WASHINGTON — Considering the wealth of success that the Maryland women’s basketball program has enjoyed over the years, it’s all the more impressive that Brenda Frese has led the Terrapins to consecutive Final Fours for the first time in school history. With the Terps’ 58-48 victory Monday night, she established herself as not only one of the great coaches in the game today, but among the greatest of all time at this point in her career.
Now in her 16th season as a head coach and her 13th in College Park, it’s worth looking where Frese ranks among the elite coaches in the college game. During her time on the bench, Frese’s teams have made 12 NCAA Tournaments, advancing to the Elite Eight six times and to the Final Four three times, winning the 2005-06 National Championship.
Consider this: The great Pat Summitt led Tennessee to a 412-149 (. 734) overall record in her first 16 seasons, along with a pair of national titles. Geno Auriemma, at Connecticut, went 425-152 (. 737) in his first 16 years, also claiming a pair of championships. Frese has a better overall winning percentage (398-133, .750) than each of them, and could match both on the championship count with a title this season.
It’s only fitting that Frese made each of these Final Four runs by ending Tennessee’s season, as the Volunteers have not advanced to the Final Four since Summitt’s last year at UT. The Terps toppled the Vols to go to the Elite Eight last year, then a round later a year to the day in Spokane.
The symmetry between coaching legends extends even further, as Maryland advances to face Auriemma’s UConn in the national semifinal game Sunday in Tampa.
As impressive as last year’s run was, this one stands in another class after Maryland lost five seniors, three of them starters, including all-American Alyssa Thomas, the program’s all-time scoring leader. But Frese’s and her team’s adaptability — their balance, their multifaceted attack — has been their calling card.
The Terrapins have had seven different leading scorers throughout the season. Even more impressively, they’ve had a different leading scorer in each game so far in the tournament.
After watching Lexie Brown struggle to a one-point performance in the regional semifinal win over Duke, Frese took her star point guard under her arm and spoke to her in the closing moments. Brown responded against Tennessee, hitting a bucket right before the half to get in the scoring column, then exploding in the second half to lead the Terps with 15 points as they pulled away to victory.
While a win over worldbeater UConn will require a truly special performance, nothing can take away from a special Maryland season that has seen the Terrapins win their last 28 games. With only one senior on the squad, there’s no reason to think Maryland couldn’t be right back here again next year.
As for Frese, she’ll turn just 45 next month, leaving her plenty of time to chase down the giants in the game. Only seven coaches have reached the 900-win plateau, with a few others closing in on that mark. Considering that Frese has averaged better than 29 wins over her last 10 seasons, 500 or so more victories doesn’t sound all that far away.
