By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Lauren Taylor leads women’s pool after Baylor-over-Tenn pick: http://bit.ly/d6mA16. 12 alive, including Loyette and I: http://bit.ly/bczB8E.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

I read @midmajority’s “Bally’s Dream” to Loyette tonight. It has never felt more appropriate. “Each team has a chance.” Go Butler! http://bit.ly/9NkWpt

By Brendan Loy

With upsets decimating countless brackets and making it impossible for many contestants to gain additional points, the 15th annual Living Room Times men’s NCAA pool has just three contestants still mathematically alive to win: Sharon Greggs, Matt Wiser and Casey Zak. And in Casey’s case, the best he can do is tie Greggs, becoming co-champions of the pool.

Here is how the scenarios break down:

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By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @thrashsoundly: @midmajority FINAL FOUR BABY! #toobigyo http://tweetphoto.com/16097850

By Brendan Loy

Out of 182 contestants in the 15th annual Living Room Times NCAA men’s pool, only five picked Butler to reach the Final Four. One of those five, Casey Zak, now leads the pool thanks to the Bulldogs’ victory.

The others are Ryan Dalidowitz (4th place), Jessica Cowans (5th), Monique Wiard (T-14th) and Bob Lutts (29th). But none of those contestants are still alive to win the pool. Only Zak, Matt Wiser, Sharon Greggs, Darrell Kindle and Ken Wagner are still mathematically alive. A win by Kentucky tonight would eliminate Greggs; a West Virginia win would eliminate Kindle and Wagner.

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

Season 6 of @midmajority will end at Sports Bubble Stadium, with Butler in the Final Four. You can’t make this stuff up. http://bit.ly/zBqDV

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOURNAMENT!!!!!!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

BUTLER WINS!!!!! BUTLER GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR!!!! BACK TO INDY!!!! @midmajority SEASON 6 LIVES!!!!!!! #midswin #holyshit #fate #fate #fate

By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

http://twitpic.com/1bcstn – Got the t-shirt on. GO BUTLER!!! 18-10. #midswin #season6forever

By Brendan Loy

Heeeere we go again. My tweets, and any comments thereon, will appear in the first window below. Tweets from everyone on my college basketball list will appear in the second window below.

You can join the dialogue either by clicking “Make a comment” on the top window, or by tweeting something @brendanloy, or by emailing 13909@scribblelive.com.

GOOO BUTLER!!! BEEEEAT KANSAS STATE!!! And, uh, Go West Virginia!

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By Brendan Loy (Twitter/FriendFeed)

RT @kevinheaslip: @midmajority @ballybasketball Bally’s ready! On the train to SLC! Go Butler! http://twitpic.com/1bbsjz

By Brendan Loy

In 2005, basketball writer extraordinare Kyle Whelliston (seen at left with yours truly at the 2007 BracketBusters game at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse) caught ESPN’s eye with his 100 Games Project on his blog, The Mid-Majority. Impressed, the Worldwide Leader hired Kyle to be a freelance mid-major correspondent.

Truth be told, it was always an odd pairing: Kyle is both an exceptional talent and a cerebral iconoclast — in his own words, “a smartass traveling reporter who talks as much about losing as winning, who posts more about philosophy than basketball.” He’s also a zealous devotee of the “Other 24,” a passionate defender of mid-majordom who truly does not care one whit about the major-conference teams that are ESPN’s bread and butter (e.g., “Pat, you know I don’t give a f*** about Louisville”), and who disdains the casual bandwagon fans who treat mid-major teams as disposable objects to be bracketed and followed for a few days every March, then forgotten for the other 360 or so days of the year. (For this reason, I think Kyle has somewhat soured on me, believing me to be such a fan, which I can’t entirely dispute. My A.D.D.-ish-ness prevents me from following the mid-majors with Kyle’s relentless focus; I could never do what he does. But I still admire it greatly, regardless of whether the feeling is as mutual as it once was.) Furthermore, Kyle is vehemently opposed to what he incisively calls “sportz,” which are practically bankable currency at ESPN. Kyle has fought to preserve a sort of alternate universe in which basketball for basketball’s sake is the only thing that matters — and all the other sportzy crap spewed relentlessly by the Sportz-MSM-Interwebs Industrial Complex, an axis whose hub is arguably ESPN itself, is completely out of the picture.

But ESPN wanted someone to cover the mid-majors — and to serve as a sort of corporate P.R. ambassador to the mid-majors, demonstrating that ESPN cares (or carez?) about them. Kyle, meanwhile, wanted to be the mid-majors’ ambassador to the world, telling their story to as large an audience as possible, and the platform — and funds — that he received from ESPN allowed him to do that more effectively. Thus, a grand marriage of convenience was born. (At least that’s my take on it.)

The marriage lasted until early 2009, when ESPN, facing the same sort of budget cuts that everyone was grappling with in those dark days of economic PANIC!!!, told Kyle it would have to cut his contributions to the site — and his pay — in half. Here’s how Kyle tells the story:

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