COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Brenda Frese said a slogan for this year’s Maryland women’s basketball team will be revealed at a later date. Judging by comments from Thursday’s media day, defiance could be a theme.
Defiance in the aftermath of the transfer of five players, including two starters, from last year’s squad that went 23-9 before falling to Stanford in an NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 game. Defiance after being voted to finish fourth in the Big Ten Conference preseason poll. Defiance in the face of a schedule that includes games against nine opponents ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll.
“We’re dogs,” senior shooting guard Diamond Miller. “... We all have the same goal in mind, and that’s to win.”
Added sophomore shooting guard Shyanne Sellers: “No one is afraid. No one shies away. So it’s just going to be fun.”
Eighteen days before opening the season at George Mason on Nov. 7, players, coaches and staff of the No. 17 Terps stood on the court inside the Xfinity Center posing for team photos. How long those smiles will last hinges largely on how the program rebounds from one of its rockiest offseasons.
In a span of 12 days since that season-ending setback to Stanford, five players — power forward Mimi Collins, shooting guard Taisiya Kozlova, shooting guard Channise Lewis, point guard Ashley Owusu and center Angel Reese — had entered the transfer portal. The losses of Reese, a Baltimore resident and St. Frances graduate who was the first player in school history to average a double-double in both points (17.8) and rebounds (10.6) since Angie Scott in 1975, and Owusu, who scored 14.3 points per game, were especially alarming.
Since then, Frese and her staff have added nine new players — five transfers and four freshmen — to a roster headlined by Miller, who averaged 13.1 points and 4.0 rebounds, and Sellers, the Big Ten’s Sixth Player of the Year who compiled 7.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists off the bench.
The tumultuous offseason did not faze Frese.
“All we’ve continued to do is reload,” she said. “We’ve been in these situations before, and it seems every single time we’ve been through this recruiting process, we continue to get the right players that fit us here at Maryland, that fit our system and our culture as winning types of kids. That’s what I love.”
Miller did not begrudge her former teammates who transferred to LSU (Reese), North Carolina State (Collins), Virginia Tech (Owusu), Pittsburgh (Lewis) and Dayton (Kozlova). She also defended the new faces.
“We had a lot of good transfers leave, but we had a lot of good transfers come in,” she said. “We’re just really excited for them. They’ve been playing really well. One thing about us, we still play Maryland basketball regardless. We’re playing fast, rebounding, and we’re pushing the ball in transition.”
The transfers’ impact will likely be felt on both ends of the floor. Last year’s offense — which also included shooting guard Katie Benzan and power forward Chloe Bibby, both of whom turned professional — ranked seventh in the nation in scoring at 78.8 points per game.
While noting that all five transfers averaged nine points last season, Frese acknowledged that scoring will be a priority.
“With all of the scoring that we had lost, we’ve got to be able to have those types of players that can come in and are capable,” she said.
The departures of Reese, Bibby and Collins sapped Maryland of its top three rebounders from a group that tied for 81st in the country in rebounds (39.0). And an undersized roster got weakened by a torn left ACL suffered last month by junior power forward Allie Kubek, who collected 6.2 rebounds at Towson last winter.
“We don’t have a 6-5 center,” Frese said. “So we have to adapt. We might have to play faster, we have to be versatile, and we’re going to have to collectively rebound together on both ends of the floor.”
Still, Frese is optimistic about her team. Of the new transfers, she described former Florida shooting guard Lavender Briggs as a “scoring machine,” pointed out that former Princeton shooting guard Abby Meyers was the Ivy League Player of the Year, and said of South Florida point guard Elisa Pinzan, “I’m not sure we’ve had a point guard like this in a long time when you talk about her court vision, her IQ to be able to run a team.”
Pinzan, a graduate student, said she and the transfers have their own high standards.
“Coming here, we know the success of the program,” she said. “We just want to keep doing whatever the other people have been doing for this program. It’s more like, ‘Step out, know who you are, play, and just give 100 percent all the time.’”
Much of the Terps’ hopes will rest on Miller, whose scoring average slipped from 17.3 as a sophomore in 2020-21 due in part to a stress fracture in the patella of her right knee that forced her to miss 10 games.
“Mentally and physically, I wasn’t the best last season,” she said, adding that she could barely walk at times. “This year, I’m feeling so much better, more confident and ready to play.”
Maryland won’t have to wait long to get a sense of its potential. The home opener on Nov. 11 is against No. 1 and reigning national champion South Carolina, there are nonconference games against No. 6 Connecticut (Dec. 11), No. 9 Notre Dame (Dec. 1) and No. 18 Baylor (Nov. 20) and the Big Ten schedule is littered with contests against No. 4 Iowa (away on Feb. 2 and home on Feb. 21), No. 11 Indiana (Jan. 12), No. 14 Ohio State (home on Feb. 5 and away on Feb. 24), No. 22 Nebraska (home on Dec. 4 and away on Jan. 22) and No. 25 Michigan (Jan. 26).
Sellers said she and her teammates embrace the challenges ahead.
“I think no one really knows what to expect from us,” she said. “So I think being able to come out and shock everyone is going to be fun.”
Season opener
NO. 17 MARYLAND@GEORGE MASON
Monday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m.
