CAMBRIDGE, Mass.  There is an unmistakable air of expectation surrounding the Harvard men’s basketball team as it heads into the final weekend of the season. Something special, something never before accomplished, is within reach.

If Harvard can wrap up the season with home victories over the traditional Ivy League powers Penn and Princeton  and the Crimson have not lost at cozy Lavietes Pavilion this season  it will clinch no worse than a tie for the conference title. That would represent a first for the program, now in its 100th season. That’s what has made this weekend a local version of March Madness.

Each of the other seven Ivy League programs has won at least one men’s title. Of the 34 varsity sports listed on the Harvard Web site that compete for Ivy championships, 33 have won at least one. Eleven women’s basketball Ivy championship banners hang at one end of Lavietes. There is ample, empty space at the other end.

“I’m not sure you can walk anywhere on this campus and find something that hasn’t been done before,” Harvard Coach Tommy Amaker said this week. “But we are on the verge of doing it. Whether we do it or not, we’ll have to wait and see. But we’ve put ourselves in a position to do it.”