Rebuilding Terps still have a reputation to uphold

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -For Maryland women's basketball coach Brenda Frese, raising 20-month-old twins isn't much different from trying to tutor a squad with five freshmen and four sophomores.

"Infants at home,'' Frese said, "and infants at work.''

Frese led the Terrapins to the NCAA title in 2006 and reached the round of eight each of the last two seasons. Over the past four years, Maryland was 126-19 and rarely strayed from the top 10.

But Marissa Coleman and Kristi Toliver, members of the winningest class in school history, are no longer around to provide leadership, rebounds and points. In their place are a gang of youngsters not unlike Frese's rambunctious twins, Tyler and Markus.

And that's not entirely a bad thing.

"At home, I'm rewarded by seeing my kids show daily improvement and growing up before my very eyes. At work, it's no different,'' Frese said. "That's what gives you such a buzz.''

For the first time in years, Maryland isn't part of the Top 25 preseason poll. After finishing in a first-place tie in the Atlantic Coast Conference last year, the Terrapins are picked to come in fifth.

There is some question whether this immature team will qualify for the NCAA tournament for a seventh straight season, but Frese can't wait to find out.

"I love it,'' she said. "This year, with two new staff members as well as so many new players, it feels like my first year as a head coach. That's invigorating. You're constantly being challenged in terms of different play calls and how you're making your team better.''

It also means Frese must be a lot more patient.

"You can't just throw the ball out there and have us win 30 games. You're going to have to coach us up a little bit,'' senior guard Lori Bjork said. "I think there have been moments early on in the practices where she thought putting in a particular set or a defense was going to take five minutes. It ended up being 25 minutes.''

Bjork sat out last season after transferring from Illinois, and the only other senior on the team, Emery Wallace, has yet to start a college game. Add to that the five freshmen who have no idea what it's like to play in a Division I game, and you've got an inexperienced team with a huge reputation to maintain.

"Even though we've got a lot of new faces, there's still kind of an expectation, a standard, that we expect to meet for ourselves and for this program,'' Bjork said.

They may be young, but their jerseys will still read MARYLAND. That in itself will provide incentive for many of those teams the Terrapins dominated during the Coleman-Toliver era.

"I don't think anyone is going to feel sorry for us,'' Frese said. "People will be excited to play us, probably feeling like they have an opportunity to be successful against us. So I've got our players ready to wear the target that's on your back when you put on a Maryland uniform.''

The process is well under way. At home, Frese gets excited when her twins expand their vocabulary and grow out of infancy. On the court, she takes pride in seeing the freshmen and sophomores begin to understand the intricacies of a 2-3 zone and full-court trap.

"Literally, every single day there will be a player that surprises you in practice,'' Frese said. "We were a veteran team last year, and the plays you expected out of Marissa and KT, you got spoiled. You got to see those every single day. I don't see that anymore, but you do get to see the learning process taking place.''

The schedule is ideal for this kind of team. Eight of the first nine games are at home, and Maryland will play 14 times over two months before delving into the ACC portion of its schedule.

By then, the underclassmen should be familiar with each other, the playbook and the responsibility of playing for one of the nation's most respected women's basketball programs.

Toliver and Coleman went through the same process before heading to the WNBA.

"When you look at our team, I think the first thing that jumps out at you is that there are going to be a lot of question marks this season and we are very unproven. There will be some erratic play,'' Frese said. "But the great thing is, when you look back at Toliver and Coleman, they also had a learning curve to deal with.''

Although it appears to be a transition year for Maryland, the players have no intention of waiting to win.

"To me, the expectations are the same,'' sophomore center Lynetta Kizer said. "We're still the Maryland women's basketball team. So we're going to go out there and compete like we haven't lost a Marissa Coleman or a Kristi Toliver. We want to get back to the ACC championship and elite eight, and move from there.''