# 2016–17 Harvard Crimson women's basketball team

The 2016–17 Harvard Crimson women's basketball team represented Harvard University during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Crimson, led by the head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith who was head coach for thirty five years, play their home games at the Lavietes Pavilion and were members of the Ivy League. They finished the season 21–9, 8–6 in Ivy League play to finish in third place. They had lost in the semifinal of the Ivy women's tournament to Princeton. They were invited to the WNIT where they defeated New Hampshire in the first round by scoring more points than they got, before losing to St. John's in the second round by getting less points than they got.

## Ivy League changes

This season, the Ivy League will institute conference postseason tournaments. The tournaments will only award the Ivy League automatic bids for the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments; the official conference championships will continue to be awarded based solely on regular-season results. The Ivy League playoff will take place March 11 and 12 at the Palestra in Philadelphia. There will be two semifinal games on the first day with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed playing the No. 3 seed. The final will be played the next day for the NCAA bid.

## Schedule

| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (attendance) city, state |
| Regular season ||||||
| Nov 12, 2016* 3:00 pm | | at Minnesota | L 87–103 | 0–1 | Williams Arena (3,056) Minneapolis, MN |
| Nov 15, 2016* 6:00 pm | | Maine | W 69–62 | 1–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (413) Boston, MA |
| Nov 18, 2016* 7:00 pm | | Samford | W 57–52 | 2–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (343) Boston, MA |
| Nov 22, 2016* 7:00 pm | | at Boston University | W 65–52 | 3–1 | Case Gym (262) Boston, MA |
| Nov 26, 2016* 6:00 pm | | Fairfield | W 58–44 | 4–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (531) Boston, MA |
| Nov 29, 2016* 7:00 pm | | at Sacred Heart | W 68–60 | 5–1 | William H. Pitt Center (208) Fairfield, CT |
| Dec 1, 2016* 7:00 pm | | Temple | W 73–62 | 6–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (437) Boston, MA |
| Dec 4, 2016* Noon | | NJIT | W 59–38 | 7–1 | Lavietes Pavilion (507) Boston, MA |
| Dec 7, 2016* 8:00 pm, ESPN3 | | at Kansas | W 69–59 | 8–1 | Allen Fieldhouse (1,679) Lawrence, KS |
| Dec 21, 2016* 1:00 pm | | at Siena | W 65–58 | 9–1 | Alumni Recreation Center (1,155) Loudonville, NY |
| Dec 29, 2016* 2:30 pm | | vs. UNC Asheville Fordham Holiday Classic semifinals | W 79–62 | 10–1 | Rose Hill Gymnasium (921) Bronx, NY |
| Dec 30, 2016* 2:30 pm | | vs. Buffalo Fordham Holiday Classic championship | W 74–62 | 11–1 | Rose Hill Gymnasium Bronx, NY |
| Jan 7, 2017 7:00 pm | | Dartmouth | W 70–65 | 12–1 (1–0) | Lavietes Pavilion (572) Boston, MA |
| Jan 11, 2017* 7:00 pm | | at La Salle | W 66–64 | 13–1 | Tom Gola Arena (284) Philadelphia, PA |
| Jan 21, 2017 6:00 pm, ESPN3 | | at Dartmouth | W 70–61 | 14–1 (2–0) | Leede Arena (877) Hanover, NH |
| Jan 27, 2017 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | Cornell | W 62–59 | 15–1 (3–0) | Lavietes Pavilion (653) Boston, MA |
| Jan 28, 2017 6:00 pm | | Columbia | W 70–68 | 16–1 (4–0) | Lavietes Pavilion (704) Boston, MA |
| Feb 3, 2017 7:00 pm, ESPN3 | | at Penn | L 43–63 | 16–2 (4–1) | Palestra (763) Philadelphia, PA |
| Feb 4, 2017 6:00 pm | | at Princeton | L 58–63 $^{OT}$ | 16–3 (4–2) | Jadwin Gymnasium (2,110) Princeton, NJ |
| Feb 10, 2017 7:00 pm | | Brown | W 69–59 | 17–3 (5–2) | Lavietes Pavilion (1,721) Boston, MA |
| Feb 11, 2017 6:00 pm | | Yale | W 76–56 | 18–3 (6–2) | Lavietes Pavilion (531) Boston, MA |
| Feb 17, 2017 7:00 pm | | at Columbia | W 58–55 | 19–3 (7–2) | Levien Gymnasium (477) New York, NY |
| Feb 18, 2017 5:00 pm | | at Cornell | L 52–57 | 19–4 (7–3) | Newman Arena (559) Ithaca, NY |
| Feb 24, 2017 7:00 pm | | at Yale | L 52–57 | 19–5 (7–4) | John J. Lee Amphitheater (1,002) New Haven, CT |
| Feb 25, 2017 4:00 pm | | at Brown | W 66–63 | 20–5 (8–4) | Pizzitola Sports Center (521) Providence, RI |
| Mar 3, 2017 7:00 pm | | Princeton | L 60–64 | 20–6 (8–5) | Lavietes Pavilion (819) Boston, MA |
| Mar 4, 2017 6:00 pm | | Penn | L 46–64 | 20–7 (8–6) | Lavietes Pavilion (703) Boston, MA |
| Ivy League tournament ||||||
| Mar 11, 2017 6:30 pm, ESPN3 | (3) | vs. (2) Princeton Semifinals | L 47–68 | 20–8 | Palestra (6,209) Philadelphia, PA |
| Women's National Invitation tournament ||||||
| Mar 17, 2017* 7:00 pm | | at New Hampshire First Round | W 69–56 | 21–8 | Lundholm Gym (387) Durham, NH |
| Mar 19, 2017* 2:00 pm | | at St. John's Second Round | L 57–62 | 21–9 | Carnesecca Arena (535) Queens, NY |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern Time. ||||||

## Rankings

2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball rankings
Legend :
| | Increase in ranking |
| | Decrease in ranking |
| | Not ranked previous week |
| (RV) | Received Votes |