Staying Focused On The Present

Diamond Miller caught the ball at the top of the key, got knocked slightly off balance, and then dribbled left, where she hoisted a one-legged runner. Swish. 

That was the scene on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022, in South Bend, IN, as the No. 9 Terps knocked off the No. 7 Fighting Irish in dramatic fashion at the buzzer. The win was the second of what would turn out to be seven ranked wins in a regular season that saw Maryland finish 25-6. As the ball fell through the net and hit the bottom of the floor, Miller shushed the road crowd as her teammates ran to embrace her. Later that night, she got social media shoutouts from Kevin Durant and Steph Curry. 

But as memorable as that night was for Maryland and Miller, it means very little at the current moment.

"It's very easy (to not think about the first game against the Irish)," Miller said Thursday morning before the team departed for Greenville, SC. "At the end of the day, that game happened, but it's March, and anything can happen so we need to be really prepared. Yeah, we won that game, but that doesn't matter at all now." 

"In March, the past doesn't matter," Miller added. "Anything we did prior doesn't really matter. Right now, all we're focused on is Saturday."

Maryland and Notre Dame are now slated to meet again, this time on Saturday, March 25, at 11:30 am in a Sweet 16 matchup—with much more on the line than there was on that Dec. 1 night in South Bend. 

"I think both teams are built really differently than when we played in December," head coach Brenda Frese said. "It's going to be a great matchup between two teams that are extremely competitive. In the Sweet 16, every team can play, so we're going to need to play a really strong 40 minutes."

For the Terps, who are making the 20th Sweet 16 appearance in program history, the game against the Fighting Irish will come down to attention to details and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win. 

"When you play any close game, the margin of error is going to be really slim," Miller said. "That's how it's going to be on Saturday. We have to be tight, we have to be focused and we need to rebound."

"It's about heart," Shyanne Sellers added. "It's about who wants it more. You have to play like it's your last game. That's the most vital part for us, just going out and laying everything on the line."

And while the Terps aren't looking back to their previous game against Notre Dame, there are a few things the team will remember, namely the lack of national attention around the team that began in the preseason and has continued through a remarkable 25-win season. 

Maryland, searching for its first Elite 8 appearance since 2015, has taken some extra satisfaction in making this run and proving some doubters wrong. 

"It never gets old," Frese said of reaching her third consecutive Sweet 16. "Just a lot of hard work behind the scenes, with our players and our staff. We understand that every round gets that much harder. We're truly just really grateful. I think in the offseason a lot of people questioned if this would even be possible and here we are going to another Sweet 16."

Similarly to Frese's point, the opportunity to play on the brightest stage has been made even sweeter for the players due to all the questions that those outside the program posed about the team leading into the season.

"Our team just loves big games," Sellers said. "We love the atmosphere and just everything about it. We want to make our name known. I think there were a lot of doubts about us going into the season, so the fact that we've been able to stun some people brings a lot of satisfaction."

During her media availability on Thursday before the team received a special sendoff to Greenville, Sellers compared the current team to the 2006 Maryland team. All that team did, as most Terp fans fondly remember, was win the first and only National Championship in program history. 

"People brushed them off just because they played two freshmen and two sophomores," Sellers said about what makes the two squads comparable. "And I think that's similar to this team with us having nine new players. A lot of people had questions about us and I don't think we get the respect we deserve."

Frese, who led the '06 team to that National Championship, sees the comparison herself in terms of the outside doubters not believing in the team. 

"I see similarities in how this team hasn't been talked about or received the recognition that I feel like they deserve," Frese said. "They've shown it consistently over so many tremendous wins. You get to the Round of 16 and there's not a lot of talk nationally. It does remind me a lot of '06. With that team, they didn't believe because they were young and this team they just, for whatever reason, don't believe they can move on with so many new pieces."

The current edition of Maryland Women's Basketball wants to leave its own legacy and create its own history. To keep doing that, they'll need to come out on top of what is sure to be a hard-fought battle between two talented teams. 

As an added bonus, they'll get to keep proving some doubters wrong along the way.

"This team is ready to keep continuing to prove other people wrong," Frese said. "We were picked 18th in the preseason and a lot of these predictions clearly were not right. I think we have a really prideful group in our locker room that came here to Maryland to continue to uphold our standard and our legacy and to be able to create their own path. It's a confident group. They're going in ready to continue on. We don't want our season to end."