November 1, 2022 - Basketball Preview

The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper

the diamondback

2022-2023

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Diamond Miller stayed with Maryland women’s basketball.

Now it’s her turn to lead it

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Maryland women’s basketball wants to be ‘positionless’ with reshaped, shorter roster Kevin Willard has a plan to meet Maryland men’s basketball’s high expectations

Maryland men’s basketball warms up prior to its 68-55 loss to Indiana on Jan. 29, 2022. (cam andrews/the diamondback)

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diamond miller

Diamond Miller stayed with Maryland women’s basketball Now it’s her turn to lead it

By Ian Decker | @iandecker111 | Staff writer After swapping sunny Gainesville, Florida, for chilly College Park, Lavender Briggs underwent surgery last January to repair a stress fracture in her left shin, a procedure that prevented her from playing for Maryland’s women’s basketball.

Transferring in the middle of a season left Briggs with few familiar faces, but there was one person who quickly made the Utah native feel welcome: Diamond Miller. The first day back from Briggs’ surgery, Miller, Faith Masonius and Shyanne Sellers were in her room helping out.

“That meant a lot to me because I was new here and I got a pretty big surgery, and she was there for me right off the jump,” Briggs said.

Miller, a standout guard, enters her senior season as the undisputed leader of a perenni-

ally competitive Terps squad with lofty postseason expectations. In three seasons playing under coach Brenda Frese, she has achieved many accolades, including All-Big Ten First and Second Team honors to go with a 2021 Big Ten Tournament Co-MVP award.

But last year tested Miller. She struggled with injuries and underwent surgery while many of her now-former teammates transferred out of the program.

She declined to speak on the process that ultimately ended with her decision to return but delved into the unseen impact of the surgery and the surrounding turmoil the spring brought.

“I was literally, when people were leaving, going through surgery, so it was just a lot for me

at that time,” she said. “I knew I wasn’t healthy, and I was more focused on just being happy … than I was about what school I was attending. I was just really focused on my injury and being around people who loved me and cared for me.”

Miller, who again was named to the All-Big Ten Preseason Team, returns to a reshaped Maryland team as its unequivocal leader, one of the standard-bearers for a team trying to re-establish itself in the Big Ten. “This is her team this season,” Frese said.

“She’s earned that right.”

Junior year stumbles Miller struggled in 2021 despite being named to the coach’s preseason All-Big Ten team after a knee injury limited her to just 18 regular season

games. The Terps wilted against top-tier competition and regressed from the 2020 team that averaged 90.8 points per game.

She missed the team’s first four games rehabbing the knee injury before returning to face UNC Wilmington and Baylor. But an awkward fall in the latter matchup cost her another six games.

Miller opted for surgery in early April following the trying season.

“I’m definitely learning my new body [post operation], and it’s been a journey,” she said, “But overall, I think I’m handling it much better this time around than the first time.”

The shared experience of recovering from major surgeries helped Briggs and Miller bond over the past several months. Getting injured

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diamond miller

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Diamond Miller celebrates Maryland women’s basketball’s 67-64 win over Indiana on Feb. 25, 2022. (joe ryan/the diamondback) taxes you “mentally, physically, emotionally,” Briggs said, but the two Terps helped each other through the process.

Miller learned the importance of mental and physical strength when working back from injury, but Frese has also seen a change in how she has imparted that knowledge to younger players.

When talking with other players working their way back from injuries, Miller told them to listen to their bodies and that “less is more.”

The wisdom she shared with those other players shocked Frese but also illustrated how far Miller had grown.

“I never thought I would hear those words come out of her mouth,” Frese said.

Maryland ended the 2021-2022 season in difficult fashion, exiting the Big Ten tournament in the quarterfinals for the first time since joining the conference and failed to advance past the Sweet 16 for the second straight year. After the season, the roster was decimated by the graduations of Chloe Bibby and Katie Benzan and the transfers of Angel Reese, Ashley Owusu and Mimi Collins.

By late April, the Terps had lost five of their six top scorers.

But as practices begin, April — and its roster turnover — feels like a distant memory.

Amid all the change, Miller returns to a familiar coaching and medical staff. Since last October, she has been working with the same physical therapist. That continuity was vital to her choice to return.

“I think she had great relief knowing she was going to be taken care of here with the rehab

and the doctors and the process,” Frese said.

Miller’s familiarity with the training staff mirrored her trust in Frese. She chose to reunite with the coach for one final run — an easy decision considering her goals after college and Frese’s proficiency in sending players to the professional ranks.

“I just felt like I just wanted to stay one more year,” Miller said of her decision to stay in College Park. “And the goal doesn’t change for me; I still want to pursue basketball outside of college, so I felt like this was still a good fit for me.”

That fit between player and coach goes both ways. Miller enters the season as the player on the roster who Frese and her coaching staff will trust in high-pressure, game-clinching situations.

“Why wouldn’t you want to be that leader who everybody looks up to and your coaches trust … wanting to make that tough shot and tough play at the end of the game?” Frese asked.

“She knows that this is a coach that believes in her abilities.”

Learning to lead When a naturally reserved Miller came to Maryland in the fall of 2019, the Terps’ seniors were Kaila Charles, Stephanie Jones, Sara Vujacic and Blair Watson. Charles and Jones have spent time in the WNBA, and Vujacic and Watson have played professionally overseas.

Playing with future pros gave Miller several leaders to learn from and showed her a clear path to playing at the top levels.

Now, it’s a different situation.

Miller’s one of the few experienced players on a roster with nine players who have never donned the Maryland colors.

“It’s her turn to bring others along with her,” Frese said. “You couldn’t ask for a better time with so many changes with this roster in the offseason.”

In just a few months, Briggs has observed that one of Miller’s strengths is her ability to hold others to the high standard the program demands. Her experiences with the Terps have shaped her understanding of the discipline needed in practices, one she passes on to her teammates.

In the three years since she arrived in College Park, Miller has gone from quiet freshman to vocal senior, a change Benzan, who spent the past two seasons with Miller, lauded.

“She’s really grown and just being that vocal presence,” Benzan said. “And also just having those tough conversations with your teammates, just making sure everybody’s doing their job, having the maturity to speak up and say what’s right.”

Miller’s developed the confidence to speak up and a knowledge of how to communicate with specific teammates, Briggs said. She’ll push players who need in-your-face motivation and step back when others require a gentler approach.

The approach came due to the bond she’s formed with each of her teammates, Miller said.

She’s learned how to approach them through those relationships.

“That’s really how you become a leader is learning your team,” she said.

That leadership can ease the pressure that comes with the coaching staff’s demands of excellence, balancing the input players receive with a kinder word, Benzan said.

“Sometimes it’s nice as a player-leader on the team to then just go up like, ‘Hey, we believe in you,’ and just give that supportive, that loving voice,” she said. “I think Diamond is going to do very well in that aspect.”

Full speed ahead This past summer, Miller went through several months of recovery, an arduous process for the 6-foot-3 senior. Those around her have noticed that struggle and her choice to stay despite seeing many of the players she came to Maryland with leave.

The Terps again have one of the nation’s toughest schedules, with games against last year’s national champion, South Carolina, and runner-up, UConn, paired with a rigorous conference slate that begins Dec. 4 against Nebraska.

With more than 10 nationally televised games against that imposing lineup, Miller will have plenty of chances to make her case to professional coaches and staff and etch her name into Maryland’s record books. She has a chance to crack the school’s top-30 all-time scoring list, currently sits in the top-10 career free-throw percentage and could finish in the top-20 on the all-time blocks list.

Frese isn’t surprised by Miller’s perseverance and her lofty ambitions.

“She’s fought hard and stayed the course,” she said. “I hope she’s rewarded.”

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positionless

Maryland women’s basketball wants to be ‘positionless’ with reshaped, shorter roster

By Olivia Janik | @oliviajanik9 | Staff writer

With nine new players and only one returning starter, Maryland women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese had to find a new way to maximize her squad’s reshaped roster.

In preseason press conferences, Frese laid out her plan.

“We often talk about playing positionless basketball,” she said at the team’s Oct. 20 media day. “You’re going to see it this year from us.”

Positionless basketball refers to a strategy where teams ignore traditional positions of point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center and instead, assemble a group of talented players that can slide between those designations.

The Terps lost size over the offseason, but the versatility of this year’s team excites Frese.

The coach said she wants to use her players’ interchangeable skillsets all over the court to let Maryland succeed.

“Our offensive system that we put in allows them to play so they’re not really pigeonholed into a position,” Frese said.

“We’re really excited as a staff because they all can score.”

A season ago, Frese’s squad took advantage of its height. Of the seven players who started games, five were 6-foot-2 or taller.

That’ll change this year after Chloe Bibby’s graduation and the transfers of Mimi Collins and Angel Reese — three of

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Maryland’s tallest players.

Frese reloaded her roster with high-scoring players — all five transfers averaged nine or more points per game last season. But she couldn’t recreate the lost height. The median height of this year’s team is an inch shorter than last year’s roster.

Maryland’s typical starting lineup has not been announced yet, but senior guard Diamond Miller will likely be the team’s tallest starter at 6-foot-3.

After Allie Kubek tore her ACL, no transfer who will play minutes this year stands above 6-foot-1.

The Terps are working to overcome the loss of their vertical advantage.

“We don’t have a six-five center … so we have to adapt,” Frese said. “We might have to play faster. We have to be versatile.”

Frese also noted that Maryland is looking to rebound “by committee” this season. It wants to make the task a collective effort from every player on the team on both sides of the court rather than placing the burden solely on one or two players.

Combining that newfound speed and collective rebounding could help achieve one of the Terps’ goals — pushing the pace. Senior guard Abby Meyers said Frese wants every player on

the team to grab a missed shot and race down the court with it.

Positionless basketball isn’t new to Meyers, one of the team’s new transfers. She likened it to the style she played during her time with a shorter Princeton squad.

“Yes, we’re undersized, but we also know how to work hard,” Meyers said about her new team. “We also know how to get in the paint and be dirty … our athleticism can make up for all of that.”

Removing the guidelines of traditional positions gives players more autonomy over their on-court decisions. Almost all of the Terps have the ability and flexibility to post up, shoot a three or drive.

For Miller, playing the new style is fun, giving her and her teammates more freedom on the court. But those options put more responsibility on the Terps to make the right one.

That decision-making will be tested early with an imposing nonconference schedule that includes battles against No. 1 South Carolina and No. 18 Baylor.

But Maryland’s players have their coach’s confidence.

“She believes in our abilities and trusts us to make the best choices with our abilities,” Miller said.

BEAL

Brenda Frese coaches during the Maryland women’s basketball game on Sunday, March 20, 2022. (julia nikhinson/the diamondback)

willard

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Kevin Willard has a plan to meet Maryland men’s basketball’s high expectations

By Nicky Wolcott | @nickywolcott | Sports editor

Kevin Willard during his introductory press conference with Maryland men’s basketball on March 22, 2022. (joe ryan/the diamondback)

Maryland men’s basketball coach Kevin Willard delivered his opening remarks at the Terps’ media day at center court of Xfinity Center underneath a legion of banners won by past teams.

Each one hangs as a reminder of the pressure the program’s new head faces ahead of his inaugural season.

Aspirations of titles and trophies seem more unattainable than ever after Maryland’s losing regular season last year, the first since 1993. Despite that, Willard holds the same standards previous coaches have met to cement their place at the Terps’ home court.

“I think [the expectation is] going to be the same every year,” he said. “I think it’s gonna be the Big Ten championship, national championship. That’s the goal of this program … No other expectation is allowed.”

While Willard acknowledged that his objectives may be likelier in some years rather than others, he aims to reinvigorate a fanbase that came to substantially fewer games last season — the Terps’ attendance was their lowest since 2015. He hopes to do so by blending his vision for Maryland’s future with former coaches’ and players’ ideas.

“We wanted to embrace the tradition and the greatness of this program,” Willard said as he looked up at the Terps’ 2002 national championship banner. “I thought coming in, I really want to get the former players on board. Not that they weren’t, but I really want to embrace them for us.”

Since becoming the program’s leader, the coach has had former Maryland players visit to involve them in activities and listen to ideas that could improve player or alumni experience.

The Terps scrimmaged with recent graduates at Xfinity Center over the summer and were greeted by former players Greivis Vásquez and Len Elmore.

“It’s been really good,” senior Donta Scott said. “Especially him bringing old players back in and guys that used to be here … to just throw a picture in our mind that this is a place of greatness.”

While he’s incorporated others to invoke the Terps’ previous achievements, Willard’s also brought in three assistant coaches he “deeply respected” to help mold the program.

Grant Billmeier and Tony Skinn joined Maryland having worked with Willard at Seton Hall, while David Cox brings four years of collegiate head coaching experience at Rhode Island.

The trio agreed to one-year deals and will earn a combined $1.15 million in guaranteed salary, according to documents acquired by The Baltimore Sun. “I have three of the best assistant coaches, and I have to thank Damon [Evans] because he understood that it was going to cost us a little bit of money and go out and get the best guys,” Willard said.

Skinn and Cox are also Maryland natives with experience with the area’s high schools and AAU teams. Their local ties have already fulfilled another way Willard aimed to reenergize fans — recruiting the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area.

“Our first couple recruits, we really tried to get local kids, just to kind of let

the fanbase know that this area is huge to us,” Willard said. “We’re going to recruit it, we’re going to bring kids in, we’re going to make sure that they’re the stars, kind of what … I did at Seton Hall.”

Early additions included local guard Jahmir Young — the first DeMatha graduate to join the program in almost 20 years — and Frederick native Noah Batchelor, who joined the Terps as a freshman.

The Terps also secured three fourstar commitments from Maryland and Virginia in their 2023 class — a group that’s ranked 10th in the nation by 247Sports.

“These kids in this area get unbelievable coaching from a very young age. It’s very unique,” Willard said of the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area. “The kids don’t transfer schools, they don’t transfer AAU programs. They get great coaching at the AAU level, and they get great coaching at the high school level.”

Willard brought in new players for his inaugural season that he believes complement the strengths of returning players such as Scott, Hakim Hart and Julian Reese.

The Terps could play at a higher tempo than Willard’s teams have played at in the past because they’re not “big and dominant” on the inside, the coach said.

He feels the Terps can shoot the ball well and said his teams at Seton Hall slowed down over the last couple of years out of necessity due to injuries.

“We’re gonna play probably way too fast,” Willard said. “We’re going to shoot a ton of threes, we’re going to press.”

Willard admitted that “at times we won’t look good” due to the large batch of additions, and expects players will need to adjust to his style of play on the court.

But, as he’s done with every aspect of Maryland since becoming the Terps’ coach in March, Willard and his new-look staff are “laying down the groundwork for the future,” one they hope adds banners to the Xfinity Center rafters.