group met for about an hour earlier than head coach Niele Ivey and choose gamers appeared at their postgame press convention. It was obvious that one thing was amiss with this group that, on-paper, was maybe probably the most proficient within the nation.
Notre Dame pulled itself collectively sufficient to comfortably win its first two video games within the NCAA Event, then fell within the Candy 16 to TCU. The Irish led getting into the fourth quarter in Birmingham, Alabama, however the Horned Frogs outscored them 20-10 within the final body. Notre Dame had no reply for TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, and Miles, Hidalgo and Sonia Citron mixed for 1-of-13 taking pictures within the last 10 minutes.
Two days after the loss, information broke that Miles was leaving Notre Dame through the switch portal. Eight days later, Miles introduced she was committing to TCU. As hypothesis swirled about Miles and Hidalgo’s fractured relationship, each of them tried to squash the rumors.
“We’re completely fantastic, y’all,” Miles stated on an Instagram Stay. “There isn’t any beef, there may be actually no beef. Y’all are creating it out of skinny air.”
When requested about Miles transferring by Sportskeeda, Hidalgo stated, “I don’t know what’s greatest for her. Solely she is aware of what’s greatest for her. So no matter she has occurring, I want her all the most effective.”
All of this preface and context is critical to know why a big portion of ladies’s school basketball followers have been enamored with a 40-second video clip that was captured over the weekend of Miles and Hidalgo having a seemingly tense and awkward encounter.
To set the scene, Notre Dame hosted a WNBA preseason recreation on Friday between the Dallas Wings and Las Vegas Aces. The exhibition was alleged to be a celebration of Combating Irish ladies’s basketball, as each professional groups are headlined by Notre Dame greats: Jewell Loyd and Jackie Younger for the Aces and Arike Ogunbowale on the Wings. However the huge story popping out of the sport wasn’t about Loyd tallying 28 factors and 9 assists for her new group in a win in South Bend. It was all about this trade between Miles and Hidalgo:
Right here’s one other angle:
It’s obscure what is definitely being stated within the clips, however a couple of issues are clear and obvious. The interplay begins with Hidalgo approaching Miles and the 2 former teammates briefly trade a dap. Hidalgo then takes 4 steps in the direction of Miles, urgent and escalating the dialog. Miles takes a half-step again, tilts her head and laughs and appears to be attempting to clarify one thing to Hidalgo, who responds by taking one other half step ahead and pointing her finger at Miles, utilizing it to drive her factors residence. Finally, a police officer working the sector approaches them and in so many phrases tells them to maintain it shifting.
Primarily based on the information in entrance of ladies’s basketball followers — that this interplay occurred in public, that it received so animated that it prompted folks to show heads and pull their telephones out to file it, and it was a dialog the place agitation was implied sufficient to immediate a consultant of regulation enforcement to step in — it looks as if all will not be nicely between Miles and Hidalgo. The interplay means that the claims of “no beef” between them are false.
The reality is that followers will most likely by no means actually know why Notre Dame’s as soon as promising season unraveled, why Miles determined to switch and why her relationship with Hidalgo has ostensibly soured. We gained’t be taught these particulars by means of fastidiously crafted items in The Gamers’ Tribune, or ultra-safe interview areas with former gamers the place the guardrails are all the best way up. Of us would possibly be taught a bit bit by means of the final two episodes of ESPN’s Full Court docket Press that airs on Might 11, however groups typically have some management over what’s and isn’t included within the last minimize of these varieties of documentary exhibits.
So, till Miles or Hidalgo converse on this interplay and their relationship instantly, all followers are left with is conjecture and theories.
