Terps ready for tougher schedule

Defending champ South Carolina is 1st of 2 ranked opponents in three games

COLLEGE PARK — Last season, the Maryland women’s basketball team got into trouble by mostly staying out of it. For finishing the regular season 30-3, for winning both Big Ten Conference titles and entering the postseason ranked No. 4, the Terps were rewarded with a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, harsh punishment commensurate with their lax strength of schedule (No. 117 nationally).

“Defending the entire body of work was really, really difficult,” Terry Gawlick, the chair of the Division I women’s basketball committee, said in March of Maryland’s surprise seeding. “It was tough because we felt Maryland didn’t test themselves in the same manner as [other] teams we were con- Tonight, 7 TV: ESPN2 sidering at the time.”

Exactly a month after Gawlick’s comments, and nearly three weeks after a Sweet 16 upset loss to an Oregon team that had emerged from the grueling Pac-12 Conference not fearing teams like the Terps, Maryland and South Carolina announced a two-year home-and-home series. It was as if Terps coach Brenda Frese had heard the message from on high: A nonconference schedule with just one national titlewinning team just wouldn’t do.

So in a span of three games and seven days, No. 15 Maryland (1-0) will play two. Tonight in College Park: the fourth-ranked and defending NCAA champion Gamecocks (1-0). On Sunday in Hartford, Conn.: top-ranked and presumptive national champion Connecticut.

Only a midweek game Thursday against visiting Niagara will be a reminder of last year’s simpler times, when the Terps stuffed themselves ahead of Thanksgiving on empty calories — 100-point performances against teams like UMES and Mount St. Mary’s.