Don't Fear De Remer: The Depth Advantage

Back in October, Harvard women's basketball Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith believed her team's depth would allow her to rotate 10-plus players who would learn to feel good about frequent substitutions.

Her words seemed like hollow coach-speak during the Crimson's 1-10 start in December, as Harvard was hard-pressed to find any player that was producing on a given night, let alone 10-plus. But as of late, Harvard (7-11, 4-1 Ivy) has been utilizing that promised depth.

"This is what we were waiting for," said freshman forward Tricia Tubridy, who notched a game-saving 21 points on Friday. "We knew we were this good. It was only a matter of time before we started showing it on the court."

Delaney-Smith is loaded with options, many of which Harvard's toughest Ivy opposition--Brown (10-9, 5-1) and Penn (12-5, 4-0)--simply don't have.

Harvard can afford to play freshman forward Hana Peljto--its leading scorer and rebounder--just about 20 minutes per game coming off the bench.

"To not start your statistical leader and have her come of the bench is very much a luxury," Delaney-Smith said. "She's happy with that role, and although I'm sure she'd love to start, I like the way she plays when she comes off the bench."

Sophomore forward Kate Ides has started 17 games in her career, and she was Harvard's No. 2 scorer and rebounder behind Peljto for much of December, yet suddenly she is lucky to see eight minutes of playing time on any given night.

Consider junior forwards Lindsay Ryba and Laura Barnard and the sophomore class of Ides, Sarah Johnson and guard Bree Kelley: none of the five cracked double-digits in minutes on Saturday, yet their career-high point totals range from 15 to 23. Nobody else in the league has the luxury of sitting that kind of talent.

"There are so many kids that don't play--16 healthy bodies makes it easy for me," Delaney-Smith said. "To put them in at the end of the game and let them launch threes--I love the way they hit their foul shots. A lot of players who are upset with their roles wouldn't do that. I think that's big for this team."

Harvard's depth bore sharp contrast to Columbia in the 78-53 Crimson win on Saturday. The Lions relied on one player, leading scorer Shawnee Pickney, to take half their shots. She was terrible, just 3-of-27 from the floor on the night, but Columbia had no one else to turn to especially once its foul trouble began.

On the Crimson side, 13 players scored, nine of them while the game was still relatively close. Eleven players hit free throws for Harvard, who shot an impressive 26-of-27 from the charity stripe in the second half.

Harvard's depth manifests itself in the way that its top players will pick up the slack for each other on any given night. Tubridy and Sarah Johnson combined for 30 points on Friday but scored just eight on Saturday. Junior forward Katie Gates and senior center Melissa Johnson could only manage seven on Friday then tallied 23 together on Saturday.

The Crimson was able to utilize its bench to change its look at key points of its games this weekend.

The Lions basically ignored Ides when she came into the game with 13 minutes left and a 38-31 Crimson lead. Seeing as Ides had not played in the first half, and because the Lions saw so little of her last time they met--she fouled out in just 12 minutes of playing time--Columbia had no idea how to defend her.

In fact, the Lions managed to defend her in the worst way possible on the first Crimson possession, leaving her with a wide array of space down low and only one player to beat.

Naturally, Harvard made the most of the situation, and Ides easily converted the basket. By the time Ides left the game, she had six points, the Harvard lead was 56-37 and the game was essentially over.

In Harvard's 61-58 win over Cornell on Friday, Ryba only played four minutes and never scored, but the confusion caused by her very presence created four points for Harvard.

Ryba, unlike your usual 6'3 forward in Ivy women's basketball, tends to play around the perimeter. In what must have been the most absurd-looking play ever in the eyes of the Cornell, Ryba took the ball at the top of the arc and passed to 5'6 junior guard Jenn Monti in the low post for an easy short jumper.

Then on the subsequent position, Ryba caught the defense off guard by taking a three. A slight hesitation from Cornell was all Tubridy needed to get the rebound and put it back in the net. Although these plays were commonplace to anyone used to seeing Ryba play, the Big Red did not know how to deal with them.

The Crimson will need to use its depth to its advantage to have any chance of winning its showdown against Penn at the Palestra in Philadelphia next Friday. With a win, Harvard would push itself back into a tie for first place. The Quakers have now won 11 games in a row--including a win over Brown on Saturday--while making scarce use of its bench.

"They play five players that are connecting, so there's an advantage to playing five and a disadvantage to playing five," Delaney-Smith said. "They're connecting well, but they're struggling. They haven't had an easy win in the league."

Saying that Penn just plays five players is a slight exaggeration, especially considering that its top player off the bench, freshman Jewel Clark, single-handedly carried the Quakers to victory over Brown in the final minute on Saturday. But Penn did put just seven bodies on the court throughout the game, while Harvard played 10 in its close victory over Cornell.

There is also much to be said about there being the disadvantages of playing too many players, as the team that endlessly cycles bodies in and out of the game can bring massive confusion onto itself. Such was the case the last time when Harvard visited the Palestra.

After cutting 12-point Penn lead to two, the Crimson literally threw the game away in the final minute of the second half, as Harvard over-utilized a bench that was unprepared to handle a sudden aggression by the Quaker press. The Crimson turned over the ball three consecutive times on the inbound, and by the end of the half, the Penn lead was at 12 again. Harvard could not overcome that sequence for the rest of the game, or really the rest of the season.

But this time around, the Crimson will expect a more favorable result than last year's 79-66 defeat at Penn. This year's edition is far better prepared to utilize 10 players on the floor than any other team of recent memory. Even more encouraging is that Melissa Johnson is finally showing signs of regaining the dominance she showcased in the first half of the Harvard-Penn game immediately before sustaining her knee injury. Into the newly renovated Palestra, the Crimson will bring a revitalized team.