It?s fitting the Maryland women?s basketball team was picked to win the Atlantic Coast Conference by the media and the league?s coaches because expectations for the Terrapins have never been higher.
The Terrapins are the overwhelming choice as the ACC?s best team entering the season in a league in which six teams made the NCAA tournament last season and four ? North Carolina, Duke, N.C. State and Florida State ? advanced to the round of 16.
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Maryland went 28-6 last season after being upset by Mississippi in the second round of the NCAA tournament, preventing the Terrapins from winning their second consecutive national title.
“All you have to look at is our postseason play and how many teams made it into the NCAA tournament,” Maryland Coach Brenda Frese said. “You can tell it?s not a three-team conference and I expect more of the same this year. Every team out there has strengthened themselves and gotten better.”
Especially Maryland. The Terrapins return four starters from the squad that won the school?s first national championship in 2006, led by ACC Preseason Player of the Year Crystal Langhorne.The 6-foot-2 senior forward averaged 14.9 points and 8.1 rebounds last season, and could be the first place selected in the WNBA Draft this April.
But before the Terrapins can look to the future, they must focus on becoming the top team in the ACC, something Maryland was not last season.
Maryland went a combined 0-4 against North Carolina and Duke, which enter the season predicted to finish second and third in the conference.
Florida State, which went 24-10 overall and 10-4 in conference, is predicted to finish fourth, while Georgia Tech (21-12, 9-5) rounds out the top five. Maryland defeated Florida State, 74-60, but Georgia Tech upset the Terrapins, 77-72 in the regular season. However, Maryland defeated the Yellow Jackets in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament, 75-59.
“Last year when we lost to Georgia Tech we realized we can?t take anyone lightly and any team in the conference is capable of beating us,” Langhorne said. “The ACC is so good and there are so many good teams out there now.”
It has been 19 years since Maryland won the ACC tournament title. Maryland junior forward Marissa Coleman said it would be nice to end that streak, but she?s more concerned with winning the NCAA championship after the second-seeded Terrapins embarrassed by seventh-seeded Mississippi, 89-78, at the tournament last season.
“Anytime you have the extreme high of winning the national championship and aren?t able to follow up on it is very disappointing,” Coleman said. “But, it was a learning experience for us. Not many teams know what it feels like to win a national championship and then come back the next year and lose.”
