MINNEAPOLIS — Brenda Frese has preached it for years to anyone willing to listen. Her Maryland women’s basketball team has played top-tier opponents early in the nonconference season with an eye on March, hoping those early challenges would be learning experiences for when the games matter most.
Maryland was punished in November losses to South Carolina and Connecticut, and after several more tests in the rugged Big Ten, the Terrapins finished the regular season 0-8 against ranked opponents. And while Maryland’s opponent Thursday was not of that caliber, the lessons learned came in handy in the second round of the Big Ten tournament, when the No.