BRENDA FRESE: Good morning. It's always great to be here in Minnesota and always exciting times when we think of getting ready for the Big Ten Tournament.
I can tell you that I always know when it's basketball season, like this morning when I woke up at 2:00 a.m. and I started thinking about ball screen coverages. We definitely know that the season is around the corner.
This is my favorite time of the year, when you talk about kind of putting all of your pieces together with your team. For us, we welcome back four of our six leading scorers last year with Shyanne Sellers, Faith Masonius, Brinae Alexander, and Lavender Briggs. We're also excited we added Jakia Brown-Turner from NC State, a grad senior for us who started 123 games in her career, three ACC titles, an Elite 8 appearance and Sweet 16 appearance. Just a lot of great experience with Jakia coming into our program.
We also welcome back two of our players that were injured last year that are having a tremendous preseason for us. We have All-CAA honoree Allie Kubek who averaged 15 points and six rebounds at Towson. Emma Chardon is back really healthy and doing some great things for us.
Obviously big shoes to fill when you lose two first-round WNBA draft picks in Diamond Miller as well as Abby Meyers, but this team got a lot of experience last year with their Elite 8 finish, nine wins over ranked teams, and our schedule this year is definitely going to prepare us for Big Ten play as well as for March.
We have four of our Elite 8 teams that we're going to play this year, and three are going to be on the road with South Carolina, UConn, Ohio State, and then we have Iowa coming into our place.
It's a challenging schedule but one that we're really looking forward to see how it's going to prepare us for March.
Q. What would be your assessment of how the team has come together in the last couple of weeks of practice, and what has stood out to you the most?
BRENDA FRESE: I think clearly their chemistry, having so many veteran leaders, a lot of grad seniors on our roster, and just their work ethic. They come into practice every single day and they're ready to be coached. They want to get better.
It's probably been a quicker process than a year ago, just having so many of the veterans back from last season and with that kind of experience. So that's been exciting.
Q. We saw sophomore Shy a year ago. What can we expect from her this season?
BRENDA FRESE: Just another step forward. I love where junior Shy is at. She understands the load she's going to have to carry for us this year, just her maturation process has been incredible to be able to watch, and that's what you want to see when you watch players in four-year careers.
I'm really excited about Shy. She took a major step forward. Now she's going to have to own even bigger responsibility on her shoulders this season, but she's more than capable of it.
Q. With the freshmen that you have coming in, that's always kind of an eye-opener when you step on campus. How have you eased that transition for your freshmen this year?
BRENDA FRESE: I'm really excited about our freshmen and their growth and their development. They have come in, I would say, this summer, and they spent really a great eight weeks in the weight room. Their conditioning level, they are all really, really talented. Clearly they've got some five-year vets in front of them, but the work ethic is there. The talent level is there.
I think the thing you'll see with our team this season is we've got a lot more depth that we're going to be able to go to.
Q. One thing that I wanted to know is Minneapolis certainly has grown more appreciative of what Diamond Miller can do on the court. We're glad to have her away from Maryland and wearing a jersey for the Lynx. You had mentioned what you're doing to replace her presence on the court collegiately. Help me understand, is it by committee? She's just been a wonder for the Lynx, and like I said, we're glad she's not wearing a Maryland uniform anymore.
BRENDA FRESE: I'm happy that you guys are there. We miss her dearly. I think it speaks volumes of her development. She shared with me just going to the Lynx that our system, our transition, our offense really prepared her for the Lynx, which I think is the highest compliment when these guys want to go to the next level.
It is going to be by committee this year. We don't have two first-round draft picks yet. But the thing I will say that I'm most encouraged by is every returner from last season has come back better, and when you have that kind of work ethic that goes on behind the scenes, I throw out a Brea McDaniel, she as a sophomore is making that jump that Shyanne Sellers made last year.
Really excited for all of our returners coming back because they were kind of in those shadows of both Diamond and Abby last year, and rightly so. They weren't ready for that responsibility, but they're more than prepared this season.
Q. Of course Alyssa Thomas, one of the best to ever walk through the Maryland program. Anybody showed signs of AT in your program today?
BRENDA FRESE: Great question. You know, that's kind of like the Caitlin Clark in my opinion. AT came through our program, all-time leading scorer and rebounder, not only in just the women's basketball at Maryland, the men's side, as well.
Obviously I think every player is unique to their own. AT is one of those incredible players to be able to coach and come through.
But I'd say I love where each and every player is on our roster. Again, I think we're a little bit more by committee this year.
But we continue to try to develop our players so they're prepared for the next level.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports