Women’s college basketball stars have seemingly tense on-video encounter at WNBA preseason game
Photo by Marcus Snowden/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo had what appeared to be an animated and agitated interaction at the Las Vegas Aces vs. Dallas Wings game at Notre Dame. It wasn’t that long ago that Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo made up the most entertaining and lethal backcourt duo in all of women’s college basketball. The pair of Notre Dame guards shared a SLAM Magazine cover together in January and the story featured the duo reminiscing about the first time they saw the other play, how they compliment each other so well and how they wanted to help the Irish win a national championship. It was the play of Miles and Hidalgo — two guards hailing from New Jersey — who powered Notre Dame on a 19-game winning streak and a No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll on Feb. 17 earlier this year. Indeed, as the final month of the regular season wound down, the Irish looked like legitimate contenders for the Final Four. And then it all fell apart, a process of crashing and burning that began with a double-overtime loss at N.C. State in front of ESPN’s College GameDay. Beginning with that defeat, Notre Dame lost three of its next five games, which included a semifinal loss in the ACC Tournament. After two of those defeats, the team met for about an hour before head coach Niele Ivey and select players appeared at their postgame press conference. It was apparent that something was amiss with this team that, on-paper, was perhaps the most talented in the country. Notre Dame pulled itself together enough to comfortably win its first two games in the NCAA Tournament, then fell in the Sweet 16 to TCU. The Irish led entering the fourth quarter in Birmingham, Alabama, but the Horned Frogs outscored them 20-10 in the last frame. Notre Dame had no answer for TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, and Miles, Hidalgo and Sonia Citron combined for 1-of-13 shooting in the final 10 minutes. Two days after the loss, news broke that Miles was leaving Notre Dame via the transfer portal. Eight days later, Miles announced she was committing to TCU. As speculation swirled about Miles and Hidalgo’s fractured relationship, both of them tried to squash the rumors. “We are perfectly fine, y’all,” Miles said on an Instagram Live. “There is no beef, there is literally no beef. Y’all are creating it out of thin air.” When asked about Miles transferring by Sportskeeda, Hidalgo said, “I don’t know what’s best for her. Only she knows what’s best for her. So whatever she has going on, I wish her all the best.” All of this preface and context is necessary to understand why a large portion of women’s college basketball fans 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 game on Friday between the Dallas Wings and Las Vegas Aces. The exhibition was supposed to be a celebration of Fighting Irish women’s basketball, as both pro teams are headlined by Notre Dame greats: Jewell Loyd and Jackie Young for the Aces and Arike Ogunbowale on the Wings. But the big story coming out of the game wasn’t about Loyd tallying 28 points and nine assists for her new team in a win in South Bend. It was all about this exchange between Miles and Hidalgo: i need to know the TRUTH pic.twitter.com/tr3sZVm6IF— lei ♀️ (@katemartinlov3r) May 4, 2025 Here’s another angle: View this post on Instagram A post shared by B/R W Sports (@brwsports) It’s difficult to understand what is actually being said in the clips, but a few things are clear and apparent. The interaction begins with Hidalgo approaching Miles and the two former teammates briefly exchange a dap. Hidalgo then takes four steps towards Miles, pressing and escalating the conversation. Miles takes a half-step back, tilts her head and laughs and seems to be trying to explain something to Hidalgo, who responds by taking another half step forward and pointing her finger at Miles, using it to drive her points home. Eventually, a police officer working the arena approaches them and in so many words tells them to keep it moving. Based on the facts in front of women’s basketball fans — that this interaction happened in public, that it got so animated that it caused people to turn heads and pull their phones out to record it, and it was a conversation where agitation was implied enough to prompt a representative of law enforcement to step in — it seems like all is not well between Miles and Hidalgo. The interaction suggests that the claims of “no beef” between them are false. The truth is that fans will probably never really know why Notre Dame’s once promising season unraveled, why Miles decided to transfer and why her relationship with Hidalgo has ostensibly soured. We won’t learn those details through carefully crafted pieces in The Players’ Tribune, or ultra-safe interview spaces with f
Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo had what appeared to be an animated and agitated interaction at the Las Vegas Aces vs. Dallas Wings game at Notre Dame.
It wasn’t that long ago that Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo made up the most entertaining and lethal backcourt duo in all of women’s college basketball.
The pair of Notre Dame guards shared a SLAM Magazine cover together in January and the story featured the duo reminiscing about the first time they saw the other play, how they compliment each other so well and how they wanted to help the Irish win a national championship. It was the play of Miles and Hidalgo — two guards hailing from New Jersey — who powered Notre Dame on a 19-game winning streak and a No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll on Feb. 17 earlier this year. Indeed, as the final month of the regular season wound down, the Irish looked like legitimate contenders for the Final Four.
And then it all fell apart, a process of crashing and burning that began with a double-overtime loss at N.C. State in front of ESPN’s College GameDay. Beginning with that defeat, Notre Dame lost three of its next five games, which included a semifinal loss in the ACC Tournament. After two of those defeats, the team met for about an hour before head coach Niele Ivey and select players appeared at their postgame press conference. It was apparent that something was amiss with this team that, on-paper, was perhaps the most talented in the country.
Notre Dame pulled itself together enough to comfortably win its first two games in the NCAA Tournament, then fell in the Sweet 16 to TCU. The Irish led entering the fourth quarter in Birmingham, Alabama, but the Horned Frogs outscored them 20-10 in the last frame. Notre Dame had no answer for TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, and Miles, Hidalgo and Sonia Citron combined for 1-of-13 shooting in the final 10 minutes.
Two days after the loss, news broke that Miles was leaving Notre Dame via the transfer portal. Eight days later, Miles announced she was committing to TCU. As speculation swirled about Miles and Hidalgo’s fractured relationship, both of them tried to squash the rumors.
“We are perfectly fine, y’all,” Miles said on an Instagram Live. “There is no beef, there is literally no beef. Y’all are creating it out of thin air.”
When asked about Miles transferring by Sportskeeda, Hidalgo said, “I don’t know what’s best for her. Only she knows what’s best for her. So whatever she has going on, I wish her all the best.”
All of this preface and context is necessary to understand why a large portion of women’s college basketball fans 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 game on Friday between the Dallas Wings and Las Vegas Aces. The exhibition was supposed to be a celebration of Fighting Irish women’s basketball, as both pro teams are headlined by Notre Dame greats: Jewell Loyd and Jackie Young for the Aces and Arike Ogunbowale on the Wings. But the big story coming out of the game wasn’t about Loyd tallying 28 points and nine assists for her new team in a win in South Bend. It was all about this exchange between Miles and Hidalgo:
i need to know the TRUTH pic.twitter.com/tr3sZVm6IF— lei ♀️ (@katemartinlov3r) May 4, 2025
Here’s another angle:
It’s difficult to understand what is actually being said in the clips, but a few things are clear and apparent. The interaction begins with Hidalgo approaching Miles and the two former teammates briefly exchange a dap. Hidalgo then takes four steps towards Miles, pressing and escalating the conversation. Miles takes a half-step back, tilts her head and laughs and seems to be trying to explain something to Hidalgo, who responds by taking another half step forward and pointing her finger at Miles, using it to drive her points home. Eventually, a police officer working the arena approaches them and in so many words tells them to keep it moving.
Based on the facts in front of women’s basketball fans — that this interaction happened in public, that it got so animated that it caused people to turn heads and pull their phones out to record it, and it was a conversation where agitation was implied enough to prompt a representative of law enforcement to step in — it seems like all is not well between Miles and Hidalgo. The interaction suggests that the claims of “no beef” between them are false.
The truth is that fans will probably never really know why Notre Dame’s once promising season unraveled, why Miles decided to transfer and why her relationship with Hidalgo has ostensibly soured. We won’t learn those details through carefully crafted pieces in The Players’ Tribune, or ultra-safe interview spaces with former players where the guardrails are all the way up. Folks might learn a little bit through the last two episodes of ESPN’s Full Court Press that airs on May 11, but teams often have some control over what is and isn’t included in the final cut of those types of documentary shows.
So, until Miles or Hidalgo speak on this interaction and their relationship directly, all fans are left with is conjecture and theories.
