W. Hoops Set for First First Round of Tourney

Though faces may have fallen when it was announced last Sunday that the Harvard women’s basketball team, seeded No. 14 in the East, would travel to Manhattan, Kansas to face No. 3 seed Kansas State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Crimson needed only a few minutes to raise its spirits.

“From a purely basketball standpoint, this is great,” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said last Sunday. “I’m happier this year than I was last year.”

Delaney-Smith’s positive view of the match-up is not unfounded optimism. The Crimson have seen these Wildcats before. Harvard (22-4) and Kansas St. (28-4) last squared off in December of 2001 when the Wildcats won, 72-56. However, the Crimson believes that Kansas St., ranked seventh in the nation, will face a loftier challenge this time around.

“We’ve gotten a lot better than we were last year,” said junior forward Tricia Turbidy. “But Kansas St. is basically the same team.”

Last year’s meeting featured Wildcats crashing the boards and using quicker, taller guards to score over the mismatched Crimson. Junior forward Hana Peljto, in her first game back after an ankle sprain, contributed only 12 points, though sophomore center Reka Cserny impressed with 20 points and 10 boards.

Peljto, recently named Ivy League Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, leads Harvard in both scoring (21.5 point per game) and in rebounding (9.8 rpg). A healthy Peljto should help the Crimson’s cause on the boards this time around.

Cserny, a first team All-Ivy selection (16 ppg, 2.54 steals per game), combined with Peljto to dominate Ivy League competition this year as Harvard went 14-0 in league play. Kansas State, however, is not an Ivy League foe.

Kansas State’s features two finalists for Naismith Player of the Year in its frontcourt.

At center for the Wildcats is junior Nicole Ohlde, who stands an inch taller than Cserny at 6’4. The Big 12 Player of the Year averages 18.4 points and nine rebounds. She is also one of the top defensive centers in the nation, blocking 62 shots in the regular season. At forward, 5’11 sophomore Kendra Wecker has piled on the accolades, most recently winning ESPN.com’s Most Underrated Player. She leads the Wildcats in scoring with 19.2 ppg while adding 8.3 rebounds a contest.

“The key to our defense is that we contain all of Kansas State’s offensive threats,” Peljto said.

How well Cserny and Peljto can stay with K-State’s top guns will determine Harvard’s success.

Atmosphere will also likely to play a major role; Kansas is the No. 3 seed in the East, but the regional tournament is held on its home court—Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, KS.

“We’re glad we’ve seen Kansas St. before and we’ve seen the atmosphere before, so we know what to expect,” Peljto said.

But knowing what to expect doesn’t necessarily equate with being able to handle it. Despite acknowledging that the Wildcat fans were friendly outside of the Bramlage a year ago, a number of Harvard players were impressed with the effect that many cheering fans can have.

“It hurts to have 10,000 people cheering against you,” Tubridy said.

Last year, the Crimson, had to play fourth seeded UNC in North Carolina. And while the environment was intimidating, the crowd was not the reason that Harvard lost 85-58. UNC had too much size and athleticism for Harvard to handle.

In comparing last year’s NCAA opponent with this year’s Kansas St., Tubridy thinks Harvard is better suited to take on the challenge.

“I don’t think that Kansas St. has the advantage physically on us that UNC did last year,” Tubridy said.

While the Wildcats’ backcourt can’t boast guards such as Tar Heels’ Nikki Teasley and Coretta Brown, Kansas St. can still rely on 6’0 Megan Mahoney, who averages nearly 15 points and five assists a game.

“This year we feel like Kansas St. is an athletic team, but we feel it won’t be as much of a factor [as it was against UNC last year],” Peljto said.

Athletic teams have been Harvard’s Achilles heel, both this year and last. The Crimson’s four losses this season have all come to Top 25 teams that have outrun and outrebounded Harvard. In those games—losses to BC, Rutgers, Minnesota and Vanderbilt—Harvard settled for perimeter shots and got few points in the paint and even fewer offensive rebounds. Peljto was the lone player to maintain high production on offense. However, Cserny’s performance against the Wildcats last year combined with recent stellar offensive contributions from Tubridy and junior point guard Bev Moore hold promise for a balanced and confident Crimson offense.

The team has worked on how to approach more athletic teams and has re-emphasized the importance of a balance between its inside game and its perimeter shooting.

“We’ve worked [all year] on our inside-out game,” Tubridy said. “And we’ve become a lot better with our shot selection since [those losses].”

Balance will be key against the Wildcats. But being the underdog has never stopped Harvard women before—in 1998, the Crimson, led by Alison Feaster ’98, was a 16-seed, playing top-seeded Stanford on the Cardinal’s home court. Harvard emerged with a 71-67 win, becoming the only 16-seed in the history of NCAA basketball, men’s or women’s, to knock off a No. 1. The precedent for high expectations has been set, and Sunday will show if the Crimson can make big news in the Little Apple.

—Staff writer Timothy M. McDonald can be reached at tmcdonal@fas.harvard.edu.