By DAVE LINK
Denae Fritz won’t let a season-ending loss put a damper on her junior year at Maryville High School.
The 5-foot-10 guard and Belmont commitment was a Class AAA Miss Basketball finalist and led Maryville (30-5) to its first state tournament appearance since 1999.
Rather & Kittrell is a proud sponsor of 2020 postseason basketball. Learn what R&K can do for your financial status and future at RKCapital.com
Fritz, the 5Star Preps Girls Player of the Year, led a furious comeback in a 66-63 state quarterfinal loss to Whitehaven on March 11, scoring 10 of her 22 points in the fourth quarter as Maryville cut a 16-point deficit to one in the closing minutes.
A month later, Fritz has fond memories of the 2019-20 season.
“We made that comeback late. It just wasn’t enough (against Whitehaven),” Fritz said. “But looking back, that’s just one of the best teams I’ve ever played with. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. We were all just so loving to each other, and we were there for each other no matter what. That group that we had this past season was just something special that you’ll never be able to get back again.”
Maryville lost four seniors from the 2020 state tournament team, including guard Taylor West, daughter of Maryville coach Scott West.
With AAU season postponed due to coronavirus pandemic, Fritz and many others are going old school when it comes to practicing basketball
Fritz, who plays for Tennessee Flight Select Silver, practices on the backyard court of her dad, Daeon, or the backyard court of the Wests. She also lifts weights at her dad’s house five days a week.
“Right now it looks like slim chances that we’re going to play AAU this summer,” Fritz said, “but me and my teammates are hoping that we’re going to be able to play.”
Last year’s 5Star Preps Underclassman of the Year, Fritz had to step up her game after her sophomore season with the graduation of guard Courtney Carruthers (Maryville College) and post player Lindsey Taylor (Furman).
She did just that.
As a sophomore, Fritz averaged 13 points and eight rebounds, and this past season averaged 22 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 2.5 assists. She shot 58 percent from the floor, 43 percent from 3-point range, and 79 percent from the foul line.
Scott West said Fritz’s versatility makes her special.
“It’s mainly her willingness to do what’s needed,” he said. “She’s not sold into, ‘I have to be this. I’ve got to be a point guard, or I’ve got to be a shooting guard.’ She’ll play any position that’s needed for whatever game or whatever situation we face.”
West likes Fritz’s intangibles, too.
“She works at it. She’s easy to coach,” he said. “She wants to be better, she wants to be challenged. The main thing about her is she wants to win. She would be happy winning if she had 10 points just as much as if she had 25. She’s not super concerned with her stats. She takes a lot of pride in her rebounding.”
Fritz had multiple Division I offers and was getting interest from Power 5 programs before announcing her commitment to Belmont on April 1.
Belmont went 22-9 last season and tied with Tennessee-Martin atop the Ohio Valley Conference standings, each with a 16-2 record.
“I think a lot of it is about fit,” West said of Fritz choosing Belmont. “Denae would have had Power 5 possibilities, there’s no question, but Belmont is a solid program with a beautiful campus and it’s an unbelievable opportunity. Coach (Bart) Brooks, we talked for a long time after Denae committed, and he was super, super excited, as he should be.
“Denae’s going to be an impact player there. We went to camp there two years ago, and the campus is hard to beat, and Nashville’s a really cool place. I think Denae made a great decision, and that’s what’s so good about Denae. She wouldn’t allow the, ‘Hey, that’s not good enough,’ to ever enter her mind. She wasn’t looking for a Power 5 (program) to stroke her ego. She was looking for a place where she could go make an impact and win, and Belmont’s building a pretty good program.”
Fritz said her visits to Belmont and relationships with the coaches and players made her decision easy.
“Honestly for me, it was the players and the coaches, the players especially,” Fritz said. “They were different from any other team I ever went and visited. You talk about loving people and such kind people, and obviously great basketball players, too, and the coaches, they’ll do anything for you. They care about you on and off the court no matter what is going on. That was pretty much my deciding factor, and I think it’s going to be a really good fit.”
Fritz said that overrides the possibility of playing for a Power 5 program.
“Now that I know I’m going to Belmont, I want to go beat those Power 5 teams,” she said, “and I think we’ve got something special coming up at Belmont. I think we’re going to be really good the next few years.”