The Maryland women’s basketball team?s schedule includes games against 16 teams that participated in the postseason last season and six that are ranked in the Top 25.
Coach Brenda Frese called the Terrapins? schedule the toughest they?ve had since she arrived in College Park in 2002. However, she also said none of those games will be as difficult as the Terrapins lone exhibition game on tonight at 7 at Comcast Center.
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Instead of facing a Division III school or a a barnstorming team of former collegiate players, Maryland will face country?s most talent squad: the U.S. national team.
“It will be the best team we play all year, that’s a no-brainer,” Frese said. “But I’d rather see games like that and that kind of competition compared to when you play an exhibition game and win by 40 and have a false sense of where you’re at. I’d rather know right away where we’re at, what we need to get better at and we’ll definitely know right away.”
The U.S. national team will face the Terrapins in the first of an eight-game schedule during which it will face some of the country?s best college teams, including defending NCAA champion Tennessee, UConn and Baylor.
Maryland’s players share Frese?s assessment. They believe testing their skills against some of the top players in the world is more important than the final score. Even with returning four starters from last season – all of who played key roles in the 2006 national championship team – Maryland is likely in for a difficult evening.
The U.S. team is 31-1 combined in two previous tours against college teams in 1995 and 1999. The only college team to win was Tennessee, which won 65-64 on a buzzer-beater by current U.S. team member Kara Lawson in 1999.
Other players expected to be on the U.S. roster are three-time Olympic gold medalist center Lisa Leslie and fellow 2004 Olympic championship team member guard Sue Bird, forward Swin Cash and guard Diana Taurasi. “They have great players and I know that our whole team is very excited to be playing the U.S. national team,” Maryland senior forward Crystal Langhorne said. “[The team has] players we have watched since we were younger. So the chance that we have to play people like Lisa Leslie is going to be a great experience.”
Wednesday’s exhibition also represents the first game of the college careers of Maryland’s five freshmen, including forward Drey Mingo.
“To be on the floor with people from the national team is just phenomenal,” Mingo said. “It’s going to be so surreal. I’m just going to have fun with it.”
