VALPARAISO, Ind. -- For every upset of a major program by a mid-major (and there have been 44 so far this season, as compared to 36 at this time a year ago), there's a tantalizing near-miss. Like last night at the venerable old Athletics and Recreation Center, where the Brown and Gold of Valpo nearly beat Marquette, currently a Top 10 team in your Popularity Contest. A young gentleman named Dominic James made a three-point basket at the end of the game, lending credence to the whole big players/big games/big plays thing you hear about on television. Mr. James is good at basketball, and will very likely earn money for his skills soon in the National Basketball-Themed Entertainment Association.

But enough about that. People wonder what puts Hoosier Hoops in a different dimension from basketball in the other 49 states, and a lot of that has to do with the atmosphere. Despite the fact that the home team lost by a 65-62 count, the packed crowd emptied out of the ARC, happily chattering as they went back out into the unseasonably warm Indiana night. Valparaiso is rebuilding after the loss of a lot of scoring and rebounding, and was picked to finish sixth in the Mid-Con... even a close loss is reason to smile.

CHICAGO - The holiday season. What a putrid, disgusting thing it's become. Housewives maiming each other over "door-buster" sales, crappy holiday music, pointless religious debates over nomenclature, and all those Lifetime movies starring Valerie Bertinelli about the little town that found the true spirit of Christmas in an orphan's heart. It's almost enough to make you want the post-holiday depression to begin.

But then you see something like this, so glorious and radiant and life-affirming, the 37th mid-major over major upset of the young season. A little basketball team from Indiana plows through a series of bloated, overrated power-conference squads, takes it all the way to New York City, and tops it all off by sinking its jaws into theUnnamed Major Program for the prestigious and hallowed Preseason NIT Tip-Off Challenge Classic title. I shed a tiny tear, I really did.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Calendar years. Every 12 months, it's a different one. Crazy stuff, that. But aside from the numbers, here's the only real difference between this basketball season and last season. Last season, ESPN's non-Andy Katz blog was telling you all about how great all these mid-major upsets were for basketball in general, and how parity makes our great game even better. This year, notsomuch.

But hey, I never played the game. What do I know?

PAWTUCKET, R.I. - By November 19, 2005, there had been 16 games in which a school from one of the eight major conferences had been beaten by a school from one of the 23 other D-I conferences*.

[*Unnamed Major Program From the Northwest excluded]

RICHMOND, Va. - Thank you for your repeat business. Before we get to the mailbag, credit where it's due.

Oral Roberts 78, Kansas 71 (Wed.) -- Kansas is undoubtedly the greatest program in the history of college basketball, with links that go as deep as the game's origins themselves. But lately, Beat Kansas has been mid-majordom's favorite amusement park attraction, with schools like Bucknell, Nevada and now ORU getting in on the fun (you must be slightly higher than the 2004 Pacific Tigers to ride this ride).

ROANOKE, Va. (en route to Charlotte) -- Hello again, friends, and welcome to your mid-major Pre-Hump Day.

Before we get to yesterday's action, though, something's been bugging me. I was driving through Maryland this morning, and out of nowhere a beer ad jingle from the Eighties jumped from the deep storage of the subconscious and into a permanent loop in the frontal lobe structure. Not unlike an old unjacketed 78, it's got dustwebs and cob-bunnies, and now it sounds like this:

Bally's still struggling with the difference between air and helium. Help! (Made by Bally's pal Roni Lagin)

BLOOMSBURY, N.J. (en route to Charlotte) -- Hello again, friends, and welcome back to TMM's regular schedule. This here is The Daily Paragraph, which is specifically designed to be triply too clever for it's own good: it's a play on existing basketball literature, is a sarcastic/ironic attempt at one-upsmanship, and it features a similar built-in misnomer to boot. It's neither daily, nor a paragraph long.

You can reasonably expect four mid-major missives a week from this space, each with a specific orientation. Tuesday is Top Five Tuesday (because people like lists), Thursday is mailbag day and the venerable Mid-Major Baller Of The Week award, Friday is for weekend previews, and Sunday (or in this case, Monday) is for recapping.

One thing you can never say about our game is that it overstays its welcome.

For all but the lucky pocket of players and fans whose season didn't end in a meaningful loss, college basketball is quickly forgotten, gone, off the radar. For some, it's the pull of the new baseball season, but for most it's just time to go outside again.