Frese, Morsell Lead Big Ten Honorees on Women’s, Men’s Basketball Teams

The Maryland women’s and men’s basketball teams took home conference awards this week, highlighted by women’s Head Coach Brenda Frese being voted Big Ten Coach of the Year by her peers and the league's media panel, and men’s senior guard Darryl Morsell being named the 2021 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year by the league’s 14 head coaches.

This is Frese’s fourth Big Ten Coach of the Year honor, having previously won in 2002, 2015 and 2019. She was also named ACC Coach of the Year in 2013, MAC Coach of the Year in 2000 and Associated Press National Coach of the Year in 2002. Morsell, meanwhile, is the first player in program history to win a conference defensive player of the year award. (The ACC did not introduce the award until 2013-14.)

Six student-athletes from the women’s squad, including all five starters, also earned All-Big Ten honors. Sophomore Ashley Owusu, last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year, was a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten First Team. She leads Maryland, the nation's top-scoring team (91.3 points per game), with 18.7 points and 5.8 assists.

Fellow sophomore Diamond Miller earned her first All-Big Ten honor and was also voted to the First Team by both groups. Miller doubled her scoring and rebounding to 17.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in just her second season.

Both the league's head coaches and media panel voted senior Katie Benzan to the All-Big Ten Second Team. In her first season as a Terrapin, Benzan is shooting 51.6% from outside the arc, which leads the country. She is averaging 14.1 points per game.

Senior Chloe Bibby earned All-Big Ten Honorable Mention honors from both groups after averaging 13 points and 6.3 rebounds. Redshirt sophomore Mimi Collins earned Honorable Mention honors from the media panel. She is posting 10.1 points and 6.4 rebounds.

Angel Reese was voted to the five-player All-Big Ten Freshman Team by the media panel. Reese missed 14 games due to a foot injury in December, but is averaging 11 points and six rebounds in her nine games played so far.

Redshirt junior Channise Lewis earned a Big Ten Sportsmanship Award.

On the men’s team, the trio of Morsell (media), Aaron Wiggins (coaches and media) and Eric Ayala (coaches and media) each earned Honorable Mention All-Big Ten honors. It marked the second All-Big Ten selection of Morsell’s career, and the first for both Wiggins and Ayala.

It is the second consecutive year Maryland has had three All-Big Ten players selected, and the fourth time since joining the league seven years ago.

As Defensive Player of the Year, Morsell was also named to the All-Defensive Team. It is the fourth straight year a Maryland player was selected to the team, joining Jalen Smith (2020), Bruno Fernando (2019) and Anthony Cowan Jr. (2018).

Morsell was also selected as the program's Sportsmanship Award honoree.

Both the men’s and women’s Big Ten tournaments tip off this week in Indianapolis. Maryland’s women’s team is the No. 1 seed and will open its run Thursday at 11 a.m. vs. either No. 8-seeded Nebraska or No. 9-seeded Minnesota. That game will be televised on FS2, and fans can also watch on the Fox Sports app and at FoxSports.com. The men’s team plays Thursday at 11:30 a.m. against ninth-seeded Michigan State in the second round on Big Ten Network.