Frese won her 600th game with Maryland Thursday.
No. 16 Maryland women’s basketball head coach Brenda Frese’s players showered her with confetti as she laid on the ground doing snow angels.
Out of context, it may have seemed a bit over the top for a regular season victory against an average Oregon team, but the win was Frese’s 600th as Maryland’s coach. It was just another milestone in what has been an illustrious 20-plus year career.
“It’s harder to stay on top than get to the top,” Frese said. “What I am most proud of is that consistency, and it’s really what it should be in a team sport, everyone lining up and pulling together in the same direction.”
We ranked Frese’s 10 best victories with the Terps.
10. Feb. 21, 2023: vs. No. 6 Iowa, 96-68
Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics.
Maryland generated a couple wins against women’s hoops’ biggest star, Caitlin Clark, during her time at Iowa, but none were more memorable than when it dominated the Hawkeyes on its home court. Brinae Alexander, who came off the bench, was the story of the game with 24 points on six made threes.
The backcourt of Shyanne Sellers and Diamond Miller outdid Clark and Gabbie Marshall in front of a crowd of more than 9,000 at the Xfinity Center. Iowa went on to make the National championship game.
“It’s always satisfying to beat Iowa, being a fellow Iowan myself,” Frese said. “When you have Caitlin Clark, the star power that she has and what she meant to the game, just to do it in front of our fans, our sixth man, and have it be in Xfinity, and have it be such a convincing win.”
9. March 3, 2023: NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 vs. No. 3-seed Notre Dame, 76-59
Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics
Maryland’s 2023 NCAA Tournament run brought them as far as the Elite Eight, culminating in a No. 3-seed vs. No. 2-seed matchup in the Sweet 16. It was the second time the Terps saw Notre Dame that season after Miller went to South Bend and hit a buzzer-beating midrange shot in the regular season.
The Fighting Irish were young but talented, led by Sonia Citron and KK Bransford, who are both currently juniors. Notre Dame got out to a significant first-half lead after a 13-0 run put it up eight points in the second quarter. Maryland came out and dominated the third quarter, though, behind the dynamic play of a young Sellers relentlessly attacking the rim. She finished with 18 points, eight assists and five rebounds.
“This run for sure is going to be one that we don’t want to end,” Frese said after the game. “When you talk about this journey and you take it from a year ago, with all the question marks coming in and losing 85% of your offense to now us sitting in Elite Eight. This one is going to be one I’ll remember for a really long time.”
8. Dec. 11, 2022: vs. No. 6 UConn, 85-78
Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics
Only one time in nine tries has Maryland taken down Geno Auriemma’s UConn. In front of a raucous Xfinity Center crowd of 12,566 fans, the Terps had clutch 3-pointers from Alexander and Miller to seal the deal in a tight contest. They hit 12 total triples that day.
“That was a special win,” Frese said. “Especially to do it at Xfinity and to beat UConn, and just the standard that Geno [Auriemma] has set in his program.”
7. March 8, 2015: Big Ten Tournament Championship vs. Ohio State, 77-74
Mike DiNovo-Imagn Images
In Maryland’s first season in the Big Ten, Brenda Frese and company faced a huge task of battling a slate of new foes. The Terps finished the season with an undefeated conference record of 18-0, winning all three games of the conference tournament to capture its first-ever Big Ten title.
In the championship, Maryland snuck by Ohio State on the back of four players scoring in double figures. A 31-point performance by Kelsey Mitchell wasn’t enough for the Buckeyes.
“One of the biggest memories I have is when we went into the Big Ten and that transition, you didn’t know what to expect,” Frese said. “For us to go undefeated that year, 18-0, and then undefeated in the Big Ten Tournament and winning it all that year. That’s a memory I’ll never forget.”
6. March 4, 2012: ACC Tournament Championship vs. Georgia Tech, 68-65
(Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
The final time Frese took home the ACC Championship — a conference she terrorized for 13 seasons — came in 2012. Alyssa Thomas scored 29 points, her then-career-high, to lead Maryland over Georgia Tech.
This served as Thomas’ signature moment in a season where she won ACC Player of the Year en route to Maryland’s 10th ACC Championship, the most of any program in the conference.
“Alyssa is by far the most competitive player I’ve ever coached and I’ve coached a lot of great players,” Frese said after the game. “Her will to win — our team just wants to follow her lead, and she was sensational.”
5. March 8, 2009: ACC Tournament Championship vs. Duke, 92-89
Frese has had her share of success against the Blue Devils, particularly when it has mattered most. Maryland had split the regular season series against Duke, and it took a heroic effort from Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver to give it a late lead.
Still, a Chante Black tip in at the buzzer broke Maryland’s heart to send the game to overtime. Frese immediately picked up her dejected players and refocused them for the extra period. Coleman and Tolliver scored nine of the Terps’ 11 overtime points, leading the way to Frese’s first ACC Tournament championship.
Coleman finished with 28 points, 15 rebounds and six assists.
“Marissa and [Toliver], when you talk about leading their team in overtime, that’s who they were,” Frese said. “They were like Batman and Robin with how they played off each other. Anytime you can beat Duke, a huge rival for us in those times, is massive.”
4. March 30, 2015: NCAA Tournament Elite Eight vs. No. 2-seed Tennessee, 58-48
Photo by William Mancebo/Getty Images
For the second straight season, Frese led Maryland to the Final Four. In 2015, the Terps had only lost two back-to-back games early to Washington State and Notre Dame at neutral sites. Against Tennessee, Maryland rode the backs of Brionna Jones, Lexie Brown, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and Laurin Mincy. Defense was key in this one, as Tennessee shot 32.4% from the field and 18.2% from deep.
“I just remember the resiliency of that team,” Frese said. “I remember they were in their burnt orange uniforms, and we were in our bright yellow gold uniforms. It was just, again, like having had the confidence of the team before going to the Final Four really helped the next season, so they were completely prepared and knew what to expect.”
3. April 4, 2006: NCAA Tournament Final Four vs. No. 1-seed UNC, 81-70
Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images
North Carolina lost just two games in the 2005-06 season — both to rival Maryland. The Terps handed the Tar Heels an overtime loss on their home floor in the regular season, before North Carolina returned the favor in the ACC Tournament championship game.
All that set the stage for a massive matchup in the Final Four. The Terps and Tar Heels traded blows until a Maryland run early in the second half created some separation as Toliver hit Maryland’s only three of the game to extend its lead to double digits. The Terps won the game without any points from their bench.
“Kristi Toliver was getting an IV before the [Elite Eight] game because she was so sick,” Frese said. “Then, we line up to win that game to go to the Final Four, and then to take it to the championship and Final Four, you played two elite teams in your conference.”
2. April 1, 2014: NCAA Tournament Elite Eight vs. No. 3-seed Louisville, 76-73
Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images
Before the rules changed, higher-seeded teams hosted NCAA Tournament games through the Elite Eight, making for some of the most difficult road environments in college basketball. That’s what Frese’s team was faced with, as it headed South to take on Louisville in a packed KFC Yum! Center. Feeding off the crowd, the Cardinals built a first-half lead with Schoni Schimmel causing Maryland all kinds of problems.
Luckily for Maryland, it had perhaps the greatest player to ever wear its jersey in Thomas, and she propelled a big third-quarter run to take the lead. She finished the game with 22 points, 13 rebounds and three steals.
Louisville brought the game back to within a possession, as Schimmel got one last 3-pointer off at the buzzer, but it didn’t drop, and Maryland advanced to Frese’s second Final Four.
“I always said it would be an injustice if Alyssa didn’t make it to a Final Four with everything she did leading our program to new heights,” Frese said. “You used to play on teams’ home courts, and to beat Louisville on their own home court is a memory you’ll never forget, a sold-out arena and a game that went down to one possession.”
1. April 4, 2006: National Championship vs. No. 1-seed Duke, 78-75
Photo courtesy of Maryland Athletics.
The biggest game in the history of Maryland women’s basketball, bar none. Toliver tied the game with a 3-pointer with six seconds remaining to force overtime and overcome a 13-point deficit. In fact, she scored the seven most important points in the program’s history, also hitting a step-back jumper to keep the game alive late in the fourth quarter and knocking down clutch free throws to give the Terps the overtime lead.
Duke’s Jessica Foley had a chance to tie it with a 3-pointer at the overtime buzzer, but the shot fell short.
The Terps fought sickness throughout the tournament, forcing them to practice outside in a parking. The mantra of that team: crunch time was “our time.” That certainly proved fitting.
“Duke probably had a deeper roster than us. I thought our chemistry was better, but they had a deeper roster. But Kristi Toliver, a freshman, hit that shot to take it to overtime. The mindset was there … those kids had no doubt that they were going to finish it out,” Frese said. “In my first year, we lost to Duke by 51 points, whatever that number was, and to come back four years later and beat Duke in the National Championship game, you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”