Brenda Frese says she wasn’t shocked by the huge roster shake-up that occurred this offseason. Inside per week, Maryland misplaced its prime two scorers and a prime reserve to the switch portal. The Terrapins actually weren’t the one girls’s basketball program with important losses to the portal, however the departures of standouts Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu had been particularly notable.
Maryland
Brenda Frese downplays high-profile transfers, restocks Maryland’s roster
Since, Reese has signed with LSU, Owusu has signed with Virginia Tech and Mimi Collins will play with N.C. State subsequent season.
“None of this caught us off guard,” Frese stated. “We noticed this coming via the season. We knew we had been going to be portaling this offseason.
“Sadly these days you’ll be able to’t make everybody glad. And I will say all people has completely different particular person causes, proper? One may need to be marketed higher than the opposite or be the main scorer or academically, Mimi wished to get into grad college right here and did not have the GPA to get in. So I feel each child has completely different causes.”
The losses despatched shock waves via girls’s faculty basketball. Reese was the best rated recruit — No. 2 within the nation — that Maryland ever signed and he or she exited after simply two seasons. She led the staff in factors and rebounds final season and was named a third-team AP all-American. Owusu was an honorable point out AP all-American after averaging the second-most factors and the second-most assists on the staff. She was Large Ten freshman of the 12 months, two-time Large Ten event MVP and a 3rd staff all-American in 2021.
Reese didn’t reply to an interview request and Owusu declined to remark, however in her Instagram put up asserting her departure, she referenced “occasions which have transpired on and off the court docket.”
“I’ve by no means began something that I haven’t completed, and ending was the plan after I determined to return to School Park,” Owusu wrote. “My aim was to have an amazing profession right here and to win a nationwide championship alongside a tremendous staff. I may image my jersey hanging within the rafters at Xfinity Heart.
“Sadly, occasions which have transpired on and off the court docket this 12 months have led me to make the very tough however mandatory choice to proceed my training and basketball profession elsewhere.”
Reserves Taisiya Kozlova and Channise Lewis additionally left this system by way of the portal.
Greater than 1,200 girls have transferred out this offseason, in keeping with WBB Weblog, which displays the switch portal. Frese stated that is simply life in faculty basketball in 2022. Coaches can count on to lose gamers yearly and must re-recruit their very own rosters.
“This switch portal, they opened the Pandora’s field,” Frese stated. “In a single to 2 extra years, all people will perceive that is the brand new regular. It’ll be what’s mistaken if you happen to don’t have somebody leaving? This would be the new regular of what’s been created.”
Frese and her employees actually work the portal themselves and had been notably energetic after their very own losses. Two years in the past, the Terrapins added Katie Benzan and Chloe Bibby and have become the No. 1 offense in faculty basketball with Benzan being the highest three-point shooter within the nation. This time it’s, 6-foot guard Abby Meyers (Princeton), 5-8 guard Elisa Pinzan (South Florida), 6-2 ahead Allie Kubek (Towson) and 6-foot ahead Brinae Alexander (Vanderbilt). Maryland additionally added 6-1 ahead Lavender Briggs (Florida) throughout the season and signed incoming freshmen guards Gia Cooke and Brianna McDaniel a month in the past. The 5-10 McDaniel is ranked the No. 42 total recruit within the nation by ESPN and the 5-9 Cooke is No. 52.
Meyers, a former All-Met from Walt Whitman, is the reigning Ivy League participant of the 12 months and was named an honorable point out AP all-American and Pinzan was AAC most improved participant in 2021.
There are solely 4 gamers from the 2021-22 staff on the roster and solely three of these — Diamond Miller, Shyanne Sellers, Religion Masonius — performed important minutes.
“I selected to play my last 12 months of faculty basketball at Maryland as a result of not solely am I from Maryland,” Meyers stated in an announcement, “however I grew up going to the ladies’s basketball video games on the superb Xfinity Heart! I’ve great respect for this system and all it has completed below Coach Frese’s management, and I need to assist proceed to construct the profitable legacy.”
Alexander, who led Vanderbilt in scoring final season, added, “I’ve had Maryland in my sights for some time now. The profitable tradition and a chance to play within the Large Ten had been each interesting to me. After talking with Coach Frese and her employees, I actually felt they wished to deliver me into their household.”
The switch portal and title, picture and likeness guidelines have created a type of free company for faculty sports activities. However even earlier than the total impact of these modifications, Maryland has misplaced different proficient gamers like Taylor Mikesell (Oregon, then Ohio State), Shakira Austin (Mississippi) and Olivia Owens (Kentucky).
“It was rather a lot, it was rather a lot,” stated Austin, who was the No. 3 choose within the WNBA Draft to the Washington Mystics. “On the court docket, I felt like I had extra to show. I had extra to present. Truthfully, simply wanted, like, a mentor. I felt prefer it’s greater than basketball. And for me, the issues I used to be coping with throughout that point, I actually simply wanted somebody who cared [about me] greater than being an athlete.
“Off the court docket, I used to be actually capable of develop and mature as a participant, and an athlete and, additionally, simply as a teammate [at Ole Miss]. I used to be simply capable of actually piece some stuff collectively.”
Frese dismissed the notion that deeper points have led to participant departures. She factors to the portal numbers and the truth that 262 Energy 5 groups had gamers switch out, in keeping with WBB Weblog. Maryland’s transfers get extra consideration due to the recognition and success of this system, Frese added.
“I respect that our followers are upset as a result of it reveals persons are invested in our sport and in our program. That’s an amazing factor,” Frese stated. “However having 20 years that I’ve been invested on this … I feel it’s disappointing due to the truth that you construct these relationships and make investments a lot money and time in these gamers and their households. However on the similar level, they’ve acquired to do what’s individually greatest for themselves.”
Frese obtained a contract extension in April and the two-time nationwide coach of the 12 months is about to be in School Park via the 2028-29 season. The staff has misplaced 12 video games up to now two seasons mixed and superior to the Candy 16 up to now two NCAA tournaments. The Terps have solely missed the NCAA event twice below Frese with the final coming in 2010.
“Two years in the past after we had been hit with the graduations and the switch portal, we had been capable of go in and get Chloe and Katie,” Frese stated. “And the subsequent 12 months, we led the nation in scoring. I used to be lucky sufficient to be named coach of the 12 months and no one left. However no one talked about that. All people was glad.
“Then you definitely go into this 12 months and egos can change. Various things that you really want as you evolve as a participant modifications. These are the person issues that they’ve to deal with. From our finish, I do know who we’re as a program. … I feel that’s the one factor when gamers have left, they’ve discovered, it’s a heck of a threat. The grass isn’t at all times greener some place else. So we want all of them the very best.”