While Cornell and Columbia have the advantage of facing opponents who have just been taken for a ride, the Crimson has the advantage of having Dartmouth as its travelling partner.

The Big Green, which was the consensus favorite of the basketball experts in the pre-season, has jumped into the lead in the early going with a 3-0 league record. While Cornell's foes may be beat from the Big Ride, Harvard's may be beaten by the Big Green.

Passin' Through: Gielen led the Crimson in assists a year ago with 106, and the 5-ft., 10-in. junior has picked up where he left off. Gielen has dished off a team-leading 69 assists in 14 games this year, and has also picked off 35 steals.

Climbing the Ivy Walls: While the Crimson players have spent the last week and a half knocking off their exams, the rest of the Ivy League has been knocking off each other.

Last weekend, Yale defeated Brown, 87-77, in New Haven, while the Big Red toppled Columbia, 73-60, in Ithaca.

Eli Captain Paul Maley, who garnered first-team All-Ivy honors a year ago, led the charge against the Bruins, scoring 34 points and nabbing 10 rebounds. Maley shared Ivy Player-of-the-Week honors with Cornell's Greg Gilda, whose 19 points dropped the Lions to the Ivy cellar.

Yale and Cornell have established themselves as legitimate challengers for the Ivy crown, although Dartmouth, at 3-0, remains atop the heap.

Penn and Princeton open their league seasons this weekend with games against Brown and Yale.