And even if the second half of the season isn't too successful, the team has a good core of young players, including sophomore Kyle Snowden, juniors Michael Gilmore and Darren Rankin and freshman Michael Scott.

Bouncing Back

Back to the bus story. The women's basketball team took the vehicle the men's hockey team uses, and at this point last year, the icemen were 11-3-2.

Last year at this point, the women's basketball team was 2-11 and now it is 10-4 (2-1 Ivy--tied for first place), even after a tough 81-77 defeat at the hands of the Big Green.

If you're stumped on your next final exam, write about the symbolism.

Captain Tammy Butler has been up to her old tricks, and her first-rate play has been complemented by freshman Allison Feaster, who was last year's South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. Harvard has a powerful one-two punch and has the supporting cast to pick up the squad's play.

While teams last year dropped the Crimson by guarding Butler, they now have to contend with Butler and Feaster, who has garnered every Ivy League Rookie of the Week award except one (Harvard didn't have a game that week).

"We've had great confidence," Butler said after Saturday's game in which she broke the all-time Harvard scoring record. "There has not been one game that we've had this year that we think we should have lost."

And other teams have taken notice. Dartmouth is the defending Ivy League champion and Big Green coach Chris Wielgus labeled the Crimson "a top team."

The Crimson has the confidence, and hopefully the experience it has gained from its first 14 games will carry over into the second half of the season. An Ivy League title is certainly within reach.

If the Ancient Eight crown comes to Cambridge the Crimson won't have to worry too much about buses breaking down. It's the planes that might be a problem.

Ah, the irony.