Double Duty

Plus there is the question of how her team will respond to her inevitable absences from the bench. Maryland, after all, is in a fight -- with the University of Tennessee, the University of Connecticut and a handful of other teams -- to be No. 1 in the country. She stayed home during a recent road trip to California. The Terps, coached by assistant Daron Park, fell behind to UCLA by 16 points with just over six minutes to play, but rallied to win.

Their first loss of the season came Monday to Rutgers University, 68-60. They won two nights later, 74-69, over Middle Tennessee State. Frese wasn't courtside because of a stomach bug. Tonight they play Northern Iowa.

Two years ago, the Terps were national champs. Last year they lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to unranked Ole Miss. This year, with four starters from that championship squad still on the team and an 11-1 start, hope is alive.

And kicking. Frese is on track to deliver the twins sometime near the end of the season. Her due date is March 11, two days after the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament ends and less than two weeks before the NCAA extravaganza. She believes they will come earlier.

These are her first. She and her husband, Mark Thomas, also 37, have been trying to have children for a couple of years. "Between us and the team," Thomas says, "the twins will be spoiled with attention."

For Frese, her job is a dream come true. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she played at the University of Arizona, where she graduated in 1993, then was an assistant at Kent State and Iowa State. "I loved her energy level," says Iowa State women's basketball coach Bill Fennelly, who hired her. "She recruits as well as any head coach in the country." Parents feel comfortable sending their kids to Frese, he adds.

Her first head coaching job was at Ball State. In her first game, the Cardinals upset the University of Minnesota. When the Minnesota head-coaching job opened up, the Gophers hired Frese. She coached there one year -- in 2001-2002 -- and was named NCAA coach of the year. Two of her players, Lindsey Whalen and Janel McCarville, went on to the WNBA. Maryland lured her away from Minnesota after that season.

For Thomas -- also a blond dynamo in athletic clothes -- the care and feeding of Frese right now is Job 1. The two met in the fall of 2004. Thomas, an Emmy Award-winning TV producer, was doing video work for the university. They married in August 2005.

These days, Thomas works for his family. He says Frese's annual salary -- $215,000 a year plus extras, according to the campus newspaper -- allows him to take time off. He is his wife's personal assistant and a stay-at-home about-to-be dad. He doesn't cook much, she says, "but he can put things together." Occasionally his mother, who lives in Laurel, cooks dinner for the expectant couple. On a recent night she sent over pork chops, rice and applesauce.

The family room of their home in Laurel is crammed with a double stroller and a baby swing, next to the card table where Frese sits most evenings, watching game film and taking notes on a legal pad. Thomas often sits nearby, watching sports on TV.

In the mustard-colored children's room, Thomas points out baby clothes he bought on eBay: 27 outfits for $26. "I have no desire to put a nursery together," Frese says. She is leaving it up to an interior decorator.