Entering a new season with a top-25 ranking is nothing unusual for Maryland women’s basketball.

But figuring out a roster with 10 newcomers is, though it is becoming more and more common.

Traditionally in college basketball, a No. 18 ranking for the Terps would have implied continuity, the core of a great team returning for another season. But thanks to the transfer portal and name, image and likeness income, nothing in college sports feels traditional anymore. And in her 22nd season at Maryland, Brenda Frese has caught up with the times.

“You have to,” she said. “Otherwise you’ll be left behind.”

There will be moments when the Terps look like they did in the second half of their season opener at UMBC, when they outscored the Retrievers 41-10. They’ll have quick, on-target entry passes to post players like Christina Dalce and Allie Kubek for easy scores by the rim. Shyanne Sellers and Sarah Te-Biasu will poke out steals and run for easy transition buckets without anyone in close pursuit.

Maryland’s length and height, boosted especially by six portal additions, was a particular area of emphasis this offseason. Dalce from Villanova, Kaylene Smikle from Rutgers and Saylor Poffenbarger from UConn could be some of the impact players who are new to College Park this fall. The upside of the group explained Sellers’ giddy expression as she pored over the box score from the 74-32 victory.

“We have a lot of depth this year — we can really kill you from anywhere,” said Sellers, the only senior on the roster who has spent her whole career with the Terps. “We’re just so versatile, I think we’re a mismatch nightmare.”

But there will be bumps, too.

While the game was never in doubt for Maryland, the first half effort by the Retrievers gave the Terps some problems. Backside rotations in their defense were slow, leaving open shots. On several half-court offense sets, the few returners — Sellers, Kubek and Bri McDaniel among them — urgently gestured to the newcomers where to stand, or where to pass the ball. There were also “nerves and kinks” as Frese described them, with overeager shot attempts that flew wildly off-target (Maryland was just 2 for 13 on 3-pointers).

New UMBC coach Candice Hill said her intention was to force Maryland out of its comfort zone of transition offense and post ups. In a closely contested second quarter, in which the Terps only scored one point more than the Retrievers, it was a viable game plan.

Frese, whose teams have finished first in the Big Ten six times, was breezy and smiling for almost all of a blowout fourth quarter as the Terps took control. But a stoicism returned to her expression as she reflected on Maryland’s 22 turnovers — pretty much what to expect for a group that is almost entirely new to one another.

“You’re gonna see a lot of this,” Frese said. “We have 10 new players, and that chemistry is gonna take time. I do not like it, but I have to be patient within that process.”

This is not strictly an issue for the Terps. All of college basketball is like this now. Preseason rankings are more a stab in the dark for teams that are reloading with touted recruiting classes.

Among the AP’s top 10 teams, defending champion South Carolina eked out a win over Michigan, and No. 3 USC barely got by Ole Miss. In addition to the normal early season hiccups, team bonding in modern college athletics happens on the fly — an airplane being assembled in real time as it rattles down the runway.

After a down year by program standards in 2023-2024, the Terps are looking to return to form this year. Maryland was 19-14 last season with a 9-9 record in Big Ten play. While Caitlin Clark no longer lords over the conference, there are still six other top-25 teams in the AP rankings this season, a marker of just how tough the road is ahead for Maryland.

But you’d need to do a lot more than cherry-pick a few bad turnovers or rushed shots to quash the Terps’ optimism. Two seasons ago, the Terps had nine newcomers and made it to the Elite Eight before losing to South Carolina. They’ve done this before. And they aren’t the only ones trying to build chemistry with a new group, and though it will take time to build a cohesive whole, they like the parts they’ve got.

Sellers noted that 11 Terps got in the game. All of them scored.

“I think it’s coming along great,” Sellers said. “Obviously you can see that we play with a lot of joy and we care a lot about each other.”