Maryland women add another transfer in Vanderbilt guard Brinae Alexander

For Maryland coach Brenda Frese, the transfer portal taketh, and the transfer portal giveth.

After losing five players to the transfer portal early in the offseason, the Maryland women’s basketball coach has since added a trio of veteran transfers to reload the roster. The latest addition came Saturday when Vanderbilt guard Brinae Alexander announced that she had committed to play for the Terrapins as a graduate transfer next season.

Alexander led the Commodores last season with 15.2 points per game, scoring 20-plus points in eight games. In her career with Vanderbilt, the 6-foot guard native averaged 12.9 points a contest. A score-first player, Alexander averaged 2.0 steals and 3.5 rebounds a game while shooting 36.3% from behind the arc. 

What’s up Terp Nation!? 😝🐢❤️ #Committed pic.twitter.com/47ZNagkecf

— Brinae Alexander (@BruhhNaeNae) April 30, 2022

Alexander will join former Princeton guard Abby Meyers and former South Florida point guard Elisa Pinzan as transfers new to College Park next season. 

Meyers, a Potomac native who was regarded as one of the top transfers in the nation, was an AP All-American honorable mention last season after tallying 17.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game to earn the Ivy League Player of the Year award. Pinzan, meanwhile, averaged 9.3 points and 5.3 assists per game for the Bulls last season. Similar to Alexander, Pinzan will play for the Terrapins as a graduate transfer. 

The additions followed an exodus in early April that included the program’s top two players. Shortly after losing to No. 1-seeded Stanford in the Sweet 16, five Terrapins, including star players and leading scorers Angel Reese and Ashley Owusu, entered the portal. 

Owusu was a three-year starter who eclipsed 1,000 career points last season, while Reese, a Baltimore native, was an AP third-team All-American after averaging a double-double (17.8 points and 10.6 rebounds) in 2021-22. The other players to transfer out of the program were Mimi Collins, a rising redshirt senior who scored 7.9 points per game last year, as well as bench players Taisiya Kozlova and Channise Lewis. 

Despite the up and down offseason and back-to-back losses in the Sweet 16, Frese in April was given another contract extension — this one keeping her in College Park through the 2028-29 season.