The Harvard men's basketball team was picked to finish seventh out of the eight Ivy League teams this year in the 2006-07 preseason media poll, which was released on Tuesday.

Fifteen of the 16 media members from the eight Ivy areas who voted in the poll picked the Penn Quakers to come in first. Penn, the defending league champion which has won four of the past five Ivy crowns, returns two first-team All-Ivy performers in senior guard Ibrahim Jaaber, the reigning player of the year, and senior forward Mark Zoller.

Princeton received one first place vote and was picked to finish second. Cornell, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Harvard and Dartmouth round out the rest of the eight.

The Crimson were picked to finish second last preseason, before going 5-9 to finish sixth. Harvard, which graduated first-team All-Ivy forward Matt Stehle and which will be without 7'0 center Brian Cusworth for the second half of the season due to eligibility restrictions, opens up its season this Saturday afternoon at Lavietes Pavilion against the Maine Black Bears. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.

--The Crimson Staff