COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland women's basketball coach Brenda Frese captured her 500th win with the Terps after a victory over Nebraska on Sunday 95 to 73.
Frese recently tied Chris Weller for the most wins in program history when she snagged her 499th win against Wisconsin on Feb. 4.
Under Frese, Maryland won a national championship in 2006, reached the Final Four three times and became a dominant force in the Big Ten after moving from the ACC in 2014.
This season, Frese has her team atop women's basketball again. Maryland has a 14-2 overall record and the Associated Press Coaches Poll has the team ranked ninth in the country.
Frese currently has 547 wins in women's college basketball.
Lured from Minnesota to take over for the Terps, Frese endured a miserable inaugural season that featured 18 losses and a one-and-done appearance in the 2003 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament.
Yet as the Terrapins headed home from North Carolina following their final defeat, then-athletic director Debbie Yow knew she made the right choice for the successor to future Hall of Fame coach Chris Weller.
“I was on a plane with them and I heard Brenda say to her coaches: ‘OK, this year is done. If we ever miss the NCAA Tournament again, we’re not doing our jobs,’” Yow recalled this week. “And I thought: ‘OK, all right. That’s not what every coach would say.’”
Given a full year to recruit a new crop of players, Frese rebounded to go 18-13 the following season. That launched a stretch in which the Terrapins went to the NCAA Tournament in 15 of 16 years, winning 21 games during their only miss. They'd have made it last year, too, if the tournament wasn't canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
