College Park Renaissance
When Frese arrived at Maryland prior to the 2002-03 season, she brought with her the buzz of a rising star in the women's hoops coaching fraternity, as well as a remarkable recruiting acumen. Her first highly coveted recruits, Shay Doron and Kalika France, marked the beginning of an ever-expanding stream of blue-chip talent being funneled to College Park.
Despite winning only 10 games in her first season, Frese, the 2002 AP National Coach of the Year, has quickly returned Maryland to national prominence. As of November 2007, Frese has guided Maryland to an overall record of 180-60 (.750) including six consecutive NCAA tournament berths, five consecutive 20-win seasons, four 25+ win seasons, the program's fourth NCAA Final Four appearance and the 2006 NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship. Maryland received its first-ever No. 1 preseason national ranking in 2006-07. The Terps remained in the top spot in the polls for 10-consecutive weeks. To begin the 2007-08 season, Maryland was ranked #4 in both major polls and was selected the top preseason pick for the 2007-08 Atlantic Coast Conference women's basketball season by a vote of the ACC media. Frese led Maryland to the 2008-09 ACC regular season and 2009 ACC Tournament Championships.
Player-wise, as of the spring of 2009, all 20 seniors to play for Frese at Maryland graduated. Frese's high octane Maryland program has also produced four "Top Ten" WNBA Draft Picks- Crystal Langhorne (2008), Laura Harper (2008), Marissa Coleman (2009) and Kristi Toliver (2009). Shay Doron was a 2nd round pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft- a remarkable accomplishment considering her final two college choices were Harvard and an at the time rebuilding Maryland program.
Read more about this topic: Brenda Frese
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