Charles charged with bigger role as No. 9 Terps open season

Kaila Charles spent almost every day this summer in the gym with the Maryland women’s basketball coaching staff, and when the daily workouts didn’t satisfy her cravings the Terps junior started scheduling two extra sessions a week with the personal trainer she’s had since high school.

To be sure, Charles had a lot to learn. She cycled through ballhandling drills designed for perimeter players, practiced drawing double teams not while driving in the paint but far from the basket, and she trained her mind to read defenses more quickly than before. It was a summer’s worth of fine-tuning skills that all but laid dormant last year, when Charles’ role for the Terps was neatly defined: Get to the basket and score.

As Maryland tips off what it hopes will be a resurgent season tonight against Coppin State, its alpha player has found herself occupying a new role.

Charles’ job last year was difficult and important but at the same time simple. She was the program’s leader and offensive engine, averaging a team-high 17.9 points per game (four points more than the next-leading scorer), not by choice but by necessity. Season opener TV: Maryland was inexperienced and thin on consistent shooters.

This season, the junior’s task is more nuanced. The Terps have offensive threats all over the floor and Frese is no longer asking Charles to drive the offense all by herself.

What she’s asking for is something that requires a bit more gradation and a bit more maturity on Charles’ part. Frese is asking the Terps’ best player to lead by giving up the ball more.

Maryland, ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press preseason poll, is coming off a relatively down year in which it finished 26-8, its worst mark since the 2012-13 season, and was knocked out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Terps shored up last season’s weaknesses by adding three critical elements to their lineup: size, 3-point shooting and experience at point guard.

The Terps’ two freshmen forwards, Shakira Austin and Olivia Owens, measure 6-foot-5 and 6-4. Guard Taylor Mikesell won the nationally contested American Family Insurance three-point championship in spring and Sara Vujacic shot 45 percent from beyond the arc in her last season at junior college. Sophomore Channise Lewis has a season’s worth of experience running point.

That means Charles has been shifted, literally, out to the perimeter more often, where Frese hopes to expose mismatches, take better advantage of the 6-1 guardforward’s versatility and put Charles in position to distribute the ball more if need be.