The cream is rising to the top early this year in Ivy League basketball.

A clear division is beginning to form between Princeton and Yale and the rest of the league.

While the Elis and Tigers are a combined 10-3, the other six teams (including Harvard) are a horrifying 3-19.

Yale has been somewhat surprising in the early going. The Elis' 6-1 record leads the Ivy League.

Paced by guard Ed Petersen's league-leading 21.8 points per game, the Bulldogs are on a tear. Stuart Davies and Casey Cammann are cleaning house under the hoop with 7.9 and 7.1 rebounds per game respectively (second and third in the league).

Yale has won four straight games including twothat won it the University of Hartford's Hawks Unlimited Tournament. It was the Bulldog's first tournament victory since 1969-70.

The preseason pick to win the Ivies, Princeton, has suffered losses against impressive Texas and Rutgers squads. Lacking a single player in the top ten for scoring, the Tigers have rolled over lesser competition, to a 4-2 record.

Princeton does have a tournament victory to its credit, however. Center Rick Heilscher, the tournament MVP, led the Tigers to victories over Hofstra and Baylor, to capture the Dr. Pepper Invitational.

Upset City

After Princeton and Yale, only Brown has shown signs of life.

Brown's two victories have been upsets. First the Bruins upended Big East representative Providence, 71-69 in overtime. Then, Brown went on to down Holy Cross, 79-76.

Guard Rick Lloyd is fourth in the league in scoring, with 15.3 points per game. Forward Darron Mills checks in fifth in league rebounding with 6.3 per contest.

Pennsylvania owns the only other victory in the league. Its shining moment was an 81-73 victory over Navy. The Quakers have lost to Virginia, Temple and St. Joseph's.

Penn does have two players in both the top 10 scoring and rebounding. Barry Pierce (13 ppg) and Ken Graf (12 ppg) lead the Quakers' charge. Vince Curran (league-leading 8.3 rpg) and Jerry Berrazanski (6.3 rpg) are consistently crashing the boards.

Oh for November, December...

Beginning the list of winless teams is Columbia. The Lions have been less than impressive while sliding to an 0-4 mark. Forward Par Downing (19 ppg) and guard Buck Jenkins (15 ppg) are among the league-leaders in scoring, though.

Cornell has little to cheer about, considering its four losses to zero wins. The little it has to look up about is leading rebounders Rich Medina (6.5 rpg) and Justin Tread-well (5.8 rpg) and the fact that it almost beat Syracuse three weeks ago.

The path Harvard has taken to its six losses has been well documented. The Crimson's league leaders in the scoring category are Tyler Rull-man (15.8 ppg) and James White (11.8 ppg). Ron Mitchell and Rullman each snag 5.8 rebounds per game to represent Harvard in that top 10 category.