For just the fourth time in program history, Harvard women's basketball is welcoming a new head coach.
On Wednesday, Harvard officially introduced Carrie Moore as the new leader of the program. And Moore made it clear she has some big plans ahead for the Crimson.
"I am so thrilled to be the new leader and to help move this program forward," Moore said. "What I told the team yesterday is that it is not about me at all, it is very much about them. Myself and our staff will work tirelessly to help make this program relevant again."
Moore, who is a first-time head coach, was previously on the coaching staffs at Creighton, Princeton, North Carolina and most recently Michigan, who she helped lead to an Elite Eight run in this years women's NCAA tournament.
She'll be stepping into the shoes left by Kathy Delaney-Smith, the legendary coach who spent 40 seasons leading the Crimson and stepped down at the end of the team's season last month.
Harvard athletic director Erin McDermott said the school started a coaching search soon after Delaney-Smith announced in the fall that she would be retiring, but that once they had a candidate in mind, the process moved fast.
"The formal part was a month and a half, pretty quick," she said. "And it would have been more like a month except that Carrie's Michigan team kept winning so we had to delay the final part of the process."
Moore knew McDermott from when they both worked at Princeton in the past. But what drew her the most to Harvard was the same thing that would attract anyone to Cambridge.
"It's the same speech I'm probably going to say in recruiting. Harvard sells itself and it's really not a sell, it's a presentation in terms of all that is available here and the resources and the networks," she said. "And the program is incredibly seasoned in terms of the foundation that has been laid here from (Delaney-Smith) and it is proven that you can win here at a very high level. "
Moore said that as she began to look at head coaching opportunities, the key question was "Where can I go to really succeed and have they won there before?"
Under Delaney-Smith, Harvard sailed to new heights, reaching the NCAA tournament six times. But the Crimson haven't made it back to the tournament since 2007.
Moore thinks they can get back. "I just think there's certain things that probably need to improve and we're going to work at those, for sure, to get us back to where this program once was."
Specifically, she is focusing on defense.
"Don't tell my Michigan women's basketball family this, but I'm a big [Michigan State head men's basketball coach] Tom Izzo fan," said the Michigan native. "I grew up watching his teams get after it defensively and just how hard they play on that end and how hard they are to score against. And so for me it's about . . . we've proven we can score with the best of them in the league and nationally, but now we have to defend people and really get after it on that end too."
Moore, who had two brief stints with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and Chicago Sky, now joins a long list of former WNBA players now making their mark as coaches for some of the biggest programs. Moore said a generation of talent is now making that transition to the highest positions in the game, something she said is incredible for women's basketball.
"Representation matters, I think it's important for our young women to see people that have been where they have been, that look like them, that talk like them, being in these leadership roles," she said. "For them, it gives them hope and it really gives them someone that they can aspire to be."
