The varsity basketball team will quietly finish its 1961-62 season this weekend with games against Brown tonight at Providence and Yale tomorrow at New Haven.

What began as a promising season for the Crimson has turned into a catastrophe. Having lost six straight, Harvard is now in a sixth place tie with Dartmouth. Each team has won three and lost nine. Only Columbia at 1-11 ranks lower in the league.

The main attraction against the Bruins tonight will be Gary Borchard's attempt to reach 1000 points for his varsity career. After two poor games last weekend Borchard needs 15 points to make what one typically hysterical sports writer called "the charmed circle."

As for the game itself: after a slow start Brown has won three in a row. Mike Cingiser, who scored 23 here last month, needs 63 points in three games to become the school's all-time leading scorer. He'll probably be gunning for as many as he can get, which when he's hot is quite a bundle.

In addition to Cingiser, Brown starts Barry Behn and Dave Brockway outside in the 3-2 set-up. In the corners are Greg Heath, a prodigious leaper when he feels like it, and Gene Barth, who is averaging 15.3 points per game and also rebounds well. Alan Young, a backcourt man, is the top reserve.

Harvard? Well, Harvard will start the same gang. Borchard will be in one corner, junior Dennis Lynch in the other. The center will be either senior Bill Danner or sophomore Bob Inman; the guards are Gene Augustine and Joe Deering. Pete Kelley, who scored 29 in a losing cause against Penn last Saturday, is still sixth man.

Tom Tangemen, a senior guard playing his final two games, will see action. Borchard, Deering, and Danner are also playing their final varsity games.

"Playing out the string" (as the same sports writer would call it) is always rather dismal business. This weekend should be even worse since the team will be playing at Yale the same night as the swim meet. And since Yale has clinched a tie for the title, and will be playing its final home game, it will probably go for blood.

Harvard has to win one of the two games to equal its record for last season, which was 4-10 in league play. Overall, the Crimson is 10-12, a record built up mainly on a successful Christmas swing out West.

Oh hell, the best thing is to let them go quietly.