Shay . . . Leave some of that Loose Meat for the rest of us! From the amount of press coverage the Maryland team is attracting, it appears that the Brenda Frese Victory Tour could be the biggest thing to hit Iowa since the presidential caucuses (perhaps bigger even than Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong's ride through the Tall Corn State!).

Being from our nation’s capital, where we consider ourselves lucky when the local papers publish the score of a women’s basketball game the day after it's been played, it never occurred to the BasketCases that the Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier would have not one, but two articles about the Terps/UNI matchup the day before the game. So in addition to Tuesday's Here Comes Trouble article, we belatedly discovered that the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier also ran a second feature article in yesterday's edition! (Our bad!!) And another fascinating story it is (yes, another must-read!). It seems that UNI Coach Tony DiCecco has been getting phone calls from local fans, who simply cannot believe that it really is the National Champs who are coming to town to play his Panthers. According to DiCecco,“one lady asked, 'Is it Maryland State?'" Coach Di also had this this to say about tonight's match-up:

“If there was ever a female version of (David) and Goliath, I would have to think this would be a pretty good opportunity that's going to take place. Diane and Goliath's sister are going to get together on Wednesday."

And, today in the Des Moines Register, the Terps' dinner at the Freses rates a feature with photos! We learn from this article that "Coach Brenda Frese's parents, Bill and Donna, treated the players to a dinner they'll probably never forget." Perhaps because they served Loose Meat Sandwiches!!?? Well, apparently not! Leave it to the Register's sportswriter, Brandon Cleaver, to reveal that the dinner was catered by a local restaurant . . . (and no, we are not making this up) the Olive Garden! Beaver Cleaver reports that Brenda's Mom, Donna, enjoys sharing with her player-guests old photos of her children. According to yet another feature article --- this one in the Cedar Rapids Gazette --- there was one photo in particular that caught the players' attention. John Riehl of the Gazette tells us:

A high school picture of Frese sporting a haircut resembling a mullet will be a lasting image in the minds of her players from this trip to her home state. The top-ranked and defending national champion Terrapins stopped for a visit last night at the Frese home. "Mullets equal bad for all time,'' Maryland junior all-American Crystal Langhorne said. Don't think for a second the players won't give Coach B … also known as Coach Brenda Frese . . . a hard time about her hairstyle . . . "I think I'm going to take a picture of that mullet with my phone, so I can show people her hairstyle,'' Langhorne said.

If we find any more breaking news on the Terps' trip to Iowa, we'll be sure to post it here! This is BIG, really BIG . . . at least in Iowa! Oh, and lest we forget, there IS a game tonight: Diane vs Goliath's sister at 8:05 PM ET. Audio is available through the Terps website.

Lunch-hour Update: Thanks to our fellow Terps-blogger Joey, the BasketCases followed his link to yet another Iowa newspaper article . . . this one in the Globe Gazette (Mason City/Clear Lake, IA). A pdf version of the front page of the Globe Gazette says this in BOLD type on the very top of the page (above the masthead): "UNI Women Face Defending Nations Champions Tonight/Sports B1." The article in the Sports section quotes Megan Keefe, a junior forward on the Panthers, saying this about the Maryland Terrapins: "They look pretty good."

Photo Credit: Des Moines Register