A Fresh Look: Women's Basketball Season Preview

High highs and low lows might be the right way to characterize the 2013-2014 Harvard women’s basketball season.

One day after snapping a four-year losing streak at Jadwin Gymnasium by defeating Princeton, 78-68, the squad played “one of the worst shooting games” Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said she has ever seen, scoring just 38 points en route to a 29-point loss at Penn. High high, low low.

But the Crimson bounced back, and heading into late February, was tied atop conference standings, looking poised to take home the Ivy League title for the first time since 2008, with just the loss to the Quakers marring its resume. Then came the Penn-Princeton weekend at home.

This time, Harvard shot 30.8 percent against the Quakers, better than the 18.3 percent in Philly, but not good enough. The team lost, 63-50, ending a 21-game home winning streak. Though Harvard had already beaten the Tigers in Princeton’s home gym, repeating the effort was ultimately too much for the Crimson, which got its second loss of the weekend at Lavietes Pavilion.

Delaney-Smith’s team did receive an at-large bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament, at which it advanced past Iona on a buzzer-beating layup before falling to Rutgers in the second round.

The postseason run matched Harvard’s previous two outings in the WNIT, but this year’s hungry Harvard squad, driven by last season’s shortcomings, is ready to make another title run.

“I think that feeling of devastation, and that all of our hard work sort of took a turn for the worse on that [Penn-Princeton] weekend, is sort of a motivation,” said senior point guard Ali Curtis. “We all know how it feels to have everything taken away from us and we can’t do that again, we can’t drop two games in a row, we can’t let up. We can’t have that happen again.”

If Delaney-Smith’s new system works as the Crimson coach plans, there will be no déjà vu. Following the graduation of a strong senior class—including shooting guard Christine Clark ’14—the team has revamped its offensive and defensive strategies to implement transition-based schemes that will feature a more fast-paced, up-tempo style of basketball.

“We share the ball a whole lot in our new system right now,” Delaney-Smith said. “It’s a different offense that appears a little harder to scout.”

After ending last season tied for second with Princeton, the squad is ready to break the streak. Harvard last won the conference title in the 2007-2008 season, and the Crimson has come in second in the league every year since then.But if Harvard hopes to end its streak of second-place finishes, it will have to fight past the Killer P’s once again.

Princeton returns four of last year’s starters, including guard Blake Dietrick, who averaged 14.3 points per game and was named to the All-Ivy first team. Penn brings back Rookie of the Year guard Sydney Stipanovich, who scored 28 points over the two matchups against Harvard last year.

The Crimson will get a chance to avenge the losses when it takes on the Tigers and the Quakers in Cambridge at the end of January, but first it must get through a nonconference slate that features a matchup against preseason-No. 3 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., at the Basketball Hall of Fame Tournament.

“We are looking at our nonconference [schedule] as [though] we’re playing every game to win, and no matter who the opponent is,” Curtis said. “Even if it’s Notre Dame, we’re gonna have a chance, and we’re gonna crush them, that’s what we have to believe.”

With four talented freshmen, many of whom Delaney-Smith says will likely see significant playing time, a summer of training under its belt, and the new system implemented, Harvard may finally find its way back to March Madness.

“We have a motto of excellence, and I think it’s our challenge to sort of embody that in everything we do,” Curtis said. “If we’re able to do that, I think we’re going to do very well in the Ivy League.”

Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samantha.lin@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @linsamnity.