The Terps run off the court for a timeout during the second half of the Terps’ 83-72 win at Xfinity Center on Feb. 23, 2014.
The Terrapins women’s basketball team continued its collection of accolades in its inaugural Big Ten season Monday night. The conference announced coach Brenda Frese as the Big Ten Coach of the Year and named four players to the All-Big Ten First and Second teams.
Frese led the No. 4 Terps to the Big Ten regular-season title behind an 18-0 conference record, marking just the third time in Big Ten history a team emerged from its conference slate without a defeat.
Frese’s award is the fourth time the 13-year veteran has earned conference Coach of the Year honors during her career. Frese won Big Ten Coach of the Year in her only other season in the conference with Minnesota in 2001-02, when she also was named the AP National Coach of the Year.
“I’ve always believed Coach of the Year is really about the team, but I think what will separate this award from every [other] one is just how this team went about it,” Frese said. “To go undefeated in a new conference and everything that they had to go within the season says a lot, and [it’s] something that I’ll truly remember.”
The Iowa native grew up watching the Big Ten, and she said the conference is as deep now as it has ever been. Frese also won Coach of the Year during her two-year stint with Ball State in the Mid-American Conference as well as in the 2013 season with the Terps.
She is one of two coaches to earn the accolade in three different conferences and also be named the National Coach of the Year.
Meanwhile, sophomore guards Lexie Brown and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough were named to the conference first team by both coaches and media.
“To be able to see the coaches and the media understand how valuable they [Brown and Walker-Kimbrough] both were to our team’s success was tremendous,” Frese said.
Center Brionna Jones earned First Team recognition from the coaches and Second Team from the media, while guard Laurin Mincy earned Second Team honors. All four players garnering recognition from the conference are averaging double figures in scoring this season, and they all rank in the top 30 in the conference in scoring average.
“I’m extremely proud for our program,” Frese said. “Those awards don’t come without the success of the team.”
The honors are just part of what the Terps are hoping to achieve this season, though. They’re already eying the Big Ten tournament as the next opportunity to make their mark.
The No. 1-seed Terps will face the winner of a matchup between No. 8-seed Michigan and No. 9-seed Michigan State at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois on Friday afternoon.
“It’s special to be able to see when you work hard great things happen,” Frese said, “but at the end of the day, we still have bigger goals we want to accomplish.”
