Last summer, Kiah Gillespie received a call from her father, Levy. He had spoken with Terrapins women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese and learned the Terps and Connecticut had agreed to a three-game deal, which was announced Aug. 5. The series featured home games for both squads, but the first contest was set for three days after Christmas at Madison Square Garden.
Kiah Gillespie, a Meriden, Connecticut, native, knew months before she suited up for her first career game that she would battle the nation’s premier program at one of basketball’s most historic venues.
“I think I was one of the first to know,” Gillespie said, “And then I told my teammates and they were all excited. It was like, ‘Oh wow. That’s a great opportunity for us,’ and things like that. It was just kind of exciting.”
This season’s game, which is a part of the 10th annual Maggie Dixon Classic, provides the No. 6 Terps with an opportunity to avenge their blowout losses to the No. 1 Huskies the past three seasons. Last April, the Huskies thrashed Frese’s squad in the Final Four, 81-58, en route to winning their third straight national title.
And for Gillespie, who was a senior at Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, during the Terps’ defeat last season, Monday’s game is a chance to shine on a national stage against her home-state school.
“I’m just real excited to play with my team, especially on a stage like that,” Gillespie said. “We’ve been working really hard and we’ve got a lot of great talent, and I feel like it’s a great way for us to display that. And I just think it’s a perfect opportunity for us.”
Gillespie, who lives about an hour from the Huskies campus in Storrs, Connecticut, said she occasionally remembers watching coach Geno Auriemma’s teams dominate college basketball. She recalled watching former Huskie greats Maya Moore, Tina Charles and Stefanie Dolson. Former guard Renee Montgomery, who played from 2005-2009, was one of her grandmother’s favorite players.
“It’s a great program and it’s in-state,” Levy Gillespie said. “So it’s all you hear about.”
But Levy Gillespie said he and his daughter, who started playing basketball at about age 4, hardly ever discussed playing at Connecticut. But as Gillespie excelled on the court in high school, it appeared suiting up for Auriemma was a possibility.
In addition to helping her team win back-to-back state championships her sophomore and junior seasons — it went 27-0 her junior campaign — Gillespie won the Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year award twice. As a senior, Gillespie averaged 31.2 points and 16.2 rebounds per game.
Gillespie’s performance during the 2014-15 season earned her a spot in the McDonald’s All-American game, making her the second player from the state of Connecticut to play in the event, which began in 2002, and the first since West Virginia guard Bria Holmes competed in the game in 2012. In addition, Gillespie was a consensus top-30 recruit with more than 30 Division 1 offers.
Connecticut came around, too, as Gillespie and a high school teammate observed a Huskies practice and met with the coaching staff when she was a junior. Auriemma attended one of Gillespie’s games the same year, while assistant coaches Shea Ralph and Marisa Moseley showed up at various practices.
The interest in the 6-foot-2 forward was there, but the offer never was.
“I just thought they’re going to do what they have to do in order for them to be successful,” Gillespie said. “[Auriemma] was successful with what he got, and I think right now, I think I’m very happy with where I went. So I can’t dwell on those things.”
Instead, Gillespie spurned offers from Miami, Tennessee and Ohio State, among others, and verbally committed to join the Terps on Aug. 7, 2014. She credits the coaching staff, the fan base and the tradition as reasons behind her decision.
And when she steps on the court for the Terps (11-0) on Monday night against Connecticut (9-0), Gillespie will have the extra motivation of playing against a program she grew up following.
“I’m sure she’s hyped, No. 1 because it’s UConn,” said Tammy Millsaps, Gillespie’s high school coach, “She’s a Connecticut kid, and at one point UConn did express some interest. But it didn’t work out, and now she’s at Maryland.”
She’ll also have the luxury of playing in front of her hometown fans, as Levy Gillespie said about 75 of his daughter’s friends and family members will occupy section 115 of Madison Square Garden. Gillespie believes some students and faculty from Capital Prep Magnet will make the trip as well.
“It’s all been storybook,” Levy Gillespie said. “Like her being from the small state of Connecticut with very little recognition for in-state players, to actually go out and be apart of a top-five program in the country. And then to be able to play against the home state in Madison Square Garden? It’s storybook.”
CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated the game was two days after Christmas. The game is three days after Christmas. The story has been updated to reflect this correction.
