"Kathy's been lenient on us and the fewer restrictions really helps," Tri-Captain Beth Chandler says. "It's a lot more fun. We can play without worrying about too many things."

When looking for players for her team, the Crimson's coach doesn't look for basketball talent first. Foremost, she tries to find people with the personality to fit her team philosophy, passing up great basketball talents who didn't fit the Harvard women's basketball mold.

"I also look for a natural athlete at the expense of basketball skills," Delaney Smith says. "All my players have the motivation to grow once they get here."

Double Trouble

Harvard's coach stresses the importance of off-season training for her players, including weight training and a lot of pickup games. Delaney Smith is extremely active in the summer herself, working at the Women's Five Star Camp as well as directing the Wayne Embry Basketball Camp since 1976.

"Because of my weak basketball background, I have a lot to learn about the sport, and I do that during the summer," Delaney Smith notes.

But any discussion of Harvard's coach must begin and end with her effervescent personality. Always actively promoting women's basketball, Delaney Smith enthusiastically talks to parents, fans, friends and journalists after every game--making everyone feel right at home at Briggs Cage. Her exuberant attitude was illustrated in a quick, little jig she performed after the Crimson's 76-49 pasting of Princeton earlier this season.

"She gets along with everyone, and it's easy to joke around with her," Keffer says. "She's also been a different coach since Jared was born. He was the one thing I felt was missing in her life."

Jared was born to Delaney Smith and her husband, Francis Smith, just prior to last year's season. But for the Crimson's coach, having a child was nothing compared to resuscitating the Harvard women's basketball program.

This year, Delaney Smith's patient checked out of the hospital and a victory over Dartmouth in tonight's checkup will give the Crimson a clean bill-of-health.