Marissa Coleman and the Lady Terps

Lost amongst all the effusive praise and accolades surrounding Marissa Coleman’s “heirloom game” in yesterday’s NCAA women’s basketball regional semi-final was the fact that Coleman’s very average defensive performance led directly to dozens of quality Vanderbilt opportunities and scores. While playing 40 minutes will certainly take its toll toward the end of a game, this does not explain why the worst of the Coleman’s and the rest of the Terps’ defense play was at the beginning of each half. If Coach Frese, Marissa Coleman and the rest of the Terps don’t take their defense more seriously, they will not win another national championship. Maryland can probably beat less talented teams by relying on their stars to come up with clutch performances to compensate for an inferior defensive effort, but this probably won’t work against Stanford or UConn.