As is almost always the case, Maryland women’s basketball earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
If it weren’t for COVID-19 forcing the cancelation of the 2020 tournament, this year would have marked the program’s 16th consecutive bid and 22nd bid overall under head coach Brenda Frese.
The Terps will face Murray State on March 20 at 3 p.m. The Racers are 31-3 overall with a 19-1 regular-season mark in the Missouri Valley Conference. They earned their league’s automatic bid by beating Indiana State, Northern Iowa and Evansville in a span of three days in the MVC tournament.
Maryland enters the matchup 23-8 overall with an 11-7 regular-season mark in the Big Ten. The Terps fell to Oregon, 73-68, in their first game of the Big Ten tournament. The early exit in Indianapolis certainly didn’t help Maryland’s case to host a four-team pod in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the Terps landed a No. 5 seed and must head down to Chapel Hill, N.C., for contests against Murray State and possibly North Carolina.
The Racers, riding a 15-game winning streak, are fifth in the country in scoring offense (86.1 points per game).
“They clearly know how to win and have had a lot success and are really well-coached,” Frese said on Glenn Clark Radio March 17. “They lead the country in free throws made, so you defend the three and then they’re going to go try to draw fouls and get to the free-throw line. Dangerous matchup for us. The beautiful thing is defense travels, so we’re going to have to bring our defense to make their offense have to play a little bit under duress and then at the same point we need to bring our offense and do what we do.”
The 2025-26 season has been a bumpy ride for Maryland, which saw Lea Bartelme, Ava McKennie and Kaylene Smikle go down with season-ending knee injuries. The Terps also struggled through a four-game losing streak in January, with losses to UCLA, Iowa, Washington and Oregon.
Maryland bounced back by winning its next six games but dropped its regular-season finale at Michigan and its Big Ten tournament opener to the Ducks.
“Our Big Ten conference slate is a gauntlet. It’s really, really tough,” Frese said. “Every team can play from top to bottom. I think they learned that they can do really hard things. This is a group that’s really, really resilient. They’ve never used the injuries as an excuse. All they’ve ever done is let’s try to learn, let’s get better from this and how can we fix it? It’s just been a rewarding year for us as coaches just to be in the gym and be along this journey with them. It’s a group that just comes ready to work, wants to be as good as they can possibly be.”
The loss of Smikle was particularly tough on the Terps. The 6-foot guard was a first-team All-Big Ten selection a year ago when she averaged 18.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game after transferring from Rutgers. Smikle tried to play through knee trouble this year but just wasn’t herself; she averaged 17.4 minutes in seven games before deciding to undergo knee surgery.
Junior guard Oluchi Okananwa (18.0 points, 5.5 rebounds) stepped up in a major way after spending the first two years of her college career at Duke.
“You just didn’t know whether she would be able to carry a team. She wasn’t asked to do that at Duke and honestly she was coming off the bench,” Frese said. “I think seeing her want that responsibility … the greats, they want to shoulder that responsibility, so I think that’s been pretty special to be able to see.”
Frese also mentioned the development of the bench as vital given the team’s spate of knee injuries. Mir McLean, Kyndal Walker, Rainey Welson and Brenna Williams have contributed in reserve roles all year.
McLean, a graduate wing out of Roland Park Country School, is averaging 4.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game after a winding journey that took her through UConn and Virginia.
“As good of a basketball player as she is, off the court this young woman is just going to do amazing things in international business and relations and whatever she decides to do in the seven languages that she speaks,” Frese said. “For us, she’s been a huge piece of just continuing to get in the gym and work. Whatever this team needs her to do, she’s going to do. To see her having her best season in her last year is what it’s all about.”
For more from Frese, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maryland Athletics