Frese's Take: 2014-15 Season Outlook
9/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The 2013-14 Terrapins experienced the thrill of the lifetime - a magical run to the NCAA Final Four. The Terps committed before the NCAA Tournament and banded together to make one of the most special runs in school history.
A year later, the Terps will be faced with losing arguably the most valuable player in program history and a senior class that was more than dependable, all while changing conferences to the Big Ten.
“The first things that will probably come to people's minds are that Alyssa Thomas graduated and we lost two other senior starters as well,” head coach Brenda Frese said. “How do we make up for that? How do we grow as a team, so we can sustain the standard we've set? The answers to those questions will reveal themselves as the season unfolds.
My mind goes back a little to the year after Kristi Toliver and Marissa Coleman graduated. We had a very raw group of players who weren't ready yet for the responsibility of helping us win every time we took the floor. That's because we had just spent a lot of years watching great players carry us in all kinds of situations.”
The difference now is that the 2014-15 Terrapins have played on the nation's biggest stage and made huge contributions to get Maryland back to the Final Four.
“The difference with this team is I think we have players that have already shown that they are ready for that responsibility,” Frese said. “Last season, what allowed us to make a run is we had players around Alyssa really emerge as the season developed. Our second, third and fourth leading scorers were freshmen. We started a freshman (Lexie Brown) at point guard and a freshman in the post (Brionna Jones), and the freshman that didn't start (Shatori Walker-Kimbrough) played minutes similar to a starter. Then you look at a player like Laurin Mincy, who will be a fifth year senior who has shown the ability to assert herself in big games. Brene Moseley has done that as well for us. We do have players that can score the ball, which is what we've always built our best teams around.”
Terps Go B1G
After 37 years in the ACC, the Terrapins will now compete in another strong conference - the Big Ten. While there are many unknowns as the Terps head into a new era, Frese knows they will face them together.
“The other question that will come up is 'What will it be like playing in the Big Ten?' The answer to that one is 'we'll all find out together'. I think the conference race will be pretty competitive. I'll be surprised if any one team dominates the league. I think there will be a lot of teams that on a given night can get a win. What's going to be a lot of fun for our players is that we'll be going into road arenas that have better fan support that what we're used to seeing.”
New Faces
The Terrapins will welcome three freshmen - Kristen Confroy (Solon, Ohio), Aja Ellison (Burlington, N.J.) and Kiara Leslie (Holly Springs, N.C.) - to the lineup.
“Our three true freshmen are each at different points in their progression right now,” Frese said. “They've each been here since the middle of the summer and they've already been immersed academically. Basketball-wise, Kiara Leslie and Aja Ellison are both coming back from injuries that made them miss their senior years of basketball. Kristen Confroy has a unique experience in that this is the first time she's played only one sport. In high school, she was a star soccer and softball player as well.
Health-wise, I would say Kiara is ahead of Aja in terms of being ready to go 100 percent. We've seen each of them in workouts and they all have something to offer. Kiara is a really powerful player and can elevate. Aja elevates well, too and Kristen has given us indications that she'll be able to shots for us.”
Point Guards
Sophomore point guard Lexie Brown stepped up early in the season last year to establish herself as an impact player. Her performance in the Terps' run to the Final Four gives her experience that is irreplaceable. Redshirt junior Brene Moseley and junior Chloe Pavlech also gave strong performances to give the Terrapins invaluable depth.
“We're really fortunate that we have three good options at the point guard position,” Frese said. “Lexie Brown became our starter early on last season and made the ACC All-Freshmen team. She became 'Big Shot Brown' for us in moments and was critical to our run to the Final Four. She's a highly intelligent young lady and when you combine that with growing up in an NBA family, she has intangibles that others in our sport never will.
Brene Moseley has had an amazing offseason. She's really grown as a leader, which is something coaches love to see. We are all very proud of her and how she is maturing.
Injuries have wreaked havoc with her. She missed her senior season of high school with an ACL, then played here her freshman season. Then she missed her sophomore season with another ACL. So entering last season, she had missed two of the previous three seasons with injuries. That can make it tough to find consistency again, especially when you want it as badly as Brene does. I'm expecting a good season from her this year and we need her.
Chloe Pavlech showed us her freshman season that she could do the job, leading us to the NCAA Sweet 16 as our starting point guard. We threw her into the fire when our other point guard options got hurt. There was a bit of irony in her sophomore season, because she didn't stay healthy during the first part of the season and she wasn't able to play for a while. So Chloe has had two different sagas in two seasons. Obviously, we're hoping she has a really strong junior season for us. I really enjoy coaching Chloe for a lot of reasons. She is really bright, a great communicator and she can connect people.”
Wings
The Terrapins have experience and depth at the wing position as well. Redshirt senior Laurin Mincy - the Terps' lone senior - found her stride at the end of last season just in time to help the Terrapins in the NCAA Tournament after an injury. Sophomore Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and junior Tierney Pfirman came up big for the Terps in multiple moments. Redshirt freshman A'Lexus Harrison will also find her way into the mix this season.
“At the top of the list of our wing players are probably Laurin Mincy and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough,” Frese said. “They've each given us some really quality minutes on the perimeter. When we recruited Shatori, we did it with the idea that she could be a difference-maker for us and I think she confirmed that last season. We really want to grow her and Lexie Brown as one of the best young backcourts in the country.
I love versatile players and some of our point guards can slide over to this spot as well. Kristen Confroy will be a valuable contributor here as well and it will be interesting to see if she can be sort of a combo guard for us.
Laurin will likely get the first crack at filling the three spot. We'll certainly adjust what we do to fit her qualities. She's had a good summer and I really want her to come out with confidence. She deserves to have a really good senior season.
We have some other players that can possibly bounce between the three and four spots for us. Tierney Pfirman has played the three for us and has done it well. Kiara Leslie and A'Lexus Harrison will be able to get minutes as they develop. And in her freshman season, when we were down to six available players, Malina Howard actually played some here for us, so we do have options.”
Frontcourt
The Terps' biggest strength the last few years has been dominating inside - on the glass and scoring in the paint. They led the nation for most of the year, in rebounding and in points in the paint. They averaged over 42 boards per game and scored 42.4 points per game inside.
“We were thrilled last season with the emergence of Brionna Jones as a reliable presence in the middle," Frese said. "Coming off an ACL in high school, she exceeded our expectations with her conditioning, production, feel for the game and her work ethic. She is a really driven young lady and has some of the best hands we've ever had here in our program. She catches everything that she gets her hands on.
Malina Howard is someone we'll really be looking to for leadership and to make a difference on the court for us. I thought she was going to get off to a fast start for us last season, but a hamstring injury really slowed things down for her unfortunately. She can shoot the ball well and is a legit threat at the high post.
Tierney Pfirman can be a very dynamic player in our front court. She has some qualities that a lot of players at this spot don't have, in that she can play like a guard. She can grab the rebound and start the break. She can fire passes the length of the court. And she has the patented 'Tierney-Turnaround' jumper that she has a knack for hitting. I really want her to break out and become a consistent threat for us.
Kiara Leslie, A'lexus Harrison and Aja Ellison all have a chance to develop and earn time here. They each bring stuff that can help us, but none of them have played at this level yet. So we'll see what happens when the lights come on. All three can run and jump and make us a more athletic team.”
Staff
Frese is fortunate enough to bring back associate head coach Tina Langley for the seventh season and assistant coach Marlin Chinn for the sixth year. This summer, they hired Shay Robinson as an assistant and welcomed back Danielle Hemerka as the director of scouting and player development and Joe Schoen as the director of video.
Robinson, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, ran the EDGE Basketball Training Facility in Orlando, and had coaching stops at Air Force and at Kansas most recently.
Hemerka was with the Terrapins as the assistant to the recruiting coordinator from 2009-2012. She spent two years as an assistant coach at American and one at Saint Francis (Pa.), before she returned to the Terps this summer.
Schoen was an intern on the Terps' video staff for the 2012-13 season and is a graduate of James Madison. He spent last season as the video director for the Colorado women's basketball program.
“I'm excited about this coaching staff,” Frese said. “I like all the people surrounding me and we've had a very positive vibe. We had to replace some folks who advanced and got hired at other places, but that's just a byproduct of winning. I know that comes with this territory. So far, I'm really happy with the people we've brought in. And equally important, I think our players are too.”
“United We Can”
Frese and her staff have developed the tradition of choosing a team theme for each season. After the 2010-11 season, Frese and the staff felt like their young Terrapins didn't finish every game, so they developed the theme of, “Fight to Finish,” for the 2011-12 season. In 2012-13, the staff wanted to push the team to have everyone working their hardest in all aspects of life, on and off the court, so they chose the theme, “All in to W.I.N.” The W.I.N. stood for What's Important Now.
“Each year we come up with a team theme, which is actually a lot of fun for us to create,” Frese said. “This year's is 'United We Can', which I think speaks to the togetherness we have on our team right now. We think if this group really buys in and believes in each other, we can have another really good season.
Some of our previous season themes were 'Fight to Finish', which was about continuing to battle until the very end of everything. And last year was 'We Will', which was a play off of the Under Armour 'I Will' ad campaign. It seemed appropriate and it was another way of emphasizing how important it was for us to work together. And actually, once we truly started to do that, we made a run to the Final Four. So let's hope this year's theme works out as well.”
-Terps-
