OPINION: Landau’s Legacy on the Court Continues 

Ally Landau ‘24, a Haverford Women’s Basketball alum, has recently been named a WBCA NCAA DIII Coaches All-American and a D3hoops.com Fourth Team All-American, two of the highest honors for basketball athletes in the NCAA. The twist—this year, she’s taking the court not in Haverford’s Black and Red but in the Blue and White of Smith College in Massachusetts.  

Landau, a member of the COVID generation at Haverford, had an extra year of NCAA eligibility following her four years at Haverford and has put it to good use at Smith. In the 2024-2025 season, she has filled the stat sheet, averaging 14.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.15 steals per game respectively, and she has recorded 26 blocks (an impressive feat given her 5’3” stature). In her single year at Smith, Landau has racked up a long list of awards from her two separate All-American recognitions to multiple NEWMAC Athlete of the Week recognitions. Moreover, Landau has helped lead Smith to a 31-2 record overall, a perfect 11-0 in conference, and a run to the D3 National Championship Game on Saturday, March 22nd, 2025. 

This impressive season was no surprise for those who followed the guard’s play at Haverford. After missing her freshman season due to the COVID shutdown, Landau immediately impacted the Haverford Women’s Basketball program and the Centennial Conference beginning her sophomore year. In both the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 seasons, Landau was named First-Team All-Centennial Conference. She then earned Second-Team All-Centennial Conference in 2023-2024 despite missing most of the season due to injury. In 2023, she was named the Centennial Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She is the fastest player to ever reach 1000 points in Haverford Basketball history. The list of awards goes on, though for the sake of word count, just know that they are all very impressive. 

But what Landau brings to the table is a lot more than just an impressive trophy shelf. As a former teammate of Landau, I can attest that she is a winner in every sense of the word. To begin with, anyone who has spent time with Landau knows you cannot enter a room with her and not feel or hear her energy. And you definitely cannot escape it in the gym. To say she is passionate about the game of basketball, and specifically about winning the game of basketball, is an understatement. “In the season we played together, there was not a moment Ally didn’t go 100%, not a drill she wouldn’t lay her life on the line to win,” said Landau’s former Haverford teammate, Audrey Jakway. To lose is the worst thing in the world for Landau–fortunately, she doesn’t lose much.

In part to research this article and in part to try to persuade Landau to rejoin the Fords as an assistant coach before my NCAA eligibility runs out, I called Landau three days after her season ended in the National Championship. I wanted to pick her mind on all aspects of her basketball career, from her time at Haverford to the crowning jewel that was her final season at Smith. 

I got the most important question out of the way first, asking Landau how it felt to be an All-American, to make it to the National Championship, and to have such a great year on the court, especially after last year when the Haverford team she was on had a less-than-stellar 8-17 record.

“It was pretty surreal,” Landau answered. “I was glad I had another season after last because that was not how I wanted to end my collegiate basketball career. As cheesy as it sounds, pretty much everything that happened this year was everything I dreamed of in terms of college basketball.”

Despite it being at Smith where she finally got to live out her basketball dreams, Landau took a lot from her time at Haverford. For one, Landau credits her role at Haverford as helping her enter Smith with the confidence it took to play on a team that was coming fresh off a National Championship run in 2023-2024. Landau reflected, “At Haverford, a lot of the times it was on me to make things happen in a game, and knowing that the team had faith in me to do that helped me feel capable coming into a new program”.

Landau said that it was watching Smith make a championship run in the 2023-2024 season that inspired her to put her head down and get to work. “Knowing that that was the program I was coming into, and wanting actually to get playing time and be part of it, I was like damn, I got to get to work if I want this.” Landau’s work paid off–not only did she get playing time, but this year, she started every game (34/34) and averaged an impressive 30 minutes per game. 

However, what surprised Landau the most at Smith was not her minutes, but the relationships she developed with the team. “When I came to Smith, I was sort of under the impression, like, I’ll obviously be part of the team, but I’m a graduate student, and I don’t know how close I’ll be with all of them. But when I got to that National Championship moment, all I could think about was how much I was going to miss being teammates with all the people on my team and how much I loved them”.

At both Smith and Haverford, it was this strong sense of camaraderie with teammates, both on and off court, that Landau cherished the most over her (extra long) college basketball career. “All the things that stick with me the most are the off-court stuff. Like [Haverford’s] Karaoke nights, and our pregame dance parties, and senior night at Haverford and Smith… I’m also going to miss the playing part because that’s my entire identity, but I think I’m going to more miss being on a team.” 

Landau’s time on the court may not be over just yet. While she could not find a way to squeeze out another year of eligibility from the NCAA, she intends to stick around the Smith program at least through next year. She’s currently in a graduate program for elementary teaching and will finish at the end of the 2025-2026 school year. This means she’ll have the opportunity to help Smith out at practices and maybe even in games as a practice player and possibly as a graduate assistant. After that, she says she’ll just “have to find a job and be a normal person.” 

Whatever Landau does in the future, basketball-related or otherwise, she has already cemented her name in various record books, both at Haverford and Smith, and even in the NCAA. As a Squirrel and a Pioneer, Landau did it all. She won the game–college basketball–and thank goodness she did, because no one is a sore loser more than Ally Landau.