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

[msf22b]

Seems honest and honorable after a terrible home loss

 

[Plebe]

Head Coach Brenda Frese Opening Statement:

"I thought we got beat by a better team today. This team came into our building and competed for 40 minutes. They came out and shot the ball extremely well to start the game. They beat us in the paint, they beat us off the glass, and off of turnovers. Their game plan and scouting report against us was very scout specific. They earned a great win. There are valuable lessons for us to be able to learn in December that I think we can take moving forward to help us to improve and help us to get a lot better."

On rebounding issues:

"It's not a surprise to me, that this presented itself. This is something we've been talking about for a really long time. I knew at some point that it was going to catch us. We've always outtalented people, and this has been an Achilles heel in our practice for a really long time. The ability for us to have that discipline and be able to box out is where it's at. It's not going to change moving forward with the amount of talent and teams we're going to face. We have to make a decision that we're going to fix that piece that's being exposed, or it's going to continue to rear it's ugly head."

More here: (PDF) - University of Maryland Athletics

Does anyone in the Maryland athletic department have a spell-checker?

"They were more physical than us and they never let up defensively. They made us expose our
shot selection. We took very quick shots instead of driving the basketball and being aggressive.
They had a really good game plan of the shooters to guard and who to step off of, and really
made us take some uncharatiristc shots".

 

[MilfordHusky]

Thank you. I did not know that about Walz and Maryland. I remember when they won it all but I heard only about the head coach.

Toliver made a 3-pointer at the end of regulation to force OT, in which the Terps won. I think the YouTube video clearly shows Jeff drawing up the play for Kristi.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Thank you. I did not know that about Walz and Maryland. I remember when they won it all but I heard only about the head coach.

Or so they say. I don't like Brenda's style, and the comments about her "speeches" seems accurate. There was a program quite a few years ago, called something like "Under the Shell" that followed the women's team. Very interesting, so far as it went, but what i call a true Rah-Rah style coach (Peck was another one).

She is a good recruiter. She has had strong assistants at times. To whatever extent, head coaches always need the right assistants for them to be successful.

Very happy for Rutgers.

 

[Coler]

So very proud of this team. I knew we had the potential to be really good, and I think this is a big step in that direction. We are finally getting healthy and are starting to gel. We are still missing Sanders and have not heard a timeline for when she'll be back either. However, Cryor, who missed 8 games due to a violation of team rules has been playing great since her return. Calhoun, I believe is fighting a finger injury, so her shooting slump could be because of that.

And then we have Noga, so I believe is a gem. Her three shots late in the game was clutch.

Onto Brown Friday, and then Penn State on Sunday.

 

[ScarlettB]

Brenda has been outcoached for 10+ years. Everyone knows Walz won the National Championship. Frese is just a great recruiter , cannot coach.

I think you are being unfair to Brenda. She may not be as good as Geno, but she has won a lot of games both with and without Walz. Her ability to recruit has made it possible to win those games, but to be fair, none of the great coaches would be where they are without the ability to recruit top talent. Walz is an excellent coach too, but he still hasn't won the big one as a head coach and Brenda gets to claim that NCAA Championship as head coach. A lot of assistants draw up plays, but it is up to the head coach to decide which plays are run. I don't think her game plan was that bad today, she just ran into a team that was really focused and executing better than her team did. Her team is very young and very talented. I believe they will continue to improve under her leadership.

 

[huskyd]

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.

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.

 

[boontonbomber]

Well, how 'bout a round of applause for CViv! Ooops, not on this site; probably more a matter of Maryland losing the game anyway.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Way to go, by my 2nd favorite team!

 

[Checkmate 2.0]

I think you are being unfair to Brenda. She may not be as good as Geno, but she has won a lot of games both with and without Walz. Her ability to recruit has made it possible to win those games, but to be fair, none of the great coaches would be where they are without the ability to recruit top talent. Walz is an excellent coach too, but he still hasn't won the big one as a head coach and Brenda gets to claim that NCAA Championship as head coach. A lot of assistants draw up plays, but it is up to the head coach to decide which plays are run. I don't think her game plan was that bad today, she just ran into a team that was really focused and executing better than her team did. Her team is very young and very talented. I believe they will continue to improve under her leadership.

Drawing up a play is the tip of the iceberg, Walz ran practice and did most of the game strategy. Maryland WBB is known for bad ball handling and poor defense ever since Frese became the coach.

Sure, she has won a lot of games. How many wins were against top 10 teams? Her non-conference schedule with one or two exceptions is pathetic.

 

[Blueberries]

Why didn't Maryland drop in the coaches poll after this loss?

 

[Shades]

Why didn't Maryland drop in the coaches poll after this loss?

I kinda wonder if they balloted the votes a day early because of the holiday, so yesterday’s games weren’t factored in. Minnesota rose in the coaches poll, and Michigan didn’t receive any votes despite looking worthy of some.

 

[JonathanXIV]

I was there. What stood out from the stats was Rutgers took 17 more shots than Maryland. What stood out from being there was Maryland being very slow in the backcourt. Rutgers literally got every 50-50 ball in the game. I'm sure your board would love this but Brenda really got outcoached this afternoon.

Well, when was the last time Brenda outcoached someone?

 

[CocoHusky]

Why didn't Maryland drop in the coaches poll after this loss?

Just a guess: I think the new "week" starts on Monday. The poll still shows MD & Minnesota as undefeated. Minnesota lost to Michigan on Monday. Both losses should be factor into week 9 of the poll.
NCAA Women's Basketball - Coaches Poll | USA Today Sports

 

[Husky fanatic]

Every team has a week schedule. Week to week to week. Just saying.

Was waiting for that!!!

 

[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.