COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Out of all of the division one men’s and women’s basketball teams in the state of Maryland, only one is heading to the NCAA Tournament - the Maryland Terrapin women.
Head coach Brenda Frese and her crew learned Sunday night their first-round opponent will be Iowa State on Friday in Palo Alto, California. The Terps are the No. 10 seed in the Portland 4 region. The Cylones are seeded seventh.
This is the 14th straight season Maryland has earned a bid to the big dance. The Terrapins enter the tourney with a record of 19-13. For a while their chances at qualifying were teetering on the brink. But a strong finish to the season, which included beating the Big Ten’s top-seeded team Ohio State in the conference tournament, secured Maryland’s at-large selection.
It is the 20th time in Frese's 22 seasons with the Terps she has led her team to the game’s biggest tournament. She calls this year’s trip "truly rewarding".
"To be able to kind of see where they are peaking here in March, it’s been a journey and truly a couple weeks ago we were on the bubble, on the outside looking in. To see the buy-in and the trust it's very rewarding," she said. "For us it’s this last push that we have and this last tournament that we’re most excited about."
"In postseason your records don’t matter. Everything is 0-0. So, I think it’s really about who wants it more, who is hungrier. I think that is what it’s about. You have to have the right mentality for March. It really doesn’t matter if you have won 30 games or 15," added guard Shyanne Sellers.
"I’m just excited. This is what we work for, to be able to play in March. We’re just excited and we’re going to be ready," said guard Jakia Brown-Turner.
Sellers and Brown-Turner have really led their team over the last few games. Sellers averaged 17 points per game in the Big Ten Tournament.
Last season the Terrapins advanced their eleventh Elite Eight in program history. It's going to take some upsets to do that again. But they are confident. Frese described her team as "built for March".
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