Maryland women’s basketball has a revamped roster heading into the 2024-25 campaign, and preseason expectations reflect optimism that last year’s disappointing season will only be a blip on Brenda Frese’s decorated resume in College Park.

The Terps are ranked 18th in the Associated Press Top 25 Preseason Poll, fourth among Big Ten Conference teams behind Southern California (No. 3), UCLA (No. 5) and Ohio State (No. 14). Led by returning senior guard Shyanne Sellers and seven new players from the transfer portal, the Terps are back on the national radar after finishing 2023-24 unranked and getting bounced in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by seventh-seeded Iowa State.

It marks the 15th consecutive season the Terps have appeared on AP’s preseason poll and the 20th time in 21 years. South Carolina is ranked No. 1 and UConn is second.

Last season, Maryland’s streak of appearing in the AP Top 25 Poll ended at 251 consecutive weeks, the sixth-longest in NCAA history and at the time the second-longest active streak behind UConn. The Terps, who were ranked No. 14 in last year’s preseason poll, started 2-3 with blowout losses to eventual national champion South Carolina and Final Four participant UConn before finishing 19-14 (9-9 Big Ten) for the program’s worst record since Frese’s first season in College Park in 2002-03.

Frese ensured Maryland wouldn’t be rolling out the same roster expecting different results this season, recruiting a pair of reigning all-conference players in junior guard Kaylene Smikle (Rutgers) and senior forward Christina Dalce (Villanova) as well as former top recruits in redshirt junior guard Saylor Poffenbarger (Arkansas), graduate student guard-forward Mir McLean (Virginia) and senior forward Amari DeBerry (UConn).

Sellers, a preseason All-Big Ten Team selection by both the coaches and media polls, led Maryland with 15.6 points and 5.5 assists per game last season while ranking second with 5.8 rebounds per game. The new supporting cast around her is expected to give Maryland new life in its bid to challenge Southern California, which holds the top spot in the Big Ten’s coaches and media polls and rosters the Big Ten’s preseason Player of the Year JuJu Watkins, a sophomore guard.

In addition to Sellers and Watkins, the preseason All-Big Ten Team includes Southern California’s Kiki Iriafen, Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke and Lucy Olsen, Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski, Ohio State’s Cotie McMahon, UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice and Wisconsin’s Serah Williams.

The Big Ten had six teams in the top 25 overall, tying the Atlantic Coast Conference for the second most teams of any conference behind only the Southeastern Conference (seven). Nebraska (No. 23), and Indiana (No. 25) rounded out the Big Ten teams ranked by AP’s poll while Iowa, Illinois and Michigan State received votes.

Maryland opens the 2024-25 season on Nov. 4 at UMBC and hosts Coppin State for its home opener three days later. The Terps’ first conference game is scheduled for Dec. 7 at Purdue.

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