As someone who has watched virtually every of Miles' collegiate games (as well as the aforementioned Ogunbowale, I've got a few thoughts on this;
- I think Miles is a good athlete. As a high schooler, she was probably good enough to play collegiate soccer, as were Ogunbowale (there's that name again) and Sonia Citron. As such, she has the stamina. In her early years (prior to the ACL), she and Citron rarely came out of the game. Now, as
@Reypl21 brought up, she may have been affected by the ACL. First year back in action rarely sees an athlete back at 100%, so I'll be interested in how she looks at TCU.
Is she fast? Compared to whom? Hidalgo would win most 60-yard dashes against anyone and Citron would probably be a star 800 meter runner. Does she bolt down court like Hannah? No, but that's not what her forte is: her strength, as pointed out, is to run the fast break. Her weapons: court vision and passing ability.
Now, I've got a pet phrase called "burst speed." It's the ability to make two or three steps count to gain whatever separation is necessary.
Miles uses when approaching the elbow then taking it to the rack with that one-handed, underhand layup.
- Tough enough? She's averaged 6.0 rebounds per game to go along with 6.5 assists per game and 14.2 points per game. She's a stellar defensive rebounder and works at it. When ND has lost centers or forwards, she practically rebounded like a forward.
- Her weakness? Yup, defense. I'm not so sure it's a physical issue of lateral quickness (remember the soccer background). I think it's a bit of lack of effort or concern for that element of the game. This was an issue with Ogunbowale her senior year (after winning the national championship) and Muffet McGraw would take her out of games for a spell to bring the point home. Ivey waited too long to get on Miles's case last year and when she did yank her from time to time, it was often at inopportune moments. Never should've gotten to that.
Miles needs to work on that to round her calling card in the W.
Outside of that, she's should make a fine point guard, particularly on teams that feature up and down the court play and read and react half-court offenses.
