The last time the women’s basketball team took the court, the Crimson fell 72-67 to Princeton in the Ivy League tournament semifinals. When the team walked off the Lavietes Pavilion floor last month, junior guard McKenzie Forbes put her arm around Friends Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who retired this year after 40 seasons as the winningest coach in any sport (male or female) in Ivy League history. The Crimson now know who will lead them next fall.
On Tuesday, Harvard announced Carrie Moore as the new Friends Coach of Women’s Basketball. Moore comes to Harvard from Michigan, where she served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator after spending two seasons as an assistant coach for Courtney Banghart at North Carolina. Moore also worked five seasons on Banghart’s staff at Princeton, helping lead the Tigers to three NCAA tournament appearances. She is a 2007 graduate of Western Michigan, where she scored over 2,000 points and was the conference player of the year as a senior.
Moore not only follows in Delaney-Smith’s substantial footsteps but also faces the challenge of elevating the Crimson to Princeton’s level. After knocking off the Crimson in the Ivy League tournament semifinals, the Tigers defeated Columbia in the championship game and then upset Kentucky in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. (That was the biggest post-season Ivy League win since Delaney-Smith’s Crimson knocked off Stanford in 1998—the first 16-seed over one-seed upset in NCAA history.) Princeton, which finished this season ranked twenty-fifth in the country, is one of several strong Ivy League programs that the Crimson must topple to capture its first conference title since 2008.
While the conference may be more competitive than ever, Moore will take over a program with a talented, experienced core. The Crimson will be led by point guard Harmoni Turner ’25, this year’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year and a second-team all-conference honoree; Forbes, who also made the All-Ivy second team; and guard Lola Mullaney ’24, an All-Ivy honorable mention designee for the second straight season.
There will be a welcome event Wednesday at 11:30 am at Lavietes Pavilion to introduce the new coach.
Read the full university announcement here.
