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Gloss and Primer
November 9, 2004 8:44 am ET by Kyle Whelliston
Questions, Frequently Asked and Otherwise

So, what's this about?

It's about mid-major basketball. Every day except Saturday, I post a "Dribblings" entry to consolidate the scores and news from Mid-Major Land into one easy-to-digest package. It includes recaps of key games, a "Shootaround!" of conference action and standings updates, and a "Game! Of! The! Night!" with a link to the webcast. Then, if there's time, there are some links, insights, unprovoked attacks against the questionable credibility of Eric Moneypenny, and even a little comedy to spice things up.

Is this a blog?

I think so. It started out like that, but the writing has slowly become more feature-like and less about traditional blog-style content aggregation. I prefer "citizen journalism." Does that sound too uppity? Yeah, it kinda does.

What's up with all the bells and whistles?

On the right side of most pages, there's a listing of today's Division I college basketball games. You can enter your zip code and sort the list by proximity to you - this is especially helpful when you're trying to figure out what to do on a particular evening. Go to a mid-major basketball game, and let me know how it went.

What are the rules?

There is one rule: no talking about polls of any kind. Polls are a pox on the college game, mostly because the people who fill them out come down with a peculiar ailment that causes them to pontificate like kingmakers. Yuck.

My team's page doesn't include a November game we won over some Division II team, or the fifth-place game of the "Slurm™ Holiday Hoopathon," or our intrasquad Maroon-Silver exhibition during Midnight Madness. What gives?

We harvest our scores and schedules from USA Today's newswire, and they're not always right. Corrections sent to kyle at midmajority dot com are so welcome, I'm practically begging for them.

Why is the player in the logo wearing number 2?

This is a tribute to Boston University freshman Matt Wolff, who is a dead ringer for our old-school logo model.

Do you really think you're going to make it to 100 games? The season is only 144 days long!

With 25 over November and December, 20 each in January and February, and 35 in March, this goal will likely be achieved.

What are your credentials? Do you have professional journalism experience?

Yes, but I don't like to talk about it. I was a junior editor at a farming magazine to pay my way through college... oops, I've said too much already.

Any advice for the kids out there?

Yes. Don't stop believing, and hold on to that feeling.

A Very Mid-Majority Glossary

100 Games Project (100GP): The quest to attend 100 NCAA Division I basketball games during the 2004-05 season. The raison d'etre of this blog. The full list of games can be found here.

Finals Week: A contest we held over Christmas break 2004, in which players answered four ten-question exams about mid-major basketball for valuable prizes like a Western Kentucky Big Red doll and a copy of ESPN College Hoops 2005. Jeremy D. from Winthrop took top honors, and it was a whole lot of fun.

Me: A name I call myself. Much of this blog is written in the first person, which some find unsettling, in a Picture Of Dorian Gray eyes-following-you-around-the-room sorta way.

Mid-Major: Any school that plays in a conference outside the "big seven." The dividing line is south of Conference USA and somewhere around the middle of the Atlantic 10. You may have a different definition, and that's fine.

Mid-Majority Baller Of The Week (MMBOW): An honor bestowed upon a deserving key player from a mid-major team, based on the previous week's performance. It's a great way to meet players that ESPN doesn't have time for. A full archive can be found here.

Oregon Ducks: The only Mid-Majority-approved power-conference team. I attended school there, and all but camped out at the Pit for several years.

UMPFN: The Unnamed Major Program From The Northwest, which is referred to by their shameful acronym in all Mid-Majority posts. If you need a clue, it starts with a G and Mark Few is the coach. We do not refer to them by name since a compromise reached on the final day of 2004. Any team that is nationally ranked on a regular basis simply doesn't belong in this conversation.

Cast Of Characters

The Official Wife Of The Mid-Majority™: A/K/A The Sexiest Woman Alive. This petite flame-haired goddess of the hardwood electrifies the crowd whenever she shows up at a 100GP game, and kindly puts up with your narrator when he goes off to games without her (or starts rattling off stats). Enjoys ice cream, red wine and Alias. Best friend of the Drexel Dragon mascot.

"Ace" Whelliston: A Grantland Rice disciple who's hopelessly stuck in the Forties, my old-school alter ego has recapped Game 18 and Game 46. Cannot comprehend teams that score more than 55 points.

Dr. Octavius Bafflestone: Prominent Freudian psychoanalyst who, back at Game 30, analyzed that loud annoying guy who sits alone and yells at the refs at nearly every college basketball game.

Kay-Dub: He's cooler than you, and when he's not reading Pitchfork or listening to that Arcade Fire CD for the 145,935th time, he drops by with his "Music Notes" column. He was last seen at Game 26 drooling over Taylor Coppenrath's hot licks.