Not since 1947 has a Harvard basketball team been able to finish in the first division of the Ivy League, but the Crimson quintet could do it this weekend by defeating Yale and Brown.

Harvard plays at New Haven tonight, and the rapidly improving Elis should give the Crimson a stern test. Last Saturday night the Bulldogs upset League-leading Cornell, 70 to 69: It was the Big Red's first loss in 12 Ivy contests.

Yale's attack is centered around their slick, high-scoring backcourt combination of Bob Trupin and Herb Broadfoot. The Elis have a slight height advantage over the Crimson, with a front line of 6-5 Tom McCaffrey, 6-4 Rick Johnson, and 6-5 Don Taylor.

Harvard should have a considerably easier time tomorrow night at Providence. Brown beat the Crimson in the LAB last month, 70 to 68, for one of their two Ivy wins this year. Although the Bruins are a big team, the Crimson should win that one with ease unless they have another extremely cold-shooting night.

Coach Floyd Wilson will start his usual quintet of Merle McClung, Barry Williams, Keith Sedlacek, Gene Dressler and Leo Scully. Sedlacek, who has scored 425 points in 20 games this season, should break McClung's season scoring of 436 with a decent performance this evening against the Yalies.

The showdown for the Ivy League championship take's place this weekend at Penn and Princeton. Cornell (11-1) plays Penn (8-3) at the Palestra tonight, and will probably defeat the Quakers to cling to a precarious lead in the Ivy race.

But tomorrow the Big Red travels to Princeton (10-1) for the game which will certainly determine the Ivy representative in the NCAA tournament. Evon though Tiger All-American Bill Bradley is hampered with a leg injury, half a Bradley is better than none; Princeton will win. IVY BASKETBALL Cornell  11-1 Princeton  10-1 Penn  3-3 Columbia  5-7 Yale  4-6 HARVARD  4-7 Brown  2-9 Dartmouth  0-10