Iowa women look to end Maryland road woes
By Susan Harman
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Will this be the time?
The Iowa women’s basketball team has not won at Maryland during coach Lisa Bluder’s tenure. That’s a big 0-7 since the Terps joined the Big Ten Conference. Iowa has had good teams during this stretch, but the Xfinity Center in College Park, Md., has been a house of horrors.
“We’ve beat them at home and we’ve beat them in the Big Ten Tournament, but we’ve never won there,” Bluder said.
Take last season for example. Iowa won two out of three matchups against the Terrapins, but the Hawkeyes were pasted at Maryland, 96-68. In that game Maryland had a 29-4 run. The Terps sank 14 3-pointers. It was gruesome.
“Since Maryland joined the league they have been pretty dominant,” Iowa’s Kate Martin said.
That’s an understatement. Maryland joined the conference in 2014-15. This is the result in eight seasons through 2022-23:
*Six Big Ten regular-season titles (really seven because Ohio State had one vacated);
*Five Big Ten tournament titles;
*Composite Big Ten record of 137-20 (.873). Only Tara VanDerveer’s 53-4 (.930) record with Ohio State is better than Maryland’s under Brenda Frese;
*Frese’s/Maryland’s record in the Big Ten Tournament is 20-5 (.800) behind only Carolyn Peck’s 6-0. Peck’s Purdue team won the NCAA championship in 1999.
“They’ve had some really good, athletic teams,” Martin continued. “It’s just a tough environment to go into. Any Big Ten road game is a tough environment at this point.”
Maryland has recruited well, and until the advent of the transfer portal had powerhouse after powerhouse. Just a sample of Frese’s recruits in other places includes Angel Reese at LSU, Mimi Collins at North Carolina State and Ashley Owusu at Penn State.
“It’s hard to beat good basketball teams on their home court, and we’re going to be facing another sold-out crowd,” Bluder said.
But could it be this year? Maryland has an uncharacteristic 12-9 overall record and is 4-6 in the Big Ten. The Terps were pounded at Penn State two games ago and lost handily at home to Indiana on Wednesday, albeit without their top player, Shyanne Sellers.
Iowa will look to end its drought at Maryland when the teams meet on Saturday at 7 p.m. in a nationally televised game on FOX.
“They’re going through adjustments. That doesn’t mean they’re not Maryland,” Martin said.
Maryland played a rugged non-conference schedule and lost to top-ranked South Carolina, UConn and Washington State. The Terps have not defeated an upper division Big Ten team.
But they are not toothless. Yes, All American Diamond Miller left for the WNBA, but some of the main culprits from a year ago are back. Guard Brinae Alexander had a game-high 24 points and made six 3-pointers. Guard Lavender Briggs had 19 points and three 3-pointers. Sellers had 17 points, 10 rebounds and three 3-pointers.
“We’ve really got to contain the drive and box out on rebounding,” Martin said of Iowa’s focus on defense. “That’s been a key for us. We started out the season doing really well with our rebound margins, and we kind of let up the last two games (before Northwestern), so that’s going to be a key for us. They attack the glass really hard.”
All of the Terps guards post up, use dribble penetration and can shoot the three. Maryland’s posts aren’t real big, but there’s plenty of rebounding strength.
“Transition defense is really important,” Bluder said. “Boxing out is really important. We can’t let them get those easy second opportunities. They play people at different positions, so we’re going to have to really be in tune defensively to our matchups.”
Defensively it’s more of the same from Maryland. Quickness, strength and aggressiveness.
“They are very aggressive, athletic and (have) a confidence about themselves or they just don’t really care who you are,” Martin said. “They’re going to ball pressure you. They’re going to try to amp you up and speed you up, so we can’t let that affect us.
“They switch everything, and it’s almost like they play a matchup type of zone as well.”
Bluder said she expects some creative defenses from the Terps like a box-and-one against Caitlin Clark or a triangle-and-two possibly.
Iowa (20-2, 9-1) fully expects the 6-2 Sellers to play after missing Wednesday’s game with an injury. Maryland also added 6-0 grad student Jakia Brown-Turner from North Carolina State, who has been the team’s third-leading scorer and very productive in recent games.
This is the only game between Iowa and Maryland this season, and with games still remaining against co-leaders Indiana and Ohio State the Hawkeyes need this one. They appear to have ample motivation as well.