A road trip to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 2 years in the making

IOWA CITY — Brenda Frese can't wait.

'I've been looking forward to this trip for two years,' said Frese, a native of Cedar Rapids and women's basketball coach at the University of Maryland. 'Whenever the conference schedule comes out, the first thing I look for is whether we're home or away against Iowa.'

This year, it's away. And it's Sunday.

The Big Ten's new center of power, eighth-ranked Maryland (13-2 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) visits No. 23 Iowa (12-3, 2-1) at 2 p.m. in a game televised by ESPN2.

It's a road trip for the Terrapins. And it's a homecoming for Frese, 45, who graduated from Washington High School in 1988.

Frese will take her team to the home of her parents — Bill and Donna Frese — shortly after the plane touches down at the Eastern Iowa Airport.

'I'm sure there will be a lot of laughter. I'm sure the girls will find a lot of throwback pictures to use against me,' she said.

Frese played at the University of Arizona, then got into coaching immediately. She landed her first assistant job at Kent State, spent two years there, then joined Bill Fennelly's staff at Iowa State.

Her first head-coaching stop was at Ball State for two seasons, then she was the national coach of the year at Minnesota in her lone winter there in 2001-02.

She was hired by former Maryland athletics director Deborah Yow in 2002, and winning has been constant and consistent since.

Maryland won a national championship in 2006. The Terrapins have been to the Final Four each of the past two years.

'They're big and they're physical,' Iowa's Ally Disterhoft said. 'They want to hurry you up. (Frese) is a very fiery coach. She coaches with great passion.'

Maryland joined the Big Ten in 2014, went undefeated in league play in its first season as a member, then followed that with a conference tournament championship.

The Terrapins tasted their first Big Ten defeat against Ohio State, but followed that with an 89-50 blistering of Nebraska on Thursday.

'We've been able to rebound the basketball well,' Frese said. 'Our inside-outside game (of Brionna Jones and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough) has led us.'

Iowa's resilience will be tested Sunday. The Hawkeyes coughed up a 17-point lead in an 82-75 loss Thursday at Michigan.

'We could have taken the positive energy and great momentum from a win (Thursday), but we let that go away,' Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said after the game. 'It's going to be hard getting up for practice (Friday), but we're going to have to find a way.'

Despite the loss, Frese has been impressed with the Hawkeyes in what was supposed to be a rebuilding season.

'It's always a team that will scrap and claw for 40 minutes,' Frese said. 'A lot of people thought they would be down because they lost a lot to graduation. They've done a great job, and they'll come out guns ablazing Sunday.'

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