Maryland faces hot Princeton in opening round (Mar 14, 2018)
Two teams with a lot of tournament experience land on unfamiliar footing Friday when powerhouses Maryland and Princeton tangle in Raleigh, N.C., in the NCAA Women's Tournament in the Kansas City Region.
The No. 5-seeded Terrapins (25-7) won't be hosting a first and second round for the first time in more than a decade. Meanwhile, Ivy League champion Princeton (24-5) landed a 12th seed, and the Tigers are thrilled to be on a true neutral court to open their seventh NCAA Tournament in the last nine years.
"To not play on someone else's home floor in the first round is such a testament to the program and the respect we have nationally because it's a neutral-site game in the first round and that's what you have to hope for as a mid-major," said Princeton coach Courtney Banghert. "That's the best you can do, and we got it."
The winner of the Princeton-Maryland contest will advance to the second round Sunday to meet the winner of the other opening-round game in Raleigh between host and fourth-seed North Carolina State and 13th-seeded Elon.
While the Tigers are coming in hot, the Terrapins failed to win the Big Ten Conference title for the first time since joining the league in 2014, and they'll have their lowest NCAA seed since 2005, the year before they won the national championship. Maryland had been a top four seed every year since, except 2010, when the Terps missed the tournament entirely.
Veteran coach Brenda Frese and her experienced team are not fazed.
"It's March Madness so the (seed) number doesn't mean as much," Frese said. "We'll play our best basketball regardless of the number in front of our name or our opponents' name."
These programs aren't strangers to each other in the NCAA Tournament either. The Terrapins knocked the eighth-seeded Tigers out of the 2015 tournament with an 85-70 win at College Park in the second round.
This year's Princeton team is led by 6-4 sophomore Bella Alarie -- the daughter of former Duke star and ex-NBA player Mark Alarie -- out of Maryland's backyard in Bethesda. She averages 13.3 points, 9.6 rebounds and has blocked 75 shots this season. Leslie Robinson, a 6-0 senior, chips in 10.2 points and 7.0 rebounds. The Tigers have won 11 of their past 12 games, including sweeping to the Ivy Tournament title with convincing victories over Yale and Penn.
Sophomore Kaila Charles leads a balanced Maryland attack with 18.3 points per game, and is one of five Terrapins averaging in double figures. Charles took on an even bigger role after sophomore Blair Watson, the team's second-leading scorer, was lost to an ACL injury in mid-January.
Maryland struggled down the stretch, dropping three of the last four regular-season games to lose the regular-season Big Ten crown, and then lost to Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament final.
This is the Terrapins' eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and the 14th in Frese's 16 years at Maryland. She has guided Maryland to eight Sweet Sixteen appearances, six Elite Eights, three Final Fours and that 2006 national title.
