Crimson Opens Season with Chicago Tourney

Some squads might be intimidated to start their season against the DePaul women’s basketball team in the first-round of the DePaul Maggie Dixon Classic, which kicks off this Friday on the Blue Demons’ home court. The DePaul women enter the season fresh off an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and are the preseason pick to win the newly redesigned Big East Conference.

Being intimidated, however, isn’t really the Harvard women’s basketball team’s style.

“Our expectation is [that] we’re going to win,” head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. “We’re going in with the expectation that we can compete and we have an ability to win this tournament.”

The Crimson enters the season ranked second in the Ivy League preseason poll, after losing just two starters from a squad that went to the second round of the WNIT for the second straight year after going 20-8 in the regular season. After a five year drought without a title, however, the team is starting the 2013-14 season with a new mindset.

“We have really tried to focus every single practice on what we call ‘excellent’,” junior co-captain Kaitlyn Dinkins said. “Focusing on the little things and working towards our goals of getting excellence every single practice has really brought a new focus and energy to our team. Everyone’s really committed to each other and supporting each other, and I think that that common goal and focus and intensity has a different feel than it has in the past.”

The returners are highlighted by co-captain Christine Clark and juniors Temi Fagbenie and Ali Curtis, who combined to score 31.1 points and grab 14.5 rebounds per game last season. After losing senior Victoria Lippert, who added 13.7 PPG last year and was always a reliable scoring threat, the team will be looking to its experienced starters and senior class to step up and make an impact on the court.

“Obviously Christine Clark has been one of our leading scorers for years,” Dinkins said. “She plays a huge role but I think some of the seniors who have been supporting roles in the past will really step up and dominate. Ali is back at starting point guard better than ever. She’s really leading our team and I think that she’ll play a commanding role on the court.”

DePaul comes into the 2013-14 season with high expectations after losing to Oklahoma State in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year. Led by coach Doug Bruno, entering his 28th season at the helm, the Blue Demons received votes in both the AP and USA Today preseason polls and are currently ranked just outside the Top-25 nationally.

“He’s been coaching as long as I have and he’s phenomenal at DePaul, so I’m going in with my eyes open,” said Smith, who is entering her 32nd season as the head coach in Cambridge. “I know how he coaches and how good he is. We’re expecting a very physical game. Every year he has athletic players: they’re going to be very aggressive, they’re going to run, so we have to be ready for that kind of game.”

The Blue Demons are highlighted by senior Jasmine Penny and junior Brittany Hrynko. Penny, who averaged 12.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game last year, was named to the All-Big East preseason squad, while Hrynko was tabbed as the conference preseason Player of the Year after a stellar sophomore effort in which she added 14.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

“She’s a terrific player, and you don’t go in trying to shut her down totally because I don’t think you can shut that kind of player down,” Delaney-Smith said. “But we certainly have a strategy and a game plan. You want to minimize her easy opportunities; you want to make everything she does challenging.”

If the Crimson succeeds in taking down DePaul on Friday, they will face the winner of the CalPoly-Duquesne matchup the next day. While both teams are also coming off successful seasons of their own, the team is confident in their ability to do well this weekend.

“We’re really just trying to define Harvard basketball and play our game,” Dinkins said. “We want to not let any opponent determine the style of play, but really play our type of basketball every time. They’re a great team, but we’ve prepared and I think if we follow the scouting and go in with the mindset that we’re going to dominate, it will allow us to win.”