Maryland women’s basketball adds former head coach to staff, loses key player to portal

Maryland women's basketball head coach Brenda Frese announced a finalized staff on Wednesday after adding Carley Kuhns, who joins the program after serving as Samford's head coach for six seasons. Kuhns was named SoCon Coach of the Year in each of her first two seasons with the program and finished 150-123 during her six seasons.

Prior to her time at Samford, Kuhns spent three seasons as head coach at Valdosta State. In her three seasons at VSU, Kuhns posted a record of 66-29. She led her teams to two NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2018 and one Gulf South Conference Tournament title in 2017.

"We are thrilled to welcome Carley, her husband Matt, and their children Carsten, Kyler and Cohen to our Maryland family,” head coach Brenda Frese saidvia release. “What a huge opportunity for us to hire someone like Carley with so much experience in our profession and who has been a head coach, which is something I value. Carley coached Maryland alum, Sarah Myers for a season and worked with my assistant, Coach Fratz, and they both gave her great reviews. Carley has a proven track record and knows what it takes to win. She will be a tremendous asset for our student-athletes and program and will be able to hit the ground running. I'm excited about what she will bring to our program."

The news did come exactly one day after the roster suffered an unexpected departure in the final hour after Allie Kubek entered her name into the transfer portal, leaving one roster vacancy for Frese to now fill.

Before Maryland, the 6-foot-2 forward spent her first year at Towson before transferring. During her first season as a Terp on the bench due to an ACL injury, but when Kubek was able to return she became a key component on the court.

This season, Kubek averaged 9.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game and shot 57.6% from the field.

More impressively, Kubek becomes an entirely different player in the postseason, as she helped the Terps make a run to the Sweet Sixteen. She averaged 19 points per game during the postseason and shot 71.8% from the field.

However, even with Kubek’s name in the portal, Frese still picked up three portal transfers this offseason. Guard Yarden Garzon is from Indiana, center Gracie Merkle is from Penn State, and the most recent addition to Maryland is guard Oluchi Okananwa from Duke.

The only other Terp to enter the transfer portal this year was Emily Fisher, who is now committed to Nebraska.

By: Brinkley Smith

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