Maryland women’s basketball adds USF guard Elisa Pinzan

Following a week that saw five players transfer from a Maryland women’s basketball team that earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4-seed, head coach Brenda Frese has begun to retool the roster, much like she did in 2020 after several high-profile transfers.

University of South Florida point guard Elisa Pinzan announced on Twitter Tuesday her commitment to Maryland. She will use the extra year of eligibility players received due to the COVID-19 pandemic to end her career as a Terp.

Pinzan spent four seasons with the Bulls, where she played 113 total games, scored 917 points and dished out 544 assists. She was named the 2020-21 American Athletic Conference Most Improved Player and also made the AAC All-Conference Second Team in 2020-21.

This past season, Pinzan averaged over nine points and 5.3 assists per game. After knocking down a 36.4% clip from 3-point range as a sophomore, Pinzan struggled from deep; she made just 28.6% her junior season and improved some this season with a percentage of 31.9.

This year, she helped her side to a 24-9 record — 12-3 in the conference — and a berth in the AAC final. The Bulls, however, fell to top-seeded University of Central Florida and suffered a similar result against Miami in the NCAA Tournament first round against Miami.

The addition of an experienced point guard like Pinzan helps offset the loss of two of Maryland’s ball handlers from last season; Katie Benzan exhausted her eligibility and All-Big Ten guard Ashley Owusu entered the transfer portal.

Owusu was joined by sophomore forward/guard Angel Reese, redshirt junior forward Mimi Collins, sophomore guard Taisiya Kozlova and graduate guard Channise Lewis. The five departures all happened in 30 hours, so Frese has had to move fast to build out the roster. Like Benzan, graduate forward Chloe Bibby exhausted her college eligibility after two years each in College Park.

Returning for Maryland is junior guard Diamond Miller, who recently had knee surgery, freshman guard and Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year Shyanne Sellers, junior guard/forward Faith Masonius, who is coming off a torn ACL, and freshman forward Emma Chardon, who played sparingly this season.

Frese also will get to work with guard Lavender Briggs, who transferred from Florida during the season.

Joining Pinzan in College Park are four-star guards Brianna McDaniel (ranked No. 42 in the 2022 class) and Gia Cooke (No. 58), both of whom recently decommitted from Texas A&M. Rounding out the freshman class is four-star guard Mila Reynolds and three-star guard Ava Sciolla in the freshmen class this upcoming fall.

Editor’s note: a previous version of this story stated that Sellers was Big Ten Player of the Year. This story has been updated to accurately reflect that Sellers was Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year.