Women's Basketball Kicks Off Season Against Maine

Rarely does a team lose 40 percent of its roster. Rarely does a team have to bring in eight athletes on a 17-player roster. Even more rarely does a team replace half of its coaching staff. For the Harvard women’s basketball team, the offseason was—to say the least—eventful.

With four seniors graduating and two underclassmen leaving the team, the Crimson was left with a decimated roster at the end of last season. Following the departure of two of Harvard’s most prolific scorers in Temi Fagbenle ’15 and Erin McDonnell ’15, head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith took in one of the largest recruiting classes in her 33 years as head coach. This year’s class includes seven freshmen and one sophomore transfer from Stanford.

Despite the changes, co-captain AnnMarie Healy is excited about the new team and staff.

“At the beginning of the year it was really important that those seven freshman felt welcome and felt a part of this team,” Healy said. “Sometimes it is challenging to introduce new freshmen to a team, but I think this group has melted in really well. I have just been really impressed with all of them and how they each work so hard everyday.”

This weekend, the Harvard will take on Maine at home to open up the season. In stark contrast to the Crimson, the Black Bears are returning nearly all the players featured on the 2014-15 squad. Last year, Maine went 23-9 with a six game winning streak that included a 65-46 win against Harvard.

“Maine has their entire team back,” Delaney-Smith said. “They had a good year last year. It’s the experienced team versus the inexperienced team. That’s sort of the classic matchup we’re going to have.”

The Black Bears, in stark contrast to the Crimson, boast eight seniors and only two freshmen, having only graduated one player last season. Maine is returning all of their starters, which includes their two leading scorers, junior guard Sigi Koizar and senior forward Liz Wood. In comparison, three of Harvard’s top four scorers graduated.

“It’ll be interesting to see how it all unfolds in games,” Delaney-Smith said. “We had two scrimmages, one we didn’t do so well in and the other we did very well in. I’ll be interested to see how consistent we can stay.”

In addition to so many new players, the 2015-16 Crimson squad has two new coaches in their first game with Harvard, Mike Roux and Jasmine Sborov. Before coming to Cambridge, Roux was an associate head coach at the University of New Hampshire, as well as an assistant coach at Holy Cross, Southern New Hampshire, Assumption, and Nichols. Sborov is a 2015 graduate of Colorado, lettering in all four years with the Buffalo.

Also joining the squad as director of basketball operations is Heidi Banks. Following four seasons as an assistant at Amherst, Banks brings a background in guard development, a position Harvard has struggled to find consistency in. Of Harvard’s seven freshman, five play at the traditional guard positions.

“It was time for me to tweak the system,” Delaney-Smith said. “It was a great time to just sort of brain storm and create what was best for the talent we had coming in and returning.”

The Crimson come into the weekend hoping to avenge a 2014 loss to the Black Bears, as well as rebound from a season in which they finished 14-14 and tied for third in the Ivy League with a 7-7 conference record.

“We feel that our team has prepared for this season, not just this week,” Healy said. “[We] have put in a great preseason and worked really hard over the summer. We are excited to see where our preparation takes us.”