Mention a new season for the Harvard women's basketball team, and Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith's eyes light up brighter than a 100-watt light bulb. Mention her new players and she's more excited than a five-year-old child during the winter holidays. Mention her tough schedule and she espouses confidence like she were a presidential candidate declaring victory before the votes were counted.

"We're capable of winning every game we go out and play," Delaney-Smith said. "We're not going to walk on the floor with anyone and think we can't win."

Delaney-Smith has cause to think her team can win. The Crimson returns all but two players--All-Ivy first-team forward Laela Sturdy and sharp-shooting guard Courtney Egelhoff--and adds four new players, giving the tallest team in the Ivy League more quickness and depth from a squad (16-10, 9-5 Ivy) that tied for second in the conference last year.

This year, the Crimson has been picked to finish third in the Ivy League behind Penn and Dartmouth, with just 10 votes separating first from third.

"I think that's laughable," said co-captain Melissa Johnson of the preseason poll. "If anything that gets me more fired up."

Each of the top three teams returns a strong squad that will have to adjust to the loss of key player. Penn, which tied for second last year, features two-time Ivy League Player of the Year Diana Caramanico, a threat to Allison Feaster's '98 conference scoring record. Defending league champion Dartmouth returns last year's Ivy Rookie of the Year Katherine Hanks. But the graduation of Penn's Mandy West, Dartmouth's Courtney Banghart and Harvard's Sturdy leaves the automatic NCAA tourney bid up for grabs.

While any team has a chance in the Ivy--parity is the name of the game--the Crimson's non-conference schedule will undoubtedly prepare it for the rigors of Ivy League weekends. Harvard plays two road games against the SEC, the strongest top-to-bottom conference in women's basketball. The Crimson will take on No. 26 Florida at a Maine invitational on Nov. 24. In late December, Harvard seniors will be looking for revenge against Arkansas, the team that stopped the Crimson in the 1998 NCAA tournament after the historic upset over Stanford.

But "history" is not the operative word for this team. "Health" certainly is.