One of the wiser members of the basketball coaching profession predicted, before the season began last month, that the end of the campaign would not find a single undefeated college team. His astute observations have been borne out by early season performances, since only a handful of the nation's undergraduate quintets remain unbeaten even at this early stage, and the survivors seem destined to follow the trend before the courts are swept clean late in March.

As applied more locally, the situation in the Ivy League is in line with the general trend. Already every member of the circuit has lost at least once, since Cornell dropped a ten-point decision to Canisius at Buffalo on Saturday night.

The proceeding data is a roundabout introduction to the subject at hand, which is a preliminary analysis of the Crimson's chances in Ivy League competition. It is fitting, though, because basketball poses predictional difficulties that are unique. Few college sports have so long a schedule, with the Varsity's 25 games a fairly typical example. To maintain an all-winning pace without once falling prey to the inevitable bad night, when nobody on the squad seems to be able to locate the basket without guided projectiles, is exceedingly unlikely of any quintet.

Not a single coach of the seven Ivy League teams this season was directing his squad a year ago, although in some cases mentors have returned from service to resume control. Every team is thus practically on a par from the stand-point of experience with a system, and the season now in its infancy will be an excellent test of each coach's ability, as well as the capabilities of the individual ball players to adjust themselves to a new mode of play.

Co-favorites for the Ivy title in most books are Penn and Cornell, with Dartmouth, Princeton, and Harvard rated as strong contenders. Cornell, none too potent in prewar days, when Ossie Cowles' Dartmouth teams held a death lock on the league, now have two tall, capable performers in brothers Bob and Jim Gake, and a well-rounded attack that features guard Hillary Chollet. Until bowing to Canisius, the Ithacans had subdued Rochester, Niagara, Yale, Colgate and Vermont.

Ponn has a host of veterans from pre-war years, including Chink Crossin, who in 1944 won some people's nomination for All American. The Quakers also have whipped Yale's struggling forces, which seems to have little besides center Tony Lavelli to offer. Princeton has two standout performers back in George Lawry, who led the league in field goals in 1942-43, and Butch Van Breda Kolff. They handed a twenty-point defeat to Rutgers, which in turn Handed Columbia a three-point beating. The Tigers also absorbed a horrendous drubbing at the hands of Seton Hall, but the Setonians have won eleven straight games, and may rank with the nation's best. Followers of the Crimson will get their first opportunity to view their team against Ivy League opposition, when the Nassau quintet comes to the Boston Garden a week from tonight to oppose Bill Barclay's squad.

Dartmouth, under newly-installed coach Elmer Lampe, has been a disappointment to court followers who are accustomed to Big Green supremacy hereabouts. The Indians, after squeaking through against Rutgers and Union, among others, by narrow margins, suffered six defeats in a row during the vacation, although they met outstanding competition in Holy Cross, Manhatten, Toledo, Notre Dame, and California, which pasted the Hanover crowd twice. Even more distressing to Lampe, is the graduation in February of Aud Brindley, towering center, and Eddie Leede, another high scorer. Columbia has center Walt Budko, but apparently the Lions need four other guys.

To place the Crimson in the midst of this scramble is something like the entrancing juvenile sport of pinning the tail on the donkey. Thus far, there have been few comparative scores on which to base predictions, and Saturday night's Cornell game will be an excellent start. It seems safe to assume that the Varsity has too much strength for Yale and Columbia, but the other clubs in the league should provide stiffer competition. Harvard could conceivably finish anywhere from first to fifth, but they will have to play consistently high grade basketball to push Penn and Cornell for the crown.