Harvard Begins March Madness Against Michigan State on Saturday. Here’s What to Know.

Even before the Harvard women’s basketball team arrived in Providence for the first of two grueling back-to-back games in the Ivy League tournament last weekend, many of the Crimson’s key players were hurting.

Senior guard Elena Rodriguez was fighting through knee soreness. Sophomore Karlee White was battling knee, ankle, foot, and shin issues. Freshman Lydia Chatira, a consistent starter, was also dealing with an injury and junior Gabby Anderson, another starter, had her knees swell up before the team’s bus left Massachusetts.

Though the Crimson returned from Rhode Island with the Ivy Madness trophy and a ticket to NCAA basketball tournament, even healthy players, like star Harmoni Turner, were exhausted from playing heavy minutes in two physical, high-intensity games that were each decided by three points.

“They’re beat up and playing through a lot of stuff,” head coach Carrie Moore told reporters on Wednesday.

But don’t expect that to stop anyone from taking the court Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina, where No. 10 seed Harvard will face off against the seventh-seeded Michigan State Spartans in the first round of March Madness, the Crimson’s first appearance in the tournament since 2007.

“They’ll all be available,” Moore said. “You’d have to probably cut off both of their knees and their feet for them not to play on Saturday.”

The greater struggle for Moore and her coaching staff has been keeping ailing players off the court and ensuring that everyone gets the rest they need. The team worked out together as a group on Tuesday and played some pick-up, but Moore set strict limits on who could participate and for how long.

“Those that did play, they were only allowed to really go for 20-25 minutes,” Moore said. “I didn’t want anything longer than that.”

“But I think they’re getting antsy to get back on the court,” she added.

Harvard will begin the Big Dance with a formidable opponent in the Spartans, who have competed against some of the best teams in the nation as a member of the Big Ten Conference. However, Michigan State has struggled recently and last strung together back-to-back victories in late January.

The Spartans crashed out of the Big Ten tournament after they were upset in the first round by the lower-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes, but the defeat also ensured that Michigan State will have fresher legs on Saturday. While Harvard will be just one week removed from its win against the Columbia Lions in the Ivy Madness title game, the Spartans will have not played a game in 16 days.

Though the Crimson will be playing on shorter rest, Moore has recently been able to count on key contributions from White and Abigail Wright, two sophomores who logged valuable minutes when Turner and Rodriguez needed rest during Harvard’s two Ivy Madness games.

“You want to see some of our younger guys really stepping up, because they must know what’s ahead,” Moore said. “It will be their time very soon.”

But the key to Harvard’s success against Michigan State will ultimately come down to how much damage Turner can do on offense. The Ivy League Player of the Year almost single-handedly willed the Crimson into the Ivy Madness championship game by dropping a record-breaking 44 points against Princeton. One day later, Turner followed up that performance by contributing another 24 points to secure the Ivy title.

Still, the Crimson produces its best basketball when it plays tough defense and receives strong performances from all five players on the court. Harvard’s defense is ranked among the top 10 in the nation and to pull off the upset, the Crimson will need to get key stops against the Spartans in addition to Turner’s usual elite shooting.

For her part, Turner was unfazed by drawing the Spartans in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“Whoever we go against, we know that we can win,” she told reporters in an interview Sunday night. “We put in too much work to just stop at the Ivy championship.”

Moore, however, expressed confidence about the team’s chances against the Spartans, calling it “a great opportunity, great matchup for us.”

She also noted that Michigan State is an “undersized team” that often plays four or five guards, and compared them to the Lions squad the Crimson defeated last weekend in Providence. While Harvard went 1-3 against Columbia and Princeton in the regular season, Moore’s squad fared far better in non-conference games where the Crimson competed against teams that were unfamiliar with its style of play.

When the buzzer sounds at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday in Raleigh, Harvard will be looking to slow down the Spartans from the first possession.

“They press a ton, want to speed us up, want to turn you over, want to spread you out in the half court, drive it, shoot it,” Moore said.

“We’re prepared,” she added. “But we will be even more prepared after a week of a week of prep.”

—Staff writer Miles J. Herszenhorn can be reached at miles.herszenhorn@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @mherszenhorn or on Threads @mileshersz.