Rutgers @ Maryland (4) - 12/31/18

[Husky fanatic]

Tough to win games when all you play are cupcakes. Best to have some competition before you have to face someone who hits back. You're correct that the Terps have stayed in the national picture for a while; they get tremendous talent because of the team's proximity to DC. But the measure of teams like MD is how well talent is utilized (or if key players don't transfer). As someone who lives in the state, I consider Brenda's body of work disappointing. However, if your criteria include just "being there," the team is that--there.

Brenda does lead WBB in televised pre game speeches

 

[j66kicker]

Honestly, I don't dislike Brenda. Still not thrilled with how the whole Laura Harper situation went down, but that's really ancient history. I do find her pre game and half time pep talks cloying and uninspired, but she gets a fair amount out of her teams and has consistently been a fixture in the national picture for many years. It's hard to have that kind of staying power. Certainly UCONN, Notre Dame, Stanford, probably Baylor, but that's about it for teams that are consistently in the top 10 year in and year out.

Sure they might have a down year or 2, but they build themselves back up, unlike Duke who has pretty much disappeared from the national scene. Tennessee seems to be on the comeback trail too.

Eric, you’re so kind. Honestly, I DO dislike Brenda. I have no problem holding grudges in sports (and I’m not even Italian). Pat and Tara are still on my list too . Sports are just sort of a fantasy world for most of us. Can get all those bad emotions out in a harmless way, and have more of the kinder & gentler stuff for real life.

 

[huskyd]

This game brings up a question..could this happen to UConn? The gap is closing in the AAC. Although not as fast as it has in the BIG 10. Is it possible that an AAC team finally defeats the Huskies? Remember Temple came real close (63-60) 2 years ago. Seven of the twelve conference schools finished their OOC schedules above .500.

"When I watch it on film, anyone can beat anyone," Frese said of the conference, which Maryland joined four seasons ago. "This is a perfect example. A team that is unranked, but the rosters are full of talent. So you can't out-talent people anymore."

Afterward, Knights coach C. Vivian Stringer attributed that effort to a suddenly healthy squad, which went three players deeper into its bench than its ranked opponent.

"We have really been practicing with the full complement of players for about two weeks," she said. "You could see different lights, different things that would happen, and think, Man if we can get all these people on the floor at the same time.' ... So we've all come together at this special spot to make something special happen."

"We're going to get everybody's best game," Mikesell said. "Coach B was big about that coming in, and we finally had to have it happen to us to really know it's a real thing."

"This is the first time that we've been able to know we have depth," Stringer said. The loss was only the Terrapins' fourth at home in Big Ten play since they moved from the ACC before the 2014-15 season.

UConn is the biggest game on all of their conference opponent's schedule. Every team in the conference will give them their best game!! UConn can ill afford to approach any conference game thinking that "it's just another conference game". While it may be to UConn, it's not to their opponents. When you don't take an opponent seriously, you can be harmed by that over confidence. That said, I don't anticipate UConn losing to an AAC conference member this year. I expect all AAC match ups to be business as usual.

AAC overall standings as of 1/1/2019
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You can't "out-talent anybody anymore"? Gasp. You don't mean you have to out-coach them? Horrors. Clearly it's an unfair burden on coaches to have to do a better job preparing their teams than the burden that falls on coaches who rely on pep-talks or other such Pablum. This is the loser's rationalization. Try skipping the excuses, accept responsibility for shoddy work, and stop talking about the "Maryland way of playing basketball."

 

[RockyMTblue2]

You can't "out-talent anybody anymore"? Gasp. You don't mean you have to out-coach them? Horrors. Clearly it's an unfair burden on coaches to have to do a better job preparing their teams than the burden that falls on coaches who rely on pep-talks or other such Pablum. This is the loser's rationalization. Try skipping the excuses, accept responsibility for shoddy work, and stop talking about the "Maryland way of playing basketball."

You might remember that a few years ago Brenda was so eaten up with envy she took a few swipes at Geno. The main swipe being that he really didn't have to coach with the talent he had. Remember? And she was all too happy to get on the Shaughnessy wagon too.

 

[bbsamjj]

You can't "out-talent anybody anymore"? Gasp. You don't mean you have to out-coach them? Horrors. Clearly it's an unfair burden on coaches to have to do a better job preparing their teams than the burden that falls on coaches who rely on pep-talks or other such Pablum. This is the loser's rationalization. Try skipping the excuses, accept responsibility for shoddy work, and stop talking about the "Maryland way of playing basketball."

If you read her full interview, you see Coach Frese is not making excuses at all. Her point is that her team can't just show up and think they are going to win. She said she saw this coming from how they've been practicing, that you can't take any game off, that you can't just assume because you're tall you're going to get the rebound. I actually thought her presser was a refreshingly honest take on a young team that doesn't have the maturity it needs at the moment to win games it should win in the big ten.