Shockwaves swept through the Maryland women’s basketball program on Tuesday with the news that Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu — the Terrapins’ top two scorers — will be entering the transfer portal.
A person familiar with Reese’s decision Tuesday night confirmed the departure of the sophomore, the highest-ranking recruit in the program’s history. Owusu, the team’s second-best goalscorer, tweeted her transfer plans on Tuesday morning.
Reese, a guard/forward from Baltimore, averaged 17.8 points for the Terrapins. Owusu, a junior guard from Woodbridge, Virginia, averaged 14.3 points.
“We wish these student-athletes well as they pursue their basketball careers and education elsewhere,” coach Brenda Frese said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Every team was affected by the transfer portal on both ends. Maryland basketball is bigger than any lineup or person. Our employees are dedicated to bringing the best student athletes to Maryland.”
The Terps also lost reserves Taisiya Kozlova and Channise Lewis to the transfer portal. Kozlova was the ninth player off the bench in her sophomore year, and Lewis didn’t play in a game as a graduate student.
The departures followed a disappointing 2021-22 season for the Terrapins, who began the campaign with national title hopes but failed to win a game in the Big Ten tournament and were eliminated from the NCAA tournament in the Sweet 16 for their second straight season.
In a tweet announcing her move, Owusu referenced “events that happened on and off the pitch.”
“I never started anything I didn’t finish, and ending was the plan when I decided to come to College Park,” Owusu wrote. “My goal was to have a great career here and win a national championship with a great team. I could picture my jersey hanging from the rafters at the Xfinity Center.
“Unfortunately, the events that have transpired on and off the court this year have led me to make the very difficult but necessary decision to pursue my education and basketball career elsewhere.”
Reese didn’t provide a statement, but she retweeted reports of the news on Twitter. She was named a third-team All-America and a first-team All-Big Ten that season when she also averaged 10.6 rebounds. The Baltimore native joined the program as the #2 recruit in the class of 2020. After missing most of her freshman season with a broken foot, she started in all but one game that season and was the No. 1 pick on Frese’s offense.
After the disappointing end to the season, Reese tweeted, “We’ll be back, I’ll be back, TRUST ME….” Her brother, Julian Reese, has just completed his freshman year on the Maryland men’s basketball team.
Owusu, who at Paul VI. Catholic, who played in Fairfax, Virginia, enjoyed a regression as a junior season after being named a sophomore third-team All-American and a first-team All-Big Ten. She earned at least a portion of the Big Ten MVP honors as a freshman and sophomore, and led the team in her sophomore year with 17.9 points per game. Owusu’s numbers dropped in every category except the three-point percentage, and she shot just 42.4 percent from the field.
The offense evolved into using Reese as the No. 1 option in post rather than playing through Owusu, who sustained an ankle injury and missed five games late in the season. Owusu ended the regular season by coming off the bench before returning to the starting lineup for the NCAA tournament. She averaged 22 points in the first two rounds of the tournament before falling off the beat and scoring four points in the season-ending loss to Stanford.
Maryland falls to the top against Stanford and is eliminated in Sweet 16 for the second straight season
Frese must now replace four starters going into next season, with guard Katie Benzan and forward Chloe Bibby having exhausted their eligibility.
Owusu enlisted in Maryland and was the nation’s No. 1 point guard according to ESPN and an All-American from McDonald’s. The move arguably sees Big Ten sixth player of the year and freshman team pick Shyanne Sellers in the starting XI. Guard Diamond Miller is the only other starter expected to return.
The pair continues the trend of high-profile players moving out of the Maryland program. Frese lost two offseasons to Taylor Mikesell (Oregon, then Ohio State), Shakira Austin (Mississippi), and Olivia Owens (Kentucky).
The transfer portal was the talk of the NCAA Final Four last week. Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma said he understands players leave all the time but questioned some of the decisions behind the moves. According to reports, 850 players were in the portal last week.
“You know these 850 people in the portal? Three hundred of them will not find a school to go to because they will find that it is not the school they just left,” Auriemma said. “Just like last year, right? A thousand kids in the portal, 250 of them had nowhere to go and the boys who left them don’t want them back. What happened to find out the hell?
“Yes, sometimes you have to go. Sometimes it’s the right thing. No question. But 800, 1,000 of them? There are only 365 Division I schools. It’s like three in each school.”
Beginning of an era: Staley and South Carolina are now setting standards
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who became the first black coach on either the men’s or women’s side to win two Division I national championships on Sunday, called the process “way, way, way, way out of control.” She acknowledged that some players didn’t sign up to sit on the bench for three seasons and wanted an opportunity to pursue college or pro goals. However, there are many who play big minutes and still keep going.
“The portal is very similar to social media,” Staley said last week. “It’s the fad. It’s a grand old fad that’s always going on. There are more people on the portal than there are grants.”