The focus of a young team has to be great. The players need a definite game plan layed out. "Last year, we could go to a lot of players," Kosh says. "This year, it's inside to Beth Chandler, outside to Sarah Duncan...or inside to Duncan."

The game plan may be set, but unfamiliarity looms over the team. "We know who we're going to, but we're inexperienced playing with each other, Kosh says.

What the team lacks in experience, Kosh helps make up with intensity. "Once I get on the floor, I have total concentration," Kosh says. "I concentrate on a person and play them tough."

Keepin' Aware

Kosh not only plays with a heightened intensity but also with a heightened awareness. She is a thinking player's player. "I keep track of a lot of things--who's hot, the time, who's having a lot of trouble," Kosh says. "If someone is having a bad night...you let them know its O.K."

"If you establish a role, and you establish a relationship with people...they'll respond," Kosh adds.

Kosh has been playing basketball since she was six. She knows the ups and downs of the game, that sometimes the glass is half empty and sometimes it is half full. She thinks she may have even found the key to winning: capitalizing on the frustrations of the other team.

In a game last year against Maine, Harvard's defense confounded the opposing team. "You could see the frustration on their faces," Kosh says. "If you go to a player a few times and the player scores," a team becomes frustrated, or if you play a strong defense, one foul will lead to another.

For Kosh and the women's basketball team, intelligence may compensate for inexperience, and it may put any questions to rest.