How undefeated Maryland overhauled its roster and still found immediate chemistry

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — There is no hesitation. Yes, Maryland head coach Brenda Frese said, this is the quickest she’s seen such strong chemistry come together in her 30-plus-year coaching career.

The No. 7 Terrapins (9-0) are excelling with 10 newcomers, including a program record-tying seven transfers. They entered the season as a question mark (albeit with a No. 18 ranking by Associated Press voters) hidden behind flashy Big Ten additions UCLA and Southern Cal. The two Los Angeles programs were among three teams each featuring two players on the coaches’ preseason All-Big Ten team.

“I don’t think a lot of people thought we were gonna have this much chemistry this early,” said senior guard Shyanne Sellers, the only Maryland player to earn preseason accolades, in an interview with Yahoo Sports.

Sellers is the linchpin, a WNBA first-round prospect who has experienced varied success in a four-year roller coaster at Maryland. Facing one final collegiate season, she provided key assists to the coaching staff as it righted the program back toward its standard.

“She was a huge cog even after those visits, staying in touch with the players that we wanted to be able to have,” Frese said.

Maryland didn’t add the biggest names in the portal. Instead, USC (Kiki Iriafen, Talia von Oelhoffen) and UCLA (Charlisse Leger-Walker, Timea Gardiner) won big while Oklahoma (Raegan Beers), Iowa (Lucy Olsen) and Texas (Laila Phelia) filled key holes. Yet, it did find the right veteran pieces that would fit well and succeed together.

Christina Dalce, a 6-foot-2 forward from Villanova who was named Big East co-defensive player of the year a season ago, ranks in the 99th percentile of field goal efficiency (68%) — up from 72nd percentile (44.1%) as a junior, according to Her Hoop Stats. She and Saylor Poffenbarger, a 6-2 former all-SEC freshman team honoree from Arkansas, are controlling the boards for Maryland, averaging a combined 16.2 per game. Sarah Te-Biasu, a 5-5 guard from VCU who won Atlantic 10 Player of the Year a season ago, is shooting 46.2% from 3-point range.

Kaylene Smikle, a 6-foot all-Big Ten second-team guard from Rutgers, is the standout already making her omission from preseason Big Ten honors look silly. The Terps’ first transfer commit of the offseason is averaging a team-best 17.9 points per game (eighth in the conference) on a 52.3/48.4/81 shooting split.

“We knew what we had, but everyone else had to figure it out,” Frese said.

Maryland resets roster

When Sellers committed to Maryland as the program’s only top-100 ranked recruit in the Class of 2021, the 6-2 guard joined a roster featuring the likes of Angel Reese, Diamond Miller, Ashley Owusu, Faith Masonius and Katie Benzan.

By the time Sellers’ senior year dawned, those players had either graduated (Benzan ’22, Miller ‘23) or transferred (Reese ’22, Owusu ’22, Masonius ’24). Despite a career-best Elite Eight appearance as a sophomore, Sellers and the Terps sputtered out of the 2024 NCAA tournament in the first round — the earliest in Frese’s 22-year tenure. They finished with the fewest wins since 2003-04 and ended the year unranked for the first time since 2010.

The Terps faithful aren’t used to seeing losses stack up. Frese, who also coached two years at Ball State and a year at Minnesota before joining Maryland in 2002, entered the ’23-24 season 620-177 in her head coaching career. The .777 winning percentage bested men’s college coaching greats Mike Krzyzewski (.766) and Tom Izzo (.712), as well as the NBA’s Phil Jackson (.704).

She led the Terps to their lone national championship in 2006 and has missed the NCAA tournament just twice. Since joining the Big Ten in 2014, the Terps have held nearly full control with a 168-34 (.832) record (including 22-5 in the conference tournament), six Big Ten championships and five tournament titles.

Frese used the rare extra offseason days, in addition to the school’s “One Maryland Collective" name, image and likeness dollars for the first time, to reset her historically dominant Maryland program. Sellers and junior guard Bri McDaniel were ready and more than willing to be deployed in the process.

“They lived in our offices,” Frese told Yahoo Sports. “They were really intentional of wanting to [be involved]. I think it speaks volumes of those two and wanting to bring great teammates into this program."

More than 1,300 players entered the portal, fueled partly by the final year of extra eligibility granted under the COVID-19 guidelines. Sellers sometimes threw out some names she was interested in playing alongside, or would begin the conversation with a transfer to gauge interest. If there was, she’d have them reach out to Frese.

“I wanted to make sure we had the right group this year,” said Sellers, whose 5.9 assists per game are a career high and rank 22nd in DI.

Once Frese and her coaching staff had a semblance of who they were trying to bring to campus on official visits, Sellers and McDaniel reached out to chat with them. In many cases, there were built-in connections. Sellers played with Dalce on Team USA’s 3x3 team that won the 2023 FIBA 3x3 U21 Nations League. Even more crossed paths on the AAU circuit.

Three incoming transfers played previously at UConn, another kickstarter to quick chemistry. Poffenbarger, who enrolled in college early, and Mir McLean, a 5-11 McDonald’s all-American guard most recently at Virginia, were freshmen at UConn along with 2021 National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers. McLean and Amari DeBerry, a 6-6 forward and former McDonald’s All-American, played briefly together in 2021-22 before McLean transferred midseason.

“Everyone's coming from different situations and just want to win,” Sellers said.

Terps move up rankings

Maryland reclaimed national attention with its transfer class, leading those voting in the AP Poll and in the Coaches Poll to reward the Terps with a No. 18 preseason ranking. The team quickly backed up the roster’s promise with results.

One week into the season, Maryland upset then-No. 11 Duke, 85-80, in front of their home XFinity Center crowd. Smikle led the offense with 23 points and was a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Dalce brought down 14 rebounds (seven offensive) for a double-double. Sellers dished out five assists while McDaniel (15 points) and Poffenbarger (seven points, four rebounds) contributed off the bench in a game Frese played seven players at least 20 minutes.

“Whoever you sub in is having more energy than we have on the court,” Smikle said. “Having 15 people who have such a great energy and competitiveness that they don’t want to give up just makes us come back every time.”

Three days later they took their first true road trip and fended off a feisty Syracuse team, 84-73, after the overmatched Orange drew within four with under four to play. Smikle (22 points, 10-of-10 free throws) led four players in double digits. Again, seven players logged at least 20 minutes.

“It’s easy to fall apart on teams when they go on their run,” Sellers said. “Now we’ve shown in back-to-back games they can punch us and we’ll punch right back.”

Maryland first fostered its team chemistry on an 11-day tour of Croatia from June 24-July 4. It granted them 10 extra practices and two preseason games, plus a “ton of bonding,” Frese said. Sellers continued that in the months since to ensure everyone felt welcome. She lit up the team group chats with open offers for meals, pool days and general hangouts. McDaniel and Allie Kubek, a 2022 transfer from Towson, are alongside her in the team’s leadership core.

“They know what the standard is [and] they can back that up in the locker room,” Frese said. “They know what things are important to us as a coaching staff, and you're able to kind of accelerate that [chemistry]. I think it also helps when you have transfers that have spent three or four years in the college system. So it's not like you're bringing in freshmen and there's so many unknowns.”

Maryland’s early non-conference schedule was light, with only two Power Four teams (Duke, Syracuse). Only one other game was closer than 22 points by the final buzzer (George Mason by 10). The Terps will face No. 4 Texas (7-0) in the Coretta Scott King Classic on Jan. 20 at the Prudential Center in New Jersey.

The Big Ten gauntlet won’t be as casual. Each team in the supersized 18-team conference will play 16 teams once and one school twice. The Terps open conference play on Saturday against Purdue and face No. 12 Ohio State (7-0) as its doubled-up opponent (Jan. 23 on the road, March 2 at home). No. 1 UCLA headlines nine Big Ten teams ranked in the AP poll. Three are in the top 10.

The Terps haven’t made it to the sport’s final weekend since back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2014-15. Buoyed by the right group of veteran transfers who have jelled quicker than any in Frese’s history, Maryland has quietly vaulted into the list of contenders.

“It's also a credit to these players we've brought in,” Frese said. “They're all winners. You can see that they're highly, highly competitive. They've done it at their other schools, at really high levels. And I think that’s kind of the cool thing.”

Yet, she also doesn’t hesitate to add one more cautionary remark every experienced coach is telling their teams this time of year.

“It’s still a long season,” Frese said. “It’s a long season.”