When the Terrapins women’s basketball team met at center court Wednesday around 3 p.m., it marked the end of practice for most players.
Not Tierney Pfirman.
After the Terps dispersed from their huddle, assistant coach Shay Robinson walked with the forward toward the end of the court and began a shooting drill that lasted about 20 minutes. The second-year coach fed Pfirman the ball at various locations on the floor, and the 6-foot-2 forward put shots up without taking a dribble. Rarely did she watch her attempt clank off the rim.
“It’s just day in and day out,” Pfirman said. “Just repping the same thing over and over and over again.”
Entering Thursday’s game against Wisconsin (7-19, 3-13 Big Ten), Pfirman has provided crucial offensive production off the bench this year, averaging a career high in points per game (8.0) and three-point shooting (45.5 percent). It’s a tribute to the work Pfirman put in during the offseason to maximize her potential in her final season in College Park.
“I just think it was a mentality of just your last year — senior year — just leaving it all out there for what it’s worth,” Pfirman said. “Just to perform what they need me to do and whatever they ask me to do out on the court, and just let the game come to you and not try to force anything.”
The highly touted recruit from Pennsylvania made an immediate impact with the Terps, starting 12 games and averaging 7.3 points in nearly 20 minutes as a freshman, but her numbers in those categories dropped the next two seasons even though she played in 71 of 74 games.
The Terps (25-3, 14-2) advanced to the Final Four in both campaigns, but Pfirman wanted to contribute more.
So after she got her tonsils removed last spring, Pfirman started running on the treadmill and getting more shots up in the gym. She also paid closer to attention to her nutrition, an area Robinson said Pfirman would admit she didn’t focus on earlier in her career.
Even when Pfirman suffered setbacks in preseason workouts — a stress fracture in her fibula followed by a hamstring injury forced her to miss about three-and-a-half months — Robinson ensured that his veteran player wouldn’t fall too far behind.
While the rest of the team practiced, Pfirman engrossed herself in individual workouts with Robinson.
Robinson made sure to construct a drill suited to Pfirman’s strength — her mid-range game — while also striving to help Pfirman further incorporate the three-point shot into her repertoire. After making one of her seven long balls the past two seasons, Pfirman is 15-for-33 from beyond the arc this year.
“There was one time when we were doing transition threes and I was like, ‘I’m not going to shoot these in the game,’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, you will,'” Pfirman said. “Ever since then I just kind of haven’t held back in my shooting game and just shot.”
Robinson has labeled Pfirman a “zone buster,” as her stroke from 17 feet and beyond forces teams to extend its defense. And if opponents decide to man up, Robinson said, doubling down on a Terps frontcourt player would leave Pfirman alone for an open shot.
“You can always count on Tierney,” center Malina Howard said. “She’s going to knock down the shot. I know we’re always looking for her.”
Howard has always had faith in Pfirman, who was the No. 22 overall player out of high school, according to ESPN.com‘s Hoop Gurlz rankings.
Now in her final season with the Terps, she’s a vital asset to a team looking to advance to its third straight Final Four.
“The difference with T now is she’s really trying to find out how good she can be and how much of an asset she can be to the team,” Robinson said. “Now you’re seeing the results of all of that commitment and that new mental focus. You’re seeing it transform on the court.”
