Now at 15 straight NCAA Tourney bids, Brenda Frese still in awe of her Lady Terps' consistency
Brenda Frese arrived in College Park in 2002, fresh off a dramatic one-season turnaround at Minnesota, and her Lady Terps went 10-18 – but since the next season, Frese has guided the squad to 22 straight winning seasons, a Natty in 2006, and now 15 straight NCAA Tourney berths (including 2020 when they won the Big Ten but the tourney was canceled due to COVID).
And even as she prepares her team for what she hopes is a fourth trip to the Final Four, she still can’t believe that her time in Maryland has led to all this success.
And even more so now with the way the college game is progressing with NIL and the transfer portal.
“I think especially through the lens of our student athletes, this year we brought in 10 new players and seven transfers, and I asked them the other day how many have played in the NCAA Tournament, and for a lot of them, it’s their first time,” Frese said. “For a lot of them, it’s the first time, so it’s a big deal, and this is what you work so hard for. You celebrate, because the players put in this body of work that started back in the summertime to prepare themselves for this moment, and it’s (harder than ever). You used to have that continuity on your roster and kids that had played in two or three tournaments, and now it's a lot of rosters being overhauled from year to year. You never know each and every year what that chemistry is gonna look like, and you have to stay healthy, so there are just a lot of variables out there that make it a lot more difficult.”
Listen to Coach Frese's entire visit above!
