NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - DELAWARE VS MARYLAND

March 18, 2022

Brenda Frese

Katie Benzan

Diamond Miller

Maryland Terrapins

Media Conference

Maryland 102, Delaware 71

BRENDA FRESE: Well, that was Maryland basketball. That was a lot of fun. You know, I think you saw sitting on the last two weeks, we were more than prepared and more than ready to come out with such a competitive group.

I thought we set the tone early, just being extremely unselfish, sharing the basketball. We were able to go through Angel, I thought, early to kind of set that presence, but then just really things opened up inside out, being able to kick for threes and really just sharing the basketball.

Our crowd was a big-time X factor. I hope they'll come out again on Sunday because it was electric here in XFINITY, and just a fun game to play and see how seamless they made a great team like Delaware play.

Q. Did this feel or remind you of last year when the offense was kind of really clicking and humming, and how were you guys kind of able to get back to that point?

KATIE BENZAN: Yeah, definitely felt similar in just the sense -- first we got to 100 points, which is really fun, and everybody was scoring and sharing the basketball. And just that's how we pride ourselves, playing Maryland basketball. That's just a fun way to play.

DIAMOND MILLER: Yeah, just to piggy-back on Katie, I think we just played Maryland basketball. We pushed the floor, and we were hitting shots today. We got Katie good looks today, which we needed to do, and when she's hitting, it our offense flows a lot better.

Q. Katie and Diamond, Coach talked about how important these two weeks of practice were for you guys to kind of get in a rhythm and rediscover that sharing the basketball. What happened these last two weeks that led to today's offensive out burst?

KATIE BENZAN: I think just getting back to Maryland basketball and the foundation that we've built over these past two years where we've had these glue of a team. These past two weeks we didn't change really anything big. We just cleaned up little things so that today and the rest of the tournament we are playing our style of basketball.

Q. Katie, obviously a big change from two weeks ago against Indiana, 5 for 8 from the field, you were incredibly efficient. What was your mindset today? Were you trying to create more shots for yourself? Was that part of the focus today?

KATIE BENZAN: Honestly, I just read what the defense gave me. And in the Big Ten when you play people multiple times, the scouting report is out, and so playing Delaware the first time, that's a little bit different in that sense.

But just reading what the defense gave me, my teammates found me when I was open and the ball went in really.

Q. The tempo was just really high today; obviously it's not going to be perfect all the time. There were times where you guys were running a little bit too fast and couldn't catch up with it. But in those moments how were you able to kind of regroup and just hold off Delaware, keeping the tempo up but also recovering from a potential turnover and kind of reapplying that pressure?

DIAMOND MILLER: Coach told us the game wasn't going to be perfect, so you've just got to do next play, and I think that's what we did today. No matter the turnover, we had each other's back and we went on to the next play and moved on.

Q. Ashley Owusu was incredibly effective today with 24 points. What did you see out of her?

KATIE BENZAN: Yeah, Ash was her true self today. It was fun to watch, to just see her just excel.

We've seen the behind-the-scenes work that she's put in day in and day out, so just to see her succeed, I'm just so happy for her and let's just keep it rolling.

Q. Obviously you guys had a much better showing from three-pointer than the last time out. What was working for the team to get other players besides Katie involved?

KATIE BENZAN: Yeah, I think just sharing the ball. We didn't force anything, just moving the ball side to side, in and out. We've been working on that these past two weeks, so just that ball movement has really opened up the three-point line for us.

Q. Diamond, you guys obviously played a ton of talented teams all throughout the season, but I was curious what it was like chasing around Jasmine Dickey from Delaware and how she rates among some of the best players you guys have faced this year.

DIAMOND MILLER: She's definitely one of the top players that I have guarded this year. She's very talented. Her pull-up is lethal. You can't stop her really. We just tried to contain her as best we could today.

Q. Diamond, you seemed to be aggressive going downhill early and often today. Can you speak to your ability to stay aggressive from the outside and going to the basket?

DIAMOND MILLER: Obviously these last two weeks, I've just been working hard trying to get in my flow again because I don't want to play like I played in Indiana again. So I just want to stay focused and do what's best for my team, so that's all I did today.

Q. Diamond, I was just curious, how good did it feel to have that kind of an all-around performance in the NCAA Tournament opener today?

DIAMOND MILLER: It felt good. Coach calls this a new season, so I just forgot everything else that happened. So it's a new season today, and I think this was a good showing.

Q. What was your opinion about how Shyanne did in her first experience in the NCAA Tournament?

KATIE BENZAN: Yeah, shy fought today and she had a hard job, like Diamond, guarding Dickey, and she did a great job stepping up to the plate for us. Then on the offensive end she just works hard. Her motor is always there, and that's what we need her to do, and she's so reliable in that regard.

Q. Diamond, I wanted to ask, you talked about this being a new season. What was the biggest change for you from, let's say, the Indiana game until today?

DIAMOND MILLER: I was just focused on doing more things. Like you can't focus on one thing, you're going to be in your head and stuff like that. I was just trying to play free out there, and no matter the mistakes, just keep going and play at a flow state, if that makes sense.

Q. 50 points in the paint, a massive advantage there. Was that an emphasis pregame, going to Angel and getting open space to the bucket?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, it's really been an emphasis these last couple weeks just having an inside-outside presence. Angel is such a tremendous presence down low, but she's also a tremendous passer. Just being able to go inside, then being able to kick it outside to the hot hand. But definitely wanted to -- I knew they didn't have a lot of depth inside, so we wanted to go at that early.

Q. How nice was it to get these two and Ashley really going? They haven't had the season that they probably wanted to have, but to get them bouncing back in this scenario and especially for what you guys want to do ultimately, how big was that?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, huge. You know, this team has battled a lot of adversity, especially Diamond and Ash, through injuries, which has never really occurred in their careers. Really proud of them to stay the course. Ashley coming back off such a long break and has really used the last two weeks to get where she really needed to get to for our team. I thought she had a tremendous floor general game. When she's locked in and communicating the way she did today, I'm not surprised by her game because she was extremely focused and really motivated to make the right play for her team.

Q. How do you sustain that level of success? Obviously the pressure is high right now. It's either you win or you're out. How do you maintain what they just did?

BRENDA FRESE: Well, I think they like how they feel, so it's not changing it. Obviously Florida Gulf Coast is a phenomenal team and they're going to have their own looks and wrinkles. But for us when we're unselfish and we're sharing the basketball and we're defending with great focus and communication on both ends of the floor, it flows for us. They just came off of a game where they scored 102 points, so just understanding -- like they have the blueprint. They just showed it, and continuing to play for each other.

Q. I think you played Villanova early in the year this year; playing that kind of team, the fact that they shot so many threes today, is that a team you would draw back on, just looking at --

BRENDA FRESE: I think it was Drexel actually that we played. But very similar. That's why you play the non-conference games that you play, like so you see those five-outs, motion type of things.

Karl and his staff and his team, it's a motion to only have one day to prepare for is really hard. We're going to have to be on point defensively. They're a great team, and they showed it against Virginia Tech today.

Q. You look around the country today, a lot of the top teams that were hosting dominated in their opening round. You guys really started dominating this one in the second half. What did you say at halftime, and what did you see change there in the final 20 minutes?

BRENDA FRESE: You know, just we didn't want to take our foot off the gas. For us to be able to come out and play an inspired 40 minutes, that's what it's going to take every round. This is the level of intensity you have to play at if you want to be able to advance.

I love the fact that we understood that, and we joke we understood the assignment. I thought we answered it really well, where we needed to play a complete game, and I love that we didn't rest at halftime. We understood how much more we needed to be able to give.

Q. Just wanted to ask kind of the same question I asked Diamond before about Jasmine Dickey, what your strategy was to try to stop her or at least slow her down and how she might compare against some of the other top players you've faced this year?

BRENDA FRESE: You know, Jasmine came to camp here, so watched her career. I told her at the end of the game, just a phenomenal player. She's declared for the draft. She's going to do well in the league. She's really hard to be able to defend in a pull-up game, her three, being able to get to the rim, and then she goes to the glass extremely hard. She's going to be a great pro.

We've played three of the No. 1 seeds. She's an elite level guard for a reason and will have a great career.

Q. Once Katie started getting hot from three, it seemed like it opened up everything for everyone. Can you speak to her ability to open up the paint for everybody and also from the three with Chloe and Diamond?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, you know, credit. I thought -- with Ash being the floor general, I thought the team executing, setting great screens, Angel giving us that inside-outside presence which opened it up, and then Katie really shooting the ball with confidence.

Like she said, it's a little different when you're hunted every night and everybody knows who you are to being able to play free, but I think that execution for us on the offensive end was really important.

Q. You guys started pressing late in the game. Was that kind of just a way to get your team -- what was the purpose of the press?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, you know, you never know when you're going to need it, different styles of play. An opportunity for us. Again, I thought it gave us another boost in that third quarter to really make some plays. I thought it got Diamond back going aggressively. So wrinkles that we need to be able to have through the round.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about that moment with Angel in the third quarter at the top of the arc? Shared a little smile with her. She had that little -- she initiated the offense, she didn't shoot the three.

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, we agreed to disagree whether she should take the three. The frustration mounts like it did in the first half, and I might have even layered it at halftime. So she listened and the crowd, I think, agreed with me. So she had a moment that I was very proud of her. It took great maturity for her to move the basketball. Hey, I'm great. If she reverses it or drives, good things happen. Off-season work, she can start extending that range. When her free-throw percentage goes up, then she can extend that to the three-point range, which what was she free-throw wise? 5 for 5 tonight, so she's making progress.

Q. Katie and Diamond both brought up the word fun a lot in terms of that game. Just talking about how much fun it is to play in the offense when it's clicking and running and flowing that way, I'm curious how much fun is it to coach the offense when it's clicking and flowing and feels like everyone is taking a turn with the hot hand?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, it is. It is. You know, it's been a hard season when you talk about just -- we haven't had players consistently in practice with injury and illness and that flow. This is the first two weeks we've had everyone back. That's what it looks like, what Maryland basketball looks like. And you can see the results that they had where everybody is getting touches and sharing the basketball. We're able to show our offensive arsenal, putting up 102 points. Just continuing to play the right way.

Q. Back to the first question about last year, to what degree would it be helpful for you guys to almost sort of forget what's happened this year and almost sort of go back to where you started the tournament last year, the position you guys started at? To what degree might that be helpful for you guys?

BRENDA FRESE: Yeah, you know, like they've said and we've talked about it, it's a new season. All anyone really remembers is March Madness and how you finish.

Again, they played tonight like they have last year, but I think again, some of that -- a lot of that is the continuity that we finally have had enough players in practice to be able to get some of those rhythms and flow. But also we have to understand every round gets that much more difficult. Florida Gulf Coast is a phenomenal team, and they're going to try to take different things away from us, and we're going to have to continue to play the right way.