COLLEGE PARK, Md. — On Thursday the University of Maryland women's basketball team hit the court for one final practice inside Xfinity Center before making their way south to get sweet.
"I think our team just loves it - the atmosphere, everything about it. We love big games," said guard Shyanne Sellers.
"We’re feeling very excited and we’re just ready to play on Saturday," added guard Diamond Miller.
Second-seeded Maryland plays No. 3 seed Notre Dame on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in Greenville, South Carolina.
The Terrapins are going in with a little bit of a chip on their shoulder.
"We want to make our name known. People had a lot of doubts for us coming into the season. So, the fact that we were able to stun a lot of people, it has a lot of satisfaction," said Sellers.
"This team is ready to continue to keep proving other people wrong," said head coach Brenda Frese. "We were picked in the preseason 18th and a lot of these predictions, clearly they were not right."
The Terps are led by Miller, a second team All-American and future WNBA draft pick. The senior is embracing the big stage.
"All your success is the reason why you are playing in these type of games," she said. "So, I don’t change who I am. I am not going to change how I play and I’m just going to continue to do what I’m doing."
There is no doubting the talent and the chemistry on this Terps team has all come together at the perfect time as they try to advance past the Sweet 16 for the first time since they got to the Final Four in 2015.
Since then they fell in the Sweet 16 in 2017, 2021 and 2022.
"I keep joking, we’re going to break the curse this year," said Sellers.
"It’s March and, yeah, I want to get over that hump for sure," said Miller.
"It’s a confident group. They are going in ready to continue on," added Frese. "We don’t want our season to end. We love being together and we want to continue to have more practices and more games."
Follow Shawn Stepner on Twitter @StepnerWMAR and Facebook
