For Maryland’s Brenda Frese, this trip home to Iowa is ‘kind of an empty feeling’

IOWA CITY — Brenda Frese will bring the University of Maryland women’s basketball team to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the fifth time Monday night.

The Terrapins have won a couple here, lost a couple. Regardless of outcome, it has always been a homecoming for the Cedar Rapids native. A family reunion.

This time, it’s less joyous, more hollow.

“It’s kind of an empty feeling,” Frese said in a telephone interview Friday morning.

Instead the usual night-before-the-game team meal in Cedar Rapids, Frese and her family will gather Sunday night in Iowa City. Her mother, Donna, will be there, along with some of her siblings.

The Super Bowl will be on TV in the background. There will be a meal and conversation. And a unanimous ache, the kind that comes with profound loss.

This will be Frese’s first Maryland-Iowa game since the death of her father. Bill Frese, 89, of Cedar Rapids, died Jan. 16 in his home with his family after a two-year battle with prostate cancer.

“He was the ultimate dad,” Frese said. “He was so supportive of all six of us kids. I don’t think he and Mom ever missed a game.

“I have a lot of fond memories of him, taking a basketball in a grocery sack to St. Matthew’s Elementary. He had a key, and he rebounded shots for me and Marsha and Stacy.”

There are some names in the Cedar Rapids/Marion metropolitan region that holler “basketball.” Bohannon, for example. Paige.

And Frese.

From the late 1980s into the mid-1990s, Brenda, Marsha and Stacy hoisted the Cedar Rapids Washington girls’ program to lofty heights — Brenda won a state title in 1988, Stacy did the same in 1995.

As good of a player as Brenda was, she has been better as a coach. Now 51 and a 1989 Washington graduate, she owns a career mark of 587-167. She is in her 20th season at Maryland (530-137), including an NCAA championship in 2006.

The 15th-ranked Terrapins (18-6 overall, 10-3 Big Ten) are in their eighth season in the Big Ten, in contention for their seventh regular-season title. They can take another step toward another crown Monday when they visit No. 25 Iowa (16-6, 10-3).

Tipoff is 8 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena; the game will be televised nationally by ESPN2.

“We’ve been hit by a lot of adversity,” Frese said. “Injuries, COVID, different situations.

“We’re used to some sort of chaos. But now, we’re starting to get some sort of rhythm and flow.”

Like the Hawkeyes, Maryland is playing short-handed these days.

“Right now, we have eight (available players), and just six in our rotation,” Frese said.

Iowa counters with eight active players of its own after Gabbie Marshall returned for the Hawkeyes’ win over Minnesota on Wednesday. Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said afterward it was possible McKenna Warnock (injured hand) would be back Monday.

Frese was asked for her take on Iowa sophomore dynamo Caitlin Clark, who leads the nation in scoring and assists.

“Oh, gosh, she’s one of the best point guards in the country, if not the best,” Frese said.

“Her ability to score the basketball ... you can tell she puts a lot of time into her game. She’s clipping at a high assist rate, so she’s getting everybody involved.

“She’s got a lot of similarities to (former Oregon star) Sabrina Ionescu. She’s a dynamic scorer, her assists, her rebounding, her triple-doubles.”

Bet on a high-scoring prime-time encounter Monday night. Iowa is third in the nation in scoring (84.6 points per game); Maryland is seventh (80.4).

“It’s going to be a track meet, that’s for sure,” Frese said. “It’s going to be fun.”

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com