COYNE TOSS: No Love Lost for the Big Green

Yes, it’s just the middle of the season, and yes, it’s the first Ivy game, but no—the Harvard women’s basketball team will not take its opener against Dartmouth this Saturday afternoon lightly.

For the first time in the last three years, the Crimson was not ranked first in the preseason media poll. Its perennial spot was snagged by the Big Green, who blazed to an 8-2 start in league play last year before dropping its last four and settling into fourth place. In the teams’ first meeting last season, which was also each squad’s Ivy opener, Dartmouth shocked Harvard in overtime at Lavietes Pavilion, snapping the Crimson’s streak of 26 league victories.

Harvard exacted revenge in the teams’ last meeting, spanking the Hanoverians 82-59 in their own house.

But make no mistake—the Big Green still has a big green target on its back.

Meanwhile, Dartmouth will face Harvard in a condition very different from the one in which it began the season. Standout sophomore center Elise Morrison, last year’s Ivy Rookie of the Year, has been battling injuries the entire year and has played in just six games. She injured her ankle in the fourth minute of a Dec. 29 game against Richmond. The Big Green dropped the next two, and hasn’t won a game in which Morrison hasn’t appeared. Dartmouth does not have her listed as a probable starter for this Saturday on its athletics website, although the move could just be gamesmanship from the Big Green.

Even when Morrison has been in the lineup, she has not performed at the highest of levels. She is shooting below 40 percent from the field and averaging less than 13 points a game, compared to last season, when she shot 54 percent and put up nearly 18 per contest.

Her team now stands at 3-7, certainly a far cry from what was expected from a team that started 11-6 before finishing 15-12 and returns four starters and key reserves.

One more thing—Dartmouth is 0-5 at home. Honestly, I don’t blame them, what with all the terrible people they have there. Try to get into a press box with the wrong type of credentials—it’s no use. They’ll turn you away and make you sit in the cold and rain even though all you’re wearing is a long sleeve t-shirt and three other writers from your newspaper are inside and they all plead with them to let you in. But I digress…

I think Harvard will be playing in league with a lot more hunger than it did last year. The Crimson is a very streaky team, and it has had games this year where it has shot 26 percent from the field and games where it has gone at a 60 percent clip.

Certainly heading into the friendly confines of Ivy gymnasiums and out of the nasty world of major conference arenas will help Harvard stabilize those numbers towards the higher end, but the rate at which it has turned the ball over—17.8 per game—has been startling.

Playing a high-energy, risk-taking brand of basketball has something to do with that stat. Jess Holsey’s daring passes and Katie Murphy’s breakneck fast breaks don’t always lead to baskets, but they nevertheless take the Crimson to where it ought to be—out of its shell and stomping on the Big Green.

P.S. I hate Dartmouth.

—Staff writer J. Patrick Coyne can be reached at coyne@fas.harvard.edu.