Could Teasley play Harvard again, she might have a forehead or two blocking her view as freshman guard Shana Franklin, 6’0, as well as Kate Mannering and Maureen McCaffery, both 6’1, give Harvard a boost in height in several areas of the court. Sophomore Reka Cserny, 6’3, and junior Hana Peljto, 6’2, provide average Division One stature inside, in addition to serving as a dynamic scoring duo. However, in the midst of the shoulders of giants, Delaney-Smith recognizes that Harvard lacks the kind of center found on many national contenders.

“We don’t have the big kid inside,” Delaney-Smith said. “The big kid inside is what’s going to hurt us. That’s a weakness that we have. But most schools don’t have that anyway.”

At the Vanderbilt Invitational, Harvard will have to beat Central Michigan, a team picked last in its conference, to set up a possible matchup with the host Commodores, who were the SEC champs and a No. 1 NCAA seed last year. If so, Harvard would do battle with senior 6’6 center Chantelle Anderson, the quintessential “big kid inside.”

Anderson leads the list of pre-season candidates for the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award. Last season she averaged 21.2 points per game and shot an SEC record and national-leading 72.3 percent from the floor—just one percent off the NCAA record. She couldn’t have been too disappointed, however. She accomplished that feat as a sophomore.

BC will host the Crimson on Dec. 14. The Eagles have the benefit of three returning starters, including junior guard Amber Jacobs, the team’s leading scorer with 11.9 ppg. The return of senior All-America candidate Becky Gottstein after suffering from multiple stress fractures last year may propel BC even farther forward.

The Crimson’s grueling nonconference schedule is not only a measuring stick, but also an effective method of avoiding complacency leading into the Ivy schedule. With much of Harvard’s league-leading offense returning and an outstanding recruiting class, the hopes are justifiably high, but the road to an Ivy crown is never without potholes.

“I’m not ruling anyone out,” Delaney-Smith said. “Princeton beat us [last year]. I thought the entire league was young.”

The team Delaney-Smith found most threatening, ironically, is Brown, who placed last in the Ivies with a 2-12 league record.

“Everybody laughs when I tell them, but I thought Brown was the toughest team to play,” Delaney-Smith said. “But they just could not put the ball in the basket. They’re athletic, deep and they’ve got height.”

Harvard beat Brown by the scores of 63-51 and 76-63, as the Bears struggled on the scoreboard. Without the scoring prowess of Rada Pavichevich, ninth in Ivy scoring, Brown must look for new sources of offense.

“I think that’s probably the biggest mystery at Brown,” said Brown coach Jean Marie Burr. “We lost Rada—she’s playing in England now. The next spot is open.”

A potential candidate is Nyema Mitchell, whose skill as a shot blocker cannot overshadow her potential as a scorer. Mitchell scored 13 points against the Crimson in the first matchup. Also, with seven freshmen on the roster, there’s room for hungry rookies to step up.

Closer to the league pinnacle last year was Cornell, who was on the verge of an Ivy championship going into a matchup with Harvard, but a double-overtime 77-75 loss to the Crimson was the beginning of the end for those chances.

With a new coach, former Penn assistant coach Dayna Smith, at the helm, and three returning starters, the Big Red could still be a threat.

“They have the experience of almost winning,” Delaney-Smith said. “Though they statistically lost a lot to graduation, I think there’s enough there that they’re going to come back with ‘we almost won it last year’ pride.”