The 40 points from the bench is the second highest total Harvard accrued this year, behind the 41 point total against Central Connecticut in a 94-47 rout on Dec. 3.

“There was definitely great teamwork, great team defense,” junior Rochelle Bell said. “Everyone had fun, everyone played well.”

Mind Games

“Is this not a schizophrenic team?” asked coach Kathy Delaney-Smith after the lopsided victory over Princeton.

Indeed, it appears that Delaney-Smith has been coaching a team of split mind this year. When playing within itself, the Crimson has performed exceedingly well—an 85-81 loss to No. 10 Colorado, a 91-74 victory over Boston University and a 73-59 win over Providence. But when playing tight, Harvard has lost games it might ordinarily have won.

“Tight play causes bad decisions, I was trying to get them to relax and let the game come to them,” said Delaney-Smith after the loss to Penn. “I am a believer that winning cures all. We haven’t had the luxury of a win to make us feel good about ourselves.”

For a team that returned all but one member from the team that went 22-5 and a perfect 14-0 in the Ivy League, the Crimson’s fiercest rival has been itself.

“UConn is the exact same team from last year, the best women’s basketball team in the history of women’s college sports,” Delaney-Smith said. “They looked God-awful [Friday] night. Why? Because they lost a couple and it’s just like that little chip in the armor and it just makes you hesitate, and makes you lose just a touch of confidence and [say], ‘Maybe we’re not so great, and maybe we’re not so invincible,’ and so this is just a classic reaction to losing.”

The coaching staff has had trouble getting its team to loosen up, but not for a lack of effort.

“We have not stopped trying,” Delaney-Smith said. “We have done a number of things, from humor to music to this program, to that program. There is not a sports psychology book I have not read right now, believe me.”

There is a certain edge that was present on last year’s team that this team has been searching for, and hopefully found Saturday against Princeton.

“All of our games last year were close, we didn’t blow people out last year, but we just had attitude. We had confidence,” Delaney-Smith said. “Honestly, if we had strung two wins together we would not be going through this. This would not be happening to us, because winning, we would say, ‘We are that good,’ but we don’t have the luxury of wins to give us that confidence back, so now we’re in that situation where we have to be as tough as we’ve ever been in our lives athletically. I’d like to say Harvard student-athletes can do that, so we’ll see.”

Losing Control

With three losses in its first five conference games, the Crimson has lost control over its own destiny for the first time in three seasons.

“We were talking in the locker room after the [Penn] game and just saying there’s really not that much pressure on us right now,” senior guard Bev Moore said. “We just need to go out there and play for ourselves and play to win and we’re basically playing for our pride. There’s no expectations.”