Olivia Miles makes the types of nifty passes that can leave fans gasping in astonishment.
The stunning decision she made last year regarding her future produced a similar reaction.
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 – the school that had just knocked her old team out of the NCAA Tournament.
Miles’ choice apparently hasn’t 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.
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.
Miles reached regional semifinals with Notre Dame in 2022 and 2025, though she didn’t play in the Irish’s 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.
“It’s just an aspect of desperation,” Miles told reporters Sunday. “Your season’s on the line Your dream’s on the line with a group of people you really care about. That’s the difference between March and the regular season.”
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’s of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award, which goes annually to the top point guard in women’s college basketball.
She also was named the Big 12’s overall player of the year and its newcomer of the year.
Miles is one of the top prospects in the upcoming WNBA draft participating in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Here’s a look at some others (limited to one player per school):
UCLA has a few likely WNBA draft picks on its roster, such as Kiki Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Gabriela Jaquez.
Betts probably will get selected the earliest of any of them. The 6-7 center 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.
She’s 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.
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.
Fudd is shooting 44.6% from 3-point range while making 3.1 3-pointers per game. Fudd also is shooting 48.9% overall and 95.1% on free-throw attempts while scoring a career-high 17.7 points per game.
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% from 3-point range this season.
South Carolina has so many quality draft-eligible players that the challenge is predicting which of them will get taken first.
Raven Johnson and Madina Okot also figure to get drafted, but we’re guessing Ta'Niya 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%.
After playing three seasons at Ohio State and earning first-team all-Big Ten honors 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 3 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’s college
Morgan probably won’t 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.
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’s one of five finalists for the Nancy Lieberman Award.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
South Carolina guard Ta'niya Latson drives to the basket past Kentucky during second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
LSU guard Flau'jae Johnson celebrates after scoring against Oklahoma during first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 6, 2026, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel said Tuesday it had killed the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ all-volunteer Basij force, a key force used to suppress demonstrations in the Islamic Republic, as Gulf Arab nations came under renewed missile and drone fire from Iran.
Dubai, a major transit hub for international travel, briefly shut its airspace as the military said it was “responding to incoming missile and drone threats” around the city, and a man was killed by the debris of a missile intercepted over Abu Dhabi.
The Israeli military also said early Tuesday it had begun a “wide-scale wave of strikes” across Iran’s capital and was stepping up strikes on Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Israel also reported two incoming salvos before dawn from Iran at Tel Aviv and elsewhere, and said Hezbollah targeted Israel’s north.
The Israeli military said a strike Monday killed Basij head Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani but Iran did not immediately acknowledge the militia leader's death.
“The Basij forces are part of the armed apparatus of the Iranian terror regime,” the Israeli military said in its statement. “During internal protests in Iran, particularly in recent periods as demonstrations intensified, Basij forces under Soleimani’s command led the main repression operations, employing severe violence, widespread arrests and the use of force against civilian demonstrators.”
The U.S. Treasury lists Soleimani as having been born in 1965. He has been sanctioned by the U.S., the European Union and other nations over his role in helping suppress dissent for years through the Basij.
Since the war began Feb. 28, Israel has launched specific attacks targeting Iran’s leadership, killing 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other military commanders.
Killing Soleimani would likely further strain the command and control of the Basij, which would be crucial in putting down any uprising against the theocracy. The Basij and other internal security forces have been a target of attack by both the Americans and the Israelis so far.
Iran kept up the pressure on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, hitting an oil facility in Fujairah, a UAE emirate on the country’s east coast with the Gulf of Oman that has been repeatedly targeted. State-run WAM news reported that no one had been injured in the blast from the drone strike.
The man killed by falling debris from an intercepted missile was the eighth person to die in the UAE since the start of the war, authorities said.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, has given rise to increasing concerns of a global energy crisis. Early Tuesday it hit a tanker anchored off the coast of Fujairah, one of about 20 vessels hit since Israel and the United States started the war with an attack on Iran on Feb. 28.
Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said his country had been given no choice but to keep up its pressure on shipping traffic in the strait.
“They are flying, launching missiles, should we just sit back and do nothing in response?" he said in an interview on state television.
With Washington under increasing pressure over rising oil prices, Brent crude, the international standard, remained over $100 a barrel, up more than 40% since the war started.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he had demanded that roughly a half-dozen countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. But his appeals brought no immediate commitments, with many saying they are hesitant to get involved in a war with no defined exit plan and skeptical that they could do more than the U.S. Navy.
The UAE shut down its airspace early Tuesday as its military reported it was “responding to missile and drone threats from Iran." The closure was soon lifted, and not long after the sounds of explosions could be heard as the military worked to intercept incoming fire.
The snap announcement on its airspace showed the balancing act Emirati authorities face in trying to keep their long-haul carriers, Emirates and Etihad, flying as Iranian attacks continue to target the country.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry reported intercepting a dozen drones Tuesday morning over the country’s vast Eastern Province, home to oil infrastructure.
In Qatar, the sounds of explosions boomed over the capital early in the day as defenses worked to intercept incoming fire. Qatar's Defense Ministry said later that it had successfully thwarted a missile attack on the city, though a fire broke out in an industrial area from a downed projectile.
Attacks from Iran-linked proxy forces continued in Iraq, as the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was hit with shrapnel from drones that had been intercepted.
The embassy's air defenses were able to shoot down all four drones targeting the facility, according to two Iraqi security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.
A separate strike targeted a house in the heavily fortified Presidential Compound in Baghdad’s al-Jadriya area, the officials said. It wasn’t clear who carried out either attack but Iran-allied militias have regularly been attacking American targets inside Iraq since the conflict began.
The Israeli military early Tuesday said it had launched new attacks across Tehran in addition to the Lebanese capital targeting Hezbollah militants.
In Iran, it said it hit command centers, missile launch sites and air defense systems. There was no immediate confirmation from Iran, where little information has been coming out due to internet outages, round-the-clock airstrikes and tight restrictions on journalists.
Israel did not immediately release details of its attacks on Lebanon, but the Lebanese army said two of its soldiers were seriously wounded in an airstrike on the village of Kfar Sir.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the conflict, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
Israel’s strikes have also displaced more than 1 million Lebanese — or roughly 20% of the population — according to the Lebanese government, which says some 850 people have been killed.
Some Israeli troops have pushed into southern Lebanon, and there are fears Israel is preparing a large-scale invasion.
The military's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said Monday on a visit to the northern border that Israel's army is “determined to deepen the operation until all of our objectives are achieved” and that the military's Northern Command is being reinforced with additional soldiers.
Israel reported two Iranian salvos early Tuesday fired toward Tel Aviv and an area south of the Sea of Galilee. More launches from Lebanon were also reported.
In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed.
The virtual shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz is unnerving the world economy, driving up energy prices, threatening food shortages in poor countries, destabilizing fragile states and complicating efforts by central banks to drive down prices for consumers.
There have been a handful of ships getting through, primarily Iranian but also from other countries including India and Turkey, and Iran has said it technically remains open — just not for the United States, Israel and its allies. Iraq said Tuesday it was in talks with Iran about allowing passage for its ships.
Underscoring the danger of even getting close to the strait, a tanker anchored off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates was hit by a projectile early Tuesday morning and sustained minor damage, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military.
Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami, Florida; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
A view of a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike, in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Two men ride their motorbike past a billboard of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
U.S. Embassy is seen across the Tigris River in Baghdad, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Fire and plumes of smoke rises after a drone struck a fuel tank forcing the temporary suspension of flights. near Dubai International Airport, in United Arab Emirates, early Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo)
Volunteers clean debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
