The Perfect Mesh: 2025-26 Women’s Basketball Preview

The dawn of a new women’s basketball season approaches and the light will soon shine on the Maryland Terrapins. Head coach Brenda Frese is entering her 24th season at the helm of the Terps after leading them to a 25-8 record in a 2024 season that saw Maryland reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

This year’s team isn’t expected to miss a beat and looks to pick up right where it left off. 

“We have a lot more scoring pieces,” Frese said. “I think the thing I'm most excited about is that I think we're going to be able to do a lot more defensively. We didn't have that with injuries last year, so I thought that slowed us in some areas. So, we're going to be able to pick up full-court again. We're going to be able to have a lot of different wrinkles on the defensive end. We should be a really great up-tempo team that's going to be able to score a lot of points.”

The expectations are high for Maryland this season. The Terps are ranked No. 10 in the preseason AP Poll and were picked to finish second in the Big Ten by the conference’s coaches and media panel. 

“I think it shows the legacy of Maryland, the recognition that Coach B has, that she can always get her teams to perform,” Saylor Poffenbarger said. “I think it just shows that, but at the same time, we feel like we fall into that culture. Getting preseason recognition obviously helps, but at the same time, it doesn't mean anything. We’re continuing to work towards the goals that we have.”

This year’s squad looks to be a perfect mesh of returning production and fresh talent. Aside from bringing back its top scorer from a season ago in Kaylene Smikle, Maryland also retained the talents of Poffenbarger and Bri McDaniel, who were all in attendance at the conference’s Media Day in early October. 

“We're super excited with the team that we have,” McDaniel said. “We have different backgrounds and different experiences from different places, so we’ll be able to mesh them all together and make a good team this year. We did a great job last year with how far we got, but we’re already thinking about all the good times and good moments that we'll have this year.”

Two key transfer portal additions may just be the key to the Terps’ successes in 2025-26. Yarden Garzon joins Maryland via Indiana and Oluchi Okananwa joins Frese’s squad from Duke. Garzon became the Hoosiers’ all-time leader in 3-point scoring just a season ago.

“Our first phone call, it was a great call,” Garzon said of recruiting talks with Frese. “She tried to learn a lot about me. I asked her about her family and what she's about. Obviously, she's one of the best coaches out there. The next day, I was on campus already, and got to meet everybody, and everybody was so honest and open with me, so it just felt like the right place.”

Garzon played against Smikle’s Terps last season, and Smikle’s excited to be able to play alongside Garzon instead of against her. 

“It really just makes it easier,” Smikle said. “Now you can’t always help off me. You have to watch for Yarden and her three-point shooting. If they do come to me, I'm going to pass it to her. It's just made the game easier for me, honestly.”

Okananwa is set to bolster the Maryland defense. She led the Blue Devils in steals in a 2024-25 campaign that saw her earn the ACC’s Sixth Player of the Year Award. 

“You have to have a great staff, and it starts there,” Frese said of her transfer acquisitions. “You have to be able to understand your roster, what you have, what you need, and then it's got to break the right way. So for us to be able to secure them right when Yarden went into the portal, as well as Oluchi. Those were two areas that we needed. Yarden’s 3-point shooting, someone who understood the league after being here for three years. And then Oluchi, a dynamic backcourt, athletic, someone who’s able to pick up full-court, has tons of energy on both sides of the ball. Two phenomenal additions to go with the experience that we already had off of this Sweet 16 roster.”

The new additions have already been flourishing in practice and the new-look Terps are ready to conquer the 30-game slate that awaits them in 2025-26. 

“It's been great seeing everybody click and mesh well together,” McDaniel said. “I feel like with this team, we never miss a beat. So I'm super excited to see how far we get this season and how well we mesh well together in these big games. I'm just super excited for this year.”

McDaniel and Smikle were key components of last season’s success and have adapted leadership rolls on this year’s squad.

“She’s very intense,” Smikle said. “McDaniel’s a dog. That's my partner in crime on the floor. We're going to be aggravating. Our press break is coming back. We have a lot of great pieces for our defense.”

Smikle had a tremendous year for the Terps a season ago and learned a lot about herself during her successes. 

“I'm capable of hard things,” Smikle said. “The coaches really told me to come in and be myself, like, don't change who I am, just play the flow of the game. Maryland’s a transition team and I thrive in transition, so it wasn't really a hard transition coming to Maryland, because that's just how they play.”

When asked about a secret weapon on the team at Media Day, Smikle wasn’t able to land on just one teammate.

“I don't have one particular person,” Smikle said.” I feel like we're going to have a balanced attack and we're going to have a lot of depth. So you can't just focus on one person. You're gonna have to focus on everybody on the roster.”

That speaks wonders to the meshing of another Frese team that’s expected to do great things this season. Poffenbarger, however, has her eyes on one freshman that’s been showing her international skills in camp.

“Lea Bartelme’s really impressed me,” Poffenbarger said. “She's come in as a very dominant force as a point guard. I think she sees the floor really well. She makes some really good passes, but she also can score. I think just coming from different experiences and being able to translate that and bring it over to the college game and bring it over to Maryland has been really impressive. She's definitely stood out to me.”

Bartelme hails from Kisovec, Slovenia, and will be a major piece of the Terps’ freshman class, a group that makes up 1/3 of the roster. They’ll have a chance to get their feet wet in the early parts of the season as Maryland opens with seven straight home non-conference games before heading to the Discover Puerto Rico Classic over Thanksgiving week. 

“I think the fans are super excited, and we're super excited as well to just, you know, build our kind of resume in the non-conference,” Poffenbarger said. “It’ll get some confidence up, get our new players ready, get all of us playing together, since we do have a lot of new pieces. But it's not something to take for granted that Frese is giving us that advantage to play at home. I think she's kind of setting us up to get ready in the beginning half of the season in time for conference play. We're going to be really intentional about our road games. But I think just being able to start at home is definitely an advantage.”

From there, the Terps will stare down an 18-game Big Ten slate as they look to build an NCAA Tournament resume and secure a top seed in the Big Ten Tournament (Mar. 4-8).

“We have a great conference,” McDaniel said. “We’re able to understand that yes, we are a good team, but we also have to beat out a lot of great teams. So just being able to not let that cloud our heads, but use that as a chip on our shoulder and just make us grind throughout the season will be big for us.”

Ahead of the season, Maryland Athletics unveiled its new Barry P. Gossett Basketball Performance Center, designed to set its athletes up for success on and off the court. 

“Coach B and I had the same reaction to the practice facility,” McDaniel said. “It just makes us even better with the practice facility, all the workout equipment, the gyms, the just even down to the locker room. Everything is just amazing. We're super grateful for it. I believe that's the best practice facility in the country, hands down.”

With 19 home games on the schedule, the team is counting on every last fan to make their voices heard and create an impact. 

“I always think your fans are kind of like your sixth man,” Poffenbarger said. “Just to have their momentum and them here to support us is really important. I think they're gonna like what they see. We have a really special team, a really fun group. I think it's going to be crucial to have a big fan base. I think Maryland fans always show out, so continuing to give us that support that they do give us will be really important.”