Breezing Toward Another Ivy Banner

A visitor to Chicago in the winter is immediately confronted with the chilling winds which gust ashore from Lake Michigan.

Two years ago, Harvard women's basketball forward Sarah Duncan swept upon the Ivy League from Chicago with much the same intimidating force, helping the Crimson to an Ivy League championship in her freshman year (1986).

"I loved the Ivy League Tournament in my freshman year," Duncan says. "Beating Dartmouth [in the final] was a big deal--it was so exciting."

In that game, Duncan culminated an inconsistent year with one of her best games, scoring 16 points and helping overturn some critics' opinions that the Crimson didn't belong among the Ivy's best.

"Everyone thought that our sharing the regular-season title with Dartmouth was a fluke," Duncan says, "but that win really proved that we deserved it."

Giving the Crimson a boost of legitimacy has been Duncan's greatest gift to the Harvard women's basketball program.

"Duncan has given us leadership since her freshman year," Harvard Coach Kathy Delaney Smith says. "She is verbal, enthusiastic and committed to the game."

With Duncan playing in every one of the Crimson's games over the last three years, the team has soared to a 52-24 record. Although Duncan has been an integral factor in the team's success, she is quick to note the importance of this year's crop of seniors, Sharon Hayes and Barbarann Keffer, Nancy Cibotti and Mary Baldauf.

"I can't imagine playing without them," Duncan says. "They've always been here."

This year, the Crimson's experienced lineup has propelled the team to its best season ever. Entering this weekend's action, Harvard has a 19-4 record, leads Darmouth by one game in the Ivy League standings with a 10-1 record and is harboring strong hopes of being selected to a postseason tournament for the first time in its history.

Slam-Duncan Performance

The Crimson owes much of its success to Duncan, who is second on the team in scoring (13.5 ppg) and rebounding (7.7 rpg) and has sparked the team defensively in two very different roles.

"We can put Sarah on our opponent's best perimeter shooter because she is so tall [6-ft.]," Delaney Smith says, "or we can put her on their weakest player because she helps out so well. She is an intimidating force inside."

Duncan's total of 66 blocked shots this year is six short of Harvard's season record, which she established in her freshman year. Duncan has now blocked 204 shots in her career.

"Defensively, her quickness and versatility gives us a lot," Tri-Captain Beth Chandler says. "She can guard centers, forwards, or guards."

Duncan's defensive skills were not a part of her repertoire when she left University High School in Chicago for Division I ball at Harvard.

"She did not play in a competitive league in high school," Delaney Smith says. "The games I saw her play in were the most un-physical games I've ever seen. We had our concerns about her defense."

The Big D

But Delaney Smith concentrated on Duncan's defensive fundamentals, and the results have been prosperous for the Crimson, whose opponents are shooting only 37 percent from the field this year.

"I had to re-learn almost my entire defensive game," said the Leverett House junior. "My shooting from was fine, because I had received coaching in camps, but I was missing a lot of fundamentals. Kathy taught me those."

"In my freshman year, I didn't work well in the offense," Duncan adds. "I was running a different pattern or speed it seemed."

Despite her inability to fit into the flow of the offense, Duncan still managed to score in double-figures nine times during her freshman campaign, leading the team in shooting percentage with 54 percent. She also finished second in rebounding, pulling down 147 caroms.

"Now, for some reason, I work into the offense better," Duncan says.

Duncan has blossomed in the last two years, being named a member of the All-Ivy First Team and Harvard's co-MVP (with Hayes) as a sophomore. Duncan destroyed Yale earlier this season by scoring 28 points against the Elis, including two free throws in the last minute which clinched the 60-59 win--Harvard's first-ever victory in Payne Whitney Gym.

"She is a pure, soft shooter," Delaney Smith says. "I feel terrific every time the ball leaves her hands."

The sixth-year Harvard coach is trying to help Duncan develop confidence in her turn-around jumpers down low near the basket.

"She has a Sikma-type, unorthodox pivot and a quick release to take shots in the lane," Delaney Smith says.

It isn't always gusting on the shores of Lake Michigan, and likewise, Duncan doesn't consistently put her opponents in cold storage.

Duncan has a great ability to know when her shot is off and she tends to stop shooting when that happens, as in last Friday's 66-62 loss to Princeton. However, Delaney Smith realizes that Duncan is more dangerous on her off nights than most players can be on their best nights.

"Sarah, I need you to score," Delaney Smith commanded her forward in the second half of the game.

"I just want to become more consistent," Duncan says. "I want to be dependable and always do the little things right."

Basketball hasn't been Duncan's lifetime love, but she has been playing since she was a baby. The sister of Harvard basketball great Arne Duncan, Sarah used to play with Arne and his friends and she was always the worst player. In elementary school, her favorite sports were swimming and gymnastics.

However, basketball became her new passion in sixth grade after she started playing with girls her own age--and dominating them.

Ever since Duncan introduced the windy city's gusts to the Ivy League, the Crimson has usually been sailing under sunny skies. If Harvard wins its final three games at home this season, the clear conditions at Briggs cage will reveal another Ivy League championship banner soaring high in the breeze.