Maryland women’s basketball, the No. 4 seed in the Birmingham 2 region, is set to play No. 13 seed Norfolk State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on March 22 at 4 p.m.
Brenda Frese has been the head coach at Maryland since 2002, leading the Terps to the NCAA Tournament in all but two seasons that weren’t impacted by COVID. Maryland won the national title in 2006.
The Terps (23-7, 13-5) will host Norfolk State at Xfinity Center in College Park. The top four seeds in each region host the first two rounds of the women’s tournament.
“Gratitude, first of all. It’s our 16th time being able to host at Xfinity, where we have the greatest fans in the country,” Freese said on Glenn Clark Radio March 19 about what it means to host. “We’ve been top 10 in attendance all year. … You don’t have to get on a plane or a bus. Last year, we had to fly to California. You get to sleep in your own bed and have your own routine.”
Frese and Maryland have fought through injuries to get to the NCAA Tournament. Junior Bri McDaniel (10.6 points per game) suffered a season-ending torn ACL in January. Redshirt junior Saylor Poffenbarger (9.8) suffered a high ankle sprain before the Big Ten tournament but is back practicing. Senior Shyanne Sellers (14.1) is playing through a knee injury.
“It’s unfortunate timing, when you talk about injuries and things beyond your control as we were getting ready to play three top-10 teams,” Frese said. “I think a lot of teams the wheels might’ve fallen off, they might’ve folded, but what I learned is just how resilient this team is. When they would have some setbacks, they were really competitive and really wanted to improve and get better. I think you can see how they were rewarded with their body of work.”
Frese believes Maryland now has momentum after recently beating Indiana and Ohio State to finish off the regular season.
“Our conference prepares us,” Frese said. “We get to play the best of the best every single night. … It gave us a lot of confidence and it shows when we’re clicking on all cylinders. We have a very small margin for error, I’ll say that, with us being so thin on our roster. We’ve got to have everyone show up.”
Frese believes the Indiana and Ohio State games revealed the best version of Maryland. In order for the Terps to make a deep postseason run, the Terps have to play like they did in those two games.
“For us it’s staying true to who we are with our identity — being able to defend, rebound and run,” Frese said. “That’s who we’ve been all season long and we have to be able to stick to that and be able to execute our game plan.”
Frese has been impressed with the way junior Kaylene Smikle has stepped up after injuries hit Maryland. This season, the Rutgers transfer is averaging 17.7 points and 4.3 rebounds.
“I’m so happy for Kaylene,” Frese said. “What an impact she has made coming into our program being our leading scorer, first-team All-Big Ten Conference honoree. She’s brought so much to the table, not only from a scorer’s mentality but just the ability to defend and be able to do anything that’s asked of her.”
Baltimore native and Roland Park grad Mir McLean has also made an impact for Frese. McLean committed to Maryland out of the transfer portal with one year of eligibility remaining after previously playing for Virginia and UConn. This year, McLean is averaging 3.9 points per game.
“I love that Mir has put her head down and gone to work and stayed the course,” Frese said. “It’s a long season. You try to prepare your players that anything can happen, and what I love about Mir is that she was always constantly working behind the scenes. … It has been awesome to be able to see the impact, the motor once we lost Bri McDaniel.”
For more from Frese, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics