FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Marta Suarez wanted the opportunity for a deep run during March Madness in her final college season before turning pro.
The 6-foot-3 forward from Spain was already talking to TCU last year when she found out that Olivia Miles was coming to finish her college career with the Horned Frogs, who had just ended a record 34-win season with their first NCAA Elite Eight appearance.
“I’m asking who’s going to be playing with me,” Suarez
said. "The moment that they said Olivia Miles ... that kind of sold me to it.”
With playmaking point guard Miles and Suarez headlining another transfer-dominated roster for third-year coach Mark Campbell, the Frogs won the Big 12 regular-season title again. Third-seeded TCU (31-5) is now in the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row after never before getting that far, and plays 10th-seed Virginia on Saturday in Sacramento, California.
“We understand that it’s way bigger than us. But it starts with us,” Miles said. “We personally bring it on our own, and then we bring it together and then the team follows. And I think that’s where we’ve grown in our leadership, realizing that it ultimately does start and end with us.”
Miles went in the transfer portal after 101 games over four seasons at Notre Dame instead of the WNBA draft last year when the 5-foot-10 guard was a projected lottery pick. Suarez started 66 games the past two seasons at California after first playing at Tennessee.
At TCU together, the gritty competitors in short time have created quite a bond on and off the court with each other and teammates. Their genuine connection is evident when Miles makes sharp passes to Suarez for open shots, or their fun-loving and affectionate interactions during interview sessions.
“You can see the bond that they have, and it's super special. ... They are special people, special humans,” said junior guard Donovyn Hunter, one of the two TCU returning players who also played in last year's NCAA tourney.
Those comments drew “aww!” from both Miles and Suarez sitting next to her.
“The most fun and the better persons we are off the court is going to translate on the court,” Suarez said. “So we were very intentional with that and then, you know, sometimes you get a little lucky and we have personalities that do match.”
Miles and Suarez were unanimous picks by league coaches for the All-Big 12 team. Miles, the Big 12 player and newcomer of the year, averages 19.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game, with Suarez at 16.8 points and 7.4 rebounds.
“The thing that’s so special about that team is that they have a Batman and a Robin, and you don’t know which is Batman and which is Robin on any given night,” Baylor coach Nicki Collen said after TCU clinched the outright Big 12 title with a win over the Bears in the regular-season finale March 1.
Suarez had 21 points and 11 rebounds in that home game, while Miles scored 19. That was 2 1/2 weeks after Miles' career-high 40 points with 10 3-pointers at Baylor.
In December, they became only the second set of NCAA Division I teammates with triple-doubles in the same game. That was the third triple-double in a row for Miles, who in TCU's NCAA Tournament opener got her sixth this season and 12th of her career.
"You guys see the assists and the shots and the double-doubles (11 each), but don’t know how much they really do pour into the rest of our team," said senior guard Taylor Bigby, the other returner with Hunter. “And it just gives everyone else so much more confidence."
Suarez is in her fourth major college conference, going from the SEC to the Pac-12, then the ACC and now the Big 12.
After 22 games as a freshman at Tennessee in 2020-21, Suarez missed all of the following season because of a foot injury and then played 14 games at the start of the 2002-23 season before going home to Spain to be with her mother, who had terminal breast cancer and later died. Suarez then was part of Cal's final Pac-12 season and its debut in the ACC, where last season she played twice and lost both times against Miles at Notre Dame.
Notre Dame lost in the Sweet 16 each of the past four seasons, including Miles' final game with the Fighting Irish against TCU last March. She missed the 2023 tourney and all the 2023-24 season after a torn ACL in her right knee.
The only NCAA tourney for Suarez before TCU was Cal's loss in the First Four last year.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
