This year will start with several key players--including the team's two true centers, sisters Melissa and Sarah Johnson--on the disabled list. Injuries are nothing new for this Harvard team.

"We've had about the same number of injuries we've had at the beginning of other years," Boike said.

But in order for the Crimson to run its desired game plan, everyone will have to stay healthy. Delaney-Smith, whose entire frontcourt averages 6'2, says she will play a run-oriented offense that will press on defense with constant rotation.

"My goal is to need and want to play 10-plus players like Florida did under Billy Donovan," Delaney-Smith said. "He didn't platoon; he just runs and presses and runs and presses. You can't tell when the bench is in or when the starters are in."

"My long-term goal is to do that," she said. "[It] is to play defense that way and run the court that way so they need to come out and sit down, but they feel good because they know they're going to get back in and play. We have the depth to do that if we're healthy."

Boike said the team is responding well to the challenge.

"The defense we're working on this year is real aggressive," Boike said. "It's 40 minutes of hard 'D.'"