This is the week that a well regarded Princeton basketball team, considered by some the dark-horse of the Eastern Intercollegiate League race, makes its long delayed start in the seven-team round-robin fight for 1941 championship honors.

The Tigers, who appeared to excellent advantage during a taxing holiday tour through the Western Conference territory, make their debut in the only game of the week's schedule which finds most of the league's basketball players, still buried under mountains of books in mid-year examinations.

Led by Captain Dan Carmichael, Jr., the Tigers will play Yale at New Haven this Saturday night. Not until the following week, when three games are scheduled, will the league teams really open firing on all fronts.

Tigers Out for Scalps

Princeton's showing against Western Conference opposition, when Michigan and Ohio State were among the Tigers' victims, aroused considerable optimism in Nassau where the opening of competition is being awaited with enthusiasm. Captain Carmichael, Paul Busse, Edward Lloyd, and Charles Winston are among the veterans available in the drive to head off the title-defending Indians of Dartmouth.

Meanwhile, last week found only three teams in action in two contests, and saw Cornell consolidating its hold on second place behind unbeaten Dartmouth, while Pennsylvania pulled out of the cellar with its first victory of the campaign in three games.

In both instances, Yale's hard fighting but unfortunate Elis were victims as the Blue suffered its third and fourth defeats of the season that has yet seen no Eli league victory.

Penn Downs Elis, 40-35

Sid Levinson and Tony Caputo were the scoring sparkplugs who lifted Penn out of the depths as the Quakers put on a determined second-half drive to defeat Yale, 40-35, at New Haven, after the Elis finished the first half with what seemed to be a comfortable lead.

Likewise, Yale appeared to good advantage in the first half against Cornell at Ithaca on Saturday night. The Elis trailed by only two points at the intermission but in the second half, Jim Bennett and Sophomore Bill Stewart led an irresistible attack.

Cornell, defeated only by Dartmouth, still appears to be the Indians most formidable rival, with the possible exception of untried Princeton. However, with the intensive action of the campaign still ahead, the Big Green must still be rated as a favorite to score its fourth straight title victory.

The individual scoring race has not yet settled down to a significant stage, owing to the difference in the number of games played by the various leaders.

Jim Bennett, with action in five games, is well out in front of Dartmouth's Gus Broberg, who has scored a total of 64 points, an average of 12.8 points per contest, Broberg, with only three games to his credit, has scored 39 markers, a total matched by Captain John Cobb of Yale, who has, however, seen action in four games.

Meanwhile, such potential scorers as Hasslinger of Columbia; Romano of Harvard and Carmichael and Busse of Princeton have had no change to make their impression on the scoring list.