Unlike last year, when Justin Vale clinched during the Elite Eight, this year’s Living Room Times men’s basketball pool will be very much undecided heading into the Final Four.

Either three or four people will still be in contention to win the pool going into the tournament’s weekend: three if Georgia Tech beats Kansas in tomorrow’s early game, four if Kansas wins.

The identity of those contestants will depend in part on the outcome of the day’s late game, between Duke and Xavier. Specifically:

I can do better than just that, however. With only 32 scenarios remaining — a number that will be narrowed to eight after tomorrow — it is possible to project all the way ahead to the end of the tournament, and show who will win under each and every scenario:

Matt Kagan wins if: UConn plays Georgia Tech in the championship game, or UConn beats Oklahoma State in the championship game, or Georgia Tech reaches the Final Four and Oklahoma State beats UConn in the championship game, or Georgia Tech reaches the Final Four and Xavier beats Oklahoma State in the championship game.

Ginny Zak wins if: Duke plays Oklahoma State in the championship game, or Kansas reaches the Final Four and Oklahoma State beats UConn in the championship game, or Oklahoma State beats Xavier in the championship game, or Kansas beats Duke in the championship game.

Paul Zak wins if: Xavier plays either Kansas or Georgia Tech in the championship game.

Ginny and Paul Zak finish tied if: Kansas reaches the Final Four and Xavier beats Oklahoma State in the championship game. (They would be considered co-champions for Living Room Times historical purposes, but tiebreakers involving the title game’s final score would be invoked in order to determine the winner of the Pick 65 championship tote bag.)

Ben Eng wins if: Georgia Tech plays Duke in the championship game, or Duke beats Kansas in the championship game.

Tom Greca wins if: Duke reaches the Final Four and Kansas plays UConn in the championship game.

Tim Benson wins if: Xavier reaches the Final Four and Kansas plays UConn in the championship game.

Ohio resident Scott Loomer, uncle of pool administrator Brendan Loy, took the lead in the Living Room Times’s seventh annual women’s basketball pool Saturday when #4 LSU upset #1 Texas, just as he predicted.

Loomer, a minister, has 246 points out of a possible 302. He is two points ahead of previous leader Matt Kagan, a Newington High School Class of 1999 grad who is also the statistical favorite to win the men’s pool. Kagan has 244 points in the women’s pool.

USC Class of 2003 grad Mike Wiser, currently a Stanford graduate student, is third with 241 points; he, too, correctly predicted LSU’s win. Ted Zak, an Arizona resident and the father of Loy’s girlfriend Becky Zak, is fourth with 239 points.

USC junior and NCAA soccer player Lindsey Green rounds out the Top Five with 237 points. Complete standings here.

There is one more game to be played — #2 Purdue vs. #3 Georgia, which just tipped off — but Loomer will lead at the end of the night regardless of that outcome.

Oklahoma State’s dramatic, down-to-the-wire victory over St. Joe’s eliminated USC graduate Rosalie Town, Ithaca College graduate Kristy LaPlante, and Indiana high-school student Adam Williams from any chance of winning The Living Room Times’s ninth annual men’s basketball pool.

Newington High School Class of 1999 grad Matt Kagan and Arizona resident Ginny Zak, who would have been eliminated if St. Joe’s had won, instead became the statistical favorites to win the pool. Kagan would win in 11 of the remaining 32 scenarios, while Zak would win in 10.

Ginny Zak’s nephew, Paul Zak, would win in 5 scenarios; James Madison grad Ben Eng would win in 3; and NHS ‘99 grads Tom Greca and Tim Benson would win in 2 scenarios each. (The numbers add up to 33 because there is one scenario in which two contestants finish tied for first.)

The current standings are: Paul Zak 282, Ginny Zak 262, Tom Greca 260, Matt Kagan 259, Dennis Chow 256, Luke Thomsen 253, Kristin Vasil 250, Ryan Dalidowitz, Jenn Castelhano, Andrew Long and Beth Milewski 248 each. (The maximum possible point total so far is 382.)

More to come.

UConn’s win eliminated Chris Evans, a member of the USC Class of 1989, from The Living Room Times’s ninth annual men’s basketball pool, leaving 2003 alumna Rosalie Town as the only USC contestant still alive to win the pool.

No USC student or alum has ever won a Living Room Times pool.

Town, Kristy LaPlante and Adam Williams will be mathematically eliminated if Oklahoma State wins the day’s second game. Ginny Zak and Matt Kagan will be eliminated if St. Joe’s wins.

Oklahoma State leads, 54-50, with 7:52 left in the game.

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