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Scarlet Knights victory at the Paradise Jam tournament in November 2006. The Knights lead the all-time series 20-18. Stringer, who received a four-year con- tract extension in May, is very familiar with her new conference. Before coming to Rutgers, she spent 12 seasons at Iowa, leading the Hawkeyes to the Final Four in 1993 and to three appearances in the Elite Eight. "Top to bottom, I can't think of one team that is weak in the Big Ten," she said. "This is a power conference, and with the addition certainly of Maryland, I didn't see any weaknesses before, and I certainly don't see any now. It's much, much, much stronger." Unlike Rutgers, Maryland has never been one of Penn State's conference rivals until now. Even so, the Lady Lions have played Maryland 22 times and have won 14 of those games, including the past six in a row. The teams' most recent meeting was in December 2003, early in Frese's second year with the program. The Lady Lions prevailed handily in College Park, 82-65. Frese, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was head coach at Minnesota in 2001-02, said she's con9dent the Terps are ready for the move to a new conference. "I think more than anything, we always want to be ready from a national-caliber level," she said. "[Being] able to establish our program [as] a consistent top-10 pro- gram and [a participant] in the Final Four prepares us for the Big Ten. My Big Ten experience, having grown up in Iowa as well as coaching [Minnesota for] one sea- son and having followed the league for so many years, prepares us for what we're going to see." Frese's lone season with the Gophers was a remarkable one. Inheriting a team that had won only eight games the previous year, she led Minnesota to a school-record 22 wins and a spot in the second round of the NCAA tournament. It was only the second NCAA tourney appearance in school history, and it led Maryland to her doorstep as soon as the season ended. She's since watched her former league from afar and said recently that the style of play has changed since her departure, in part because of the arrival of younger coaches such as Washington. "I think the Big Ten has been given a stigma of just a physical style of play and skill," she said. "I think there are compo- nents of that in the Big Ten, but I think that it has really changed. There have been coaching changes that have taken place with a lot of new young coaches coming in. There is a lot more athleticism, and so you see that blend and combination. I do think it's exciting, and I think it's a Penn State welcomed one of the na- tion's top recruiting classes during the early-signing period, receiving letters of intent from four highly regarded players: guard Amari Carter of Wash- ington, D.C.; point guard Teniya Page of Chicago Heights, Ill.; post player Ashanti Thomas of Lexington, Ky.; and forward Jaylen Williams of Brain- tree, Mass. The class is ranked eighth by Prospect Nation, ninth by the All Star Girls Report, 10th by Blue Star Bas- ketball and 11th by ESPN/HoopGurlz and the Collegiate Girls Basketball Re- port. It is believed to be the highest- ranked class in the program's history and is the third top-15 class to sign under Coquese Washington. "This class has all the makings of be- ing a high-impact class for our pro- gram," Washington said. "Kia [Da- mon], Itoro [Coleman], Jocelyn [Wyatt] and the rest of the sta: did a fantastic job of bringing in a group of ladies that are a great 9t for Lady Lion basketball. This class features size, speed, athleti- cism and scoring prowess, and I am con9dent they will excel." Described by Washington as a "silky smooth le

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