“[Coach Delaney-Smith] has mentioned that she wants to have a hard style of play where everyone is playing hard and will need a break,” McCaffery said.

Or, as Delaney-Smith put it, “There isn’t a player I wouldn’t want in the game. I can’t even figure out who goes in next without hurting someone’s feelings…this is one of the great freshman classes.”

California native Laura Robinson, a 5’7 guard, rounds out the Crimson quintet of new faces. Though Delaney-Smith believes her most daunting challenge this season will be to find playing time for her entire roster, Harvard’s coach looks to Billy Donovan’s model at the University of Florida as an archtype for what to expect this year.

“Donovan likes to play nine, ten, eleven guys and just run and run and run,” Delaney-Smith said. “That’s what I want to do here.”

After a challenging program of summer workouts and a series of grueling practices this fall, the freshman players seem ready to begin competitive matches. And, perhaps mindful of Harvard’s 1998 first round upset of then-No. 1 Stanford, they have their sights set high.

“I’m excited as we’re really looking toward winning the Ivy League,” Mannering said. “And, if we keep up our hustle and work ethic, we could go really far.”

Holsey said that she planned to take the season a game at a time but admitted her ultimate goal was to win the Ivy League title and then do well in the NCAA tournament.

Meanwhile, away from practice, Harvard’s new stars say they are settling in happily to life in Cambridge. The arrival of winter clothes at Freshman Parents’ Weekend greatly cheered McCaffery, who now hopes to keep warm both on and off the court.

Mannering, the other “Twin Tower,” said that she was delighted with her first few months at college.

“We’ve had plenty of time to do our work, relax and be normal as well as playing serious basketball,” Mannering said. “I could not have asked for a better situation.”

Nor, it seems, could the Crimson. The future looks bright for women’s basketball at Harvard. And, for now, these freshmen sound happy to contribute in any way they can, focusing on winning titles instead of racking up minutes of playing time.

But for a such a promising freshman class, both seem possible.

“With the talent we have, the sky’s the limit,” Franklin said.

—Staff Writer Anthony S. A. Freinberg can be reached at freinber@fas.harvard.edu.