NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: REGIONAL SEMIFINAL: TEXAS VS MARYLAND

March 28, 2021

Brenda Frese

Alamodome - Hemisfair

Maryland Terrapins

Sweet 16 Postgame Media Conference

Texas 64, Maryland 61

BRENDA FRESE: Obviously we're disappointed, sad. I know for me personally, this team has just been a joy to coach all season long. When you talk about through a pandemic to watch this team come together the way they did, the unselfishness they played with all year, for each other, I think this one hurts even more.

But I think you saw some inexperience today with our team. I mean, the credit goes to Texas. I thought they were physical, they were aggressive, they turned it into a game of defense and rebounding. I thought ultimately they made one or two more plays in the fourth quarter that were the difference.

Obviously disappointed, but I think things for us, to be able to grow with this team, coming back, to be able to gain this experience this season.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Your girls made mistakes that they do not make late in the game, especially when something is on the line. Do you think they just felt that pressure of I can't believe this is really happening?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, we made some uncharacteristic plays. I thought Texas defensively just made a few more plays. This is the experience you're trying to gain. I mean, for a lot of our players, this was the first time on this kind of stage, not having the NCAA tournament last year. Unfortunately it hurts tonight. But all things that we can gain as we move forward.

Q. Now that Chloe and Katie are unfortunately technically no longer part of this team, what kind of fight do you think they showed?

BRENDA FRESE: Hopefully they'll both come back. Everyone gets the additional year. But I thought that they just continued to give us great veteran leadership. They were the pulse of this team. I can't say enough about either one of them. What a huge addition they were for our team and for our program.

It hurts because we wanted to be able to send them even further.

Q. What was your message to the team in the locker room after the game?

BRENDA FRESE: Obviously just how proud I was of them, of this entire season, what it took through this pandemic for us to go all season long with the discipline that they had in order for us to be able to play. I thought they brought a lot of great joy to our fans, to our program. What they created, the buzz within this team, showing their unselfishness all year. So many great things for us to be proud of, for us to be able to build upon as we move forward for next year.

Q. Are you surprised at how this went down? Texas, as you said, is a tough team. Just the way your team had been playing, does this result surprise you at all?

BRENDA FRESE: Well, I knew they were going to obviously take this game down with limited possessions. I mean, we've faced teams like this late into the shot clock. I think when we had some uncharacteristic plays, some turnovers that we typically don't have, some late breakdowns defensively, that all gave us problems tonight.

Q. Outside of slowing the game down, what was Texas doing to stymie your offense?

BRENDA FRESE: I mean, I thought you saw the physicality. I mean, defensively they were very aggressive. We had a hard time getting open on the wings. We had a hard time getting downhill. We -- normally you see our offense flow from side to side. You didn't see a lot of that. That was a credit to the defense that they presented against us tonight.

Q. The last three by Katie that missed, if you go back, would you want to slow that down and maybe hunt for a little bit of a better shot or do you think that was a good shot?

BRENDA FRESE: I mean, I thought it was a great kick ahead to her. Gosh, she's shown all year, she shoots over 50% from out there. Yeah, her getting a wide open three, I'll take that any day.

Q. What was it about this Texas defense that made it so hard for you guys to get in transition?

BRENDA FRESE: Well, I think you saw. There was just a ton of physicality throughout the entire game. That tends to wear on you as the game goes on. An extreme amount of ball pressure throughout the entire game. You have to be able to get open on the wings, then heavy help when you go to attack off the bounce. A lot of areas that gave us problems tonight.

Q. Yesterday you talked a little bit about how what a battle this matchup would be. Looking back at the fight that your team gave today, especially in that area, what do you have to say about that?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, I thought we fought hard. I loved our toughness. I think we had some untimely missed boxouts that were really costly late game. I loved our heart. I loved our toughness, trying to battle with the size that they had.

Q. What does it mean that even though the season ended this way, the team still did it in an unselfish way, they continued to share the ball, having the 16 assists on the 24 field goals, how does that feel that that's how the season ended?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, I couldn't be more proud of this team. I mean, obviously only one team gets to win the whole thing. We had really high goals, and rightly so. This team was so talented.

But tonight we weren't the better team for 40 minutes. That doesn't diminish anything that this team did all season long. They were a joy to coach. I can't say enough -- to be in a pandemic, there's another team that I would rather be able to coach throughout.

Q. Late in the game you have a sequence, the turnover with Ashley on the pass, what kind of went wrong there?

BRENDA FRESE: Obviously timing. I think they did a great job of really denying that entry to the post.

Q. You shot 5-for-22 from three today. How much of that is a bad shooting night? What does that say about the fickle way the tournament operates?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, I mean, again, I think they rushed us quite a bit. Sometimes we had great open looks that we typically make. I think there was a blend. But I think their pressure defensively sped us up for most of the night.

Q. Kind of a Catch-22, you've played so well, had these big leads, that's a good thing. Then you have this close game down the stretch tonight. Is there something to be said for not having a lot of those close games late in the year, the way the team played the late minutes in the fourth quarter? Does that make sense?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, I mean, I think they created those spreads. But, you know, no, because we've been in plenty of situations, games that have been very pressure, a lot of pressure. The Big Ten has obviously prepared us. These guys have been in a lot of moments within their career.

For us, I mean, obviously like I said earlier, this is the first time for many of our kids, when you look at our sophomore class, that we're going to the NCAA tournament for the first time. All of this is just going to make us better.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.