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Seems like no matter what part of life somebody is in, the familiar sentiment will always be right there with them—college represents the best days ever. High schoolers hear it before they get the freedom they’ve spent years waiting for. Young adults at the actual universities are inundated with the old adage at parties between classes. People whose college days are long gone seemingly yearn for those times, their nostalgia overflowing with romanticized memories of the good ol’ days.
SLAM’s not here to confirm or deny this sentimental saying. Every day we get to spend talking and watching hoops is the best day ever.
SLAM is here to share a glimpse at a trio who might just be in the middle of their best days yet. When they’re together, laughter seems more common than breathing. Energetic compliments between the three of them is almost a visibly tangible transfer. Most importantly for SLAM, they compete together at the very highest level as a team.
Olivia Olson, Mila Holloway and Syla Swords have proven over the last two seasons that their college days will never, ever be forgotten by any fan of the Michigan Wolverines.
“The common factor that we always talk about is their selflessness,” Michigan Women’s Basketball General Manager Natalie Achonwa tells SLAM, when talking about her big three. "It's one thing to have one superstar or two on your team, but we have three of the best players right now in the country, and the fact that they willingly give up opportunities for each other, the fact that they share the ball, the fact that they celebrate each other’s successes more than their own, I think is what makes them so special. They’re these selfless superstars, and the fact that they chose to come to Michigan together because they wanted to transform our program, because they wanted to do something that hasn’t been done here in our women's program before and that common goal has united them so much and to see their passion in it every day, their competitiveness in it every day, truly makes the three of them special.”
This trio came in together as freshmen. As Achonwa said, they helped get the Wolverines back on track. They were nationally ranked, they made it to the Big Dance and they had one of the best offenses in the country, all on the backs of these three freshmen. This year, as of press time, they have only two losses and are legitimate contenders in the hunt for the natty.
Olson, currently leading the Wolverines in scoring, is walking versatility. She can do a bit of everything. Holloway, leading the Wolverines in assists, is a classic floor general. She can get to the paint at will. Swords, leading the Wolverines in threes, is a deadeye shooter. She can knock it down from anywhere.
Achonwa, a longtime WNBA pro and former Olympian for Canada, goes on to explain how most teams she’s played against had a clear-cut “head of the snake.” In other words, a player who is head-and-shoulders above her teammates in terms of offensive production. The problem with guarding the Wolverines these days is that they don’t have one. They have three. Any game on any day can be the matchup they will one day reflect on as the best of their lives.
The selflessness Achonwa is referring to is reflected in how this trio interacts with each other.
With lots and lots of smiles, they each discuss different moments where they’ve been proud of their teammates. Mila brings up a drill in a recent practice where Liv, the team’s leading scorer, sacrificed her body to dive on a loose ball. It resulted in their team winning that drill. Liv references Syla's performance against UConn. Even though they lost in a slug-it-out close game, Syla went off for 29 points and, as Liv says, Syla answered the call each time they went to her in that battle. Syla then brags about Mila’s endless bag, describing a sequence with a between-the-legs dance that resulted in a stepback three. The very next time down, she out-ran the entire defense and finished a fast break lay reminiscent of Jelly Fam.
There are lots of other moments that this trio has shared on the court, too. Their chemistry has always been something Marie Curie would be envious of, and it started pretty much right away.
“Last summer when we played open gym, like, coming in as freshmen, we did open gym,” Olson says. “We had all five freshmen on one team, and we played really well, and I think that was the first time we realized kind of how well our chemistry was already built and how much we can develop with each other.”
“Nobody really thought we would win,” Mila adds. “So as Liv said, we were all just playing so well together. It's just, once again, another great moment to be a part of. Just an eye opener for us early on.”
College is full of those happy and fun memories. But it’s not always sunshine.
Swords shares a different, more painful memory to illustrate a formative moment of this trio’s relationship.
“I feel like the three of us bonded [in] our last game of the season last year versus Notre Dame,” she says.
The Wolverines got hit with a haymaker in that game. Their season concluded with a 21-point defeat.
“It was really hard for us, you know, it was a tough matchup,” Syla continues. “It kind of just really exposed us as freshmen and like, OK, this is really what it's like in NCAA basketball. And I remember the bus ride home, the three of us, we were just in a group chat, like, just trying to see where our heads were, just like, OK, we're all staying. Like, there was no question about it. What do we need to do? Who do we want to bring in? And it was just a cool moment for the three of us to kind of be like, OK, we're still all in.”
They’re definitely still in. As of press time, the Wolverines are ninth in points per games in the nation and ninth in defensive rating. Fueled by the fire of this trio, head coach Kim Barnes Arico is leading a developing powerhouse every night.
“The one percent of that grit is more important than the glory for them, and I think you have to be a certain type of person and player to come and play in this program,” Achonwa says, “and Coach Arico finds them every time, and that's why these three belong here and why they’ve made their mark on Michigan and will continue to.”
Maybe one day a long time from now Liv will be back in New Hope, MN, and a memory of Mila’s fearless drives to the rim will flash before her eyes. Maybe she’ll try to hit her up only to find out that Mila, at her house in Charlotte, NC, is already talking to Syla Swords on the phone about how unguardable Liv really was. From her house in Sudbury, Ontario, Syla will remark how crazy that is, because she had just pulled up a highlight of them putting in work with the Michigan Wolverines. Maybe that will happen one day, decades from now. Maybe one day these will be the best days of their lives.
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