Terps start far from home

While conference rivals North Carolina and Virginia open their seasons tonight in the comfort of their own arenas against small schools with little chance of competing, the Terrapin women's basketball team will be 1,378 miles away from home.

The No. 3 Terps are playing their first game of the year on the road against Texas Christian in Forth Worth, Texas.

Then coach Brenda Frese's team is traveling back to College Park in time for Sunday's home-opener against Delaware State. It's a strange way for a major conference power such as the Terps to start their season, but according to Frese the busy weekend will help in the long run.

"I'm glad we're coming back to play at home," Frese said. "We've got to get this team ready and prepared for what the nonconference and conference slate is gonna be like. So, no time is better than doing it early."

The Horned Frogs went 23-12 last season and finished second in the Mountain West Conference before going to the WNIT. But TCU lost five seniors from last year's team and returns only 32 percent of its scoring and 31 percent of its rebounding from a year ago.

That means the biggest challenge for the Terps could be the task of playing on the road in their first real game of the year against a team that is 30-4 in their last two seasons at home. But forward Marissa Coleman didn't seem too concerned about TCU or any potential fatigue before Sunday's game because of the travel.

"It's just a mentality," Coleman said. "Don't tell yourself that you're tired. This is what you love to do, this is what you have fun doing, so if we want to win a national championship and we want to be competitors, these are things that you have to do."

The opening weekend could appear to be especially challenging for the newcomers, including freshman center Lynetta Kizer. But after experiencing a similar amount of travel and games on short rest playing with her AAU team in high school, Kizer was more excited than worried.

"Just to get to travel with these guys - it's one of my dreams," Kizer said. "Just watching them growing up, and like, I'm actually here now, and I'm flying out tomorrow to actually play my first college game."

Senior staff writer Adi Joseph contributed to this report. akrautdbk@gmail.com