ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team was picked to finish sixth in the 2011-12 Ivy League preseason media poll on Wednesday afternoon. Big Red head coach Bill Courtney and the seven other head coaches spent the morning on a media conference call previewing the teams and the upcoming season, which begins on Nov. 11 when Cornell visits St. Bonaventure.

Last year's league co-champion, Harvard, was the near-unanimous preseason favorite, picking up 16 of the 17 first-place votes and 135 points total. Yale, which picked up the other first-place vote, and defending league co-champion Princeton sit in a second place tie with 103 points. Penn was picked fourth with 90 points.

Rounding out the field was Brown in fifth (62 points), Cornell in sixth (52 points), Columbia in seventh (50 points) and Dartmouth in eighth (17 points).

Two media members from each school and one national representative voted in the poll.

Cornell, in its second year under Courtney, returns four starters and 11 letter winners from last season's 10-18 squad that placed fifth in the Ivy League. The Big Red won six of its final nine contests, including a sweep of Penn and a win over Yale. That team lost 10 contests by five points or less, including games to eventual NCAA tournament teams Boston University and Princeton, nationally ranked Minnesota and postseason qualifier St. Bonaventure. Included among the team's victories was one over Big South champion and NCAA tournament participant Wofford.

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