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Future Hall of Famers Lisa Bluder and Brenda Frese had their moments Sunday in Carver
Marion and Cedar Rapids in the house. Former Iowa women’s basketball coach Bluder got saluted at halftime. Maryland Coach Frese got the win as her unbeaten Terrapins topped the Hawkeyes, 74-66.
Jan. 5, 2025 9:17 pm, Updated: Jan. 6, 2025 7:51 am
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IOWA CITY --- Sunday was a day in Carver-Hawkeye Arena for a woman who grew up in Marion and one who grew up in Cedar Rapids. One day, they will be together in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
The former is the now-retired Lisa Bluder, who was saluted with a halftime ceremony at Sunday’s Maryland-Iowa women’s basketball game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The latter is Brenda Frese, whose 14-0, No. 8 Maryland team staved off a fierce comeback from the Hawkeyes to go home with a 74-66 win.
Bluder won 884 games in 40 seasons, was the National Coach of the Year in 2019 and was a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year. She got the Hawkeyes to the national-title game in 2023 and 2024.
Frese got win No. 653 Sunday in this, her 26th season of coaching. She was National Coach of the Year in 2002 and 2021, and won a national-championship in 2006.
At halftime, Bluder was surrounded by former players and a lot of other people with connections to the program and women’s basketball. She retired with a program that is sold out for the season a second-straight time.
Sunday, 14,998 fans did everything they could to roar their team back into the game after it trailed by 25 points late in the first half.
“They never left early,” Frese said. “They were there through the whole time. They’re a massive X-factor.
“This is a really hard place to come in and play, and it used to not be that way. So it says a lot about Lisa, really happy for her and her retirement, but she created this and they haven't missed a beat with Jan (Jensen).”
Maryland squeezed into the NCAA tourney last season, but was 19-14 overall and 9-9 in the Big Ten. That was an outlier-and-a-half. Her Terrapins have been models of consistent excellence, and they are back.
“They’re really great,” Jensen said. “I think Brenda is a tremendous coach.”
Frese returned three starters, but pulled a lot of talent out of the NCAA transfer portal last spring to make her team whole again. One of those transfers, guard Kaylene Smikle, scored 26 points and stole the ball six times. She came to Frese from Rutgers.
“You get some great portal people, and you can get that chemistry going pretty quick,” Jensen said. “ They're not just older. They've been somewhere. It hasn't been great, right? They chose to leave. So you kind of have the disappointments, the setbacks ... so then when they get here and you’ve got a really good coach ... when it's starting to really feel good, man, you get the best of them.”
The Terrapins are the Terrapins again, with No. 1 UCLA and No. 4 USC the only Big Ten teams ranked above them. You could call them coastal elites.
Maryland had lost three of its last four games against Iowa, an underrated achievement in the long list of what Bluder’s Hawkeyes with Caitlin Clark did the last few years. The Terps hadn’t won in their last three trips to Iowa, which is nothing a great competitor like Frese wanted in her former backyard.
The two programs have respected and continue to respect each other, though. Maryland, for all its winning tradition, has averaged 7,778 fans per home game this season. That’s a lot by national standards, but Sunday’s crowd was a rare and somewhat intimidating thing for her players, especially the transfers.
“I love it,” Frese said. “Growing up here and coming to camp here in Carver ... you can see the success, obviously, that Iowa had with their back-to-back Final Four runs and Caitlin. And then, just to continue (with the packed arena), this is who the Midwest is. This is who Iowa is.”
Frese went to Maryland and built a dynasty. Bluder stayed in Iowa and built something beloved by many. Jensen, who was with Bluder for all of her 24 years at Iowa, said this about her friend:
“She showed people how to be a champion.”
Bluder is a 2025 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame nominee. She’ll get there, and Frese will follow. Cedar Rapids and Marion may want to have initial talks about planning a parade.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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