Skip to main content
Join Now

Kirk Herbstreit applauds Maryland's Brenda Frese intense coaching style after viral interaction

Byington mugby: Alex Byington03/22/26_AlexByington

A video clip of Maryland head women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese screaming into the face of Terrapins star Oluchi Okananwa during Sunday’s Round of 32 loss to North Carolina has gone viral, and not for the reasons you might think. Frese has received wholesale praise from across the college sports landscape for her intense, in-your-face style of coaching as she attempted to encourage one of her star players in a critical moment in Sunday’s 74-66 loss to the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

Even ESPN College GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit celebrated Frese and her tough coaching style with a simple “AWESOME” after quote-tweeting another fan’s transcription of some of Frese’s words of encouragement: “I need you to lock in and stop being distracted,” Frese said via Romeen Sheth. “I BELIEVE in you but YOU’VE got to want this moment. This isn’t my story alright?”

During a third quarter break in action, ESPN cameras caught Frese passionately yelling directly into the face of her talented junior guard, practically touching noses at one point as longtime Maryland coach aggressively poked Okananwa in her chest. Okananwa, who transferred from Duke this past offseason, led the Terrapins with 21 points on 9-of-18 shooting in the game.

And while ESPN didn’t pick up the audio of the interaction, fans can clearly read Frese’s lips and see she was delivering a little tough love rather than a harsh critique. For her part, Okananwa confirmed during the postgame press conference that Frese’s message in that moment was an encouraging one.

Maryland’s Oluchi Okananwa on viral interaction with coach Brenda Frese: ‘I love to be coached hard’

“Coach understands I’m a competitor at heart, and I’ve told her this before, and I’ll keep on telling her this until forever. I love to be coached hard. That’s what she does with me every single day,” Okananwa said postgame. “Really what that was was a regroup moment for myself and her telling me she believed in me. Sometimes that’s all you really need to hear to get back out there. It’s a long game, lots of ups and downs. I feel like after that conversation, that’s when I really went back out and just did what I had to do for my team in that moment. I’m forever appreciative of that.”

Frese also addressed her third-quarter interaction with Okananwa during the postgame press conference, explaining it as a coach’s attempt to get through a talented player who was clearly battling confidence issues during a pivotal art of the game.

“The best of the best, the elite of the elite want to be coached hard,” said Frese, who has coached Maryland since 2002 and won the 2006 national championship. “At that moment, I watched Oluchi struggle within this tournament. She’s just too gifted so I wanted to implore how much belief I have in her and challenge her. I know what a winner and competitor she is. Just challenge her — do you want the moment? I knew to give it a minute, get her back in. And you saw she went out, she got a bucket, she got a steal and never looked back.”

Okananwa led Maryland averaging 17.7 points and 2.2 steals per game in her first season with the Terrapins, while also adding 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game in 2025-26. Maryland finished the season 24-9 overall and 11-7 in Big Ten play this season to make the NCAA Tournament field as a No. 5 seed.